Our free and fast tool will convert most 3D mesh or PLY (Stanford Triangle Format) model files to a standard OBJ (Wavefront) file that can then be edited further in most popular 3D editing packages such as Blender or 3D printed without any further processing. Our conversion tool can also batch convert multiple PLY files; up to 25 files at a time can be converted.
To convert your PLY file, click the Upload button above and select the file to convert. Once selected, the file will be converted to a OBJ file and will be ready for download shortly afterwards. For more information about the PLY to OBJ conversion process, see the conversion information section below.
Extension | PLY |
Full Name | Stanford Triangle Format |
Type | 3D Model/Point Cloud |
Mime Type | application/octet-stream |
Format | Text & Binary |
Tools | PLY Converters, 3D Model Voxelizer, Create PLY Animation, Compress PLY, Text to PLY, PLY Viewer |
Open With | Blender, MeshLab |
The PLY format is a 3D model format originally developed and released in 1994, with its primary use being to store three-dimensional data from 3D digital scanners. The format known as the Polygon File Format or the Stanford Triangle Format can be either a binary or text-based format.
The file format stores 3D geometric information such as vertices, faces, vertex normals, color, and other custom data. The format is still in use, with many PLY models available to download, and PLY files can be loaded into most popular 3D applications, such as Blender.
If your PLY file contains vertex colors, these will be imported and mapped where possible.
Extension | OBJ |
Full Name | Wavefront |
Type | 3D Model |
Mime Type | text/plain |
Format | Text |
Tools | OBJ Converters, 3D Model Voxelizer, Create OBJ Animation, Compress OBJ, OBJ Asset Extractor, Text to OBJ, OBJ Viewer |
Open With | Daz Studio, MeshLab, CAD Assistant |
The OBJ file format, originally created by Wavefront Technologies and later adopted by many other 3D software vendors, is a simple text-based file format for describing 3D models/geometry. This data can include vertices, faces, normals, texture coordinates, and references to external texture files.
As the format is text-based, it is relatively straightforward to parse in 3D modeling applications. A downside of the text-based format is that the files can be rather large compared to similar binary formats such as STL and compressed files such as 3MF.
Our tool will save any material and texture files separately; these additional files will be included with your final OBJ file at the time of download.
Converting from the PLY file format to OBJ can be a complex process, and any tool used for this conversion process needs to be able to handle a variety of data conversion tasks as well as identify any defects within the 3D model and fix them. Here we will explain the conversion process used by our tool to accurately convert your PLY file to a valid OBJ 3D model. Let's start with the conversion process, which involves the following steps:
In its simplest form, an PLY file can be either a plain text or binary file containing 3D data such as vertices, faces, normals, and more. When combined, these make up the 3D model you see on your screen.
For more information regarding the PLY file format, please see this great article that goes into a lot of detail explaining the PLY format.
With the PLY file data read, our tool generates an internal representation of the full 3D model and will attempt to fix any geometry issues encountered. Along with repairing any issues with the 3D model, the tool will remove any duplicated vertices and prepare the model for exporting to the OBJ format.
The OBJ format has been around for many years and has become a standard format for 3D modeling. Most 3D modeling software can open OBJ files, which means our tool now needs to take the in-memory 3D model we created in step 2 and convert it to the OBJ format, ensuring it can be opened in all 3D modeling software with no compatibility issues.
Our tool supports converting from all PLY formats including Text and Binary (both little endian and big endian).
We aim to process all PLY to OBJ conversions as quickly as possible, this usually takes around 5 seconds but can be more for larger more complex files so please be patient.
Yes! If your PLY file contains textured geometry, the texture image files along with the texture coordinates (UV data) will be exported with the final OBJ file.
Yes, of course! We do not store the PLY file you submit to us. The resulting OBJ file, once created is deleted 15 minutes after upload and the download link will expire after this time.
No. All our conversion tools process your PLY file on our dedicated conversion servers, meaning you can use our tools on low-spec computers, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices and receive your converted OBJ file quickly.
Yes! Our PLY to OBJ tool will run on any system with a modern web browser. No specialist software is needed to run any of our conversion tools.
Yes. Although you can use an Ad Blocker, if you like our PLY conversion tool please consider white-listing our site. When an Ad Blocker is enabled there are some conversion limits on some of our tools and processing/conversion times will be longer.
Yes. When you have converted your PLY to OBJ, there is a "Feedback" option that you can use to let us know of any issues you encountered when converting your file.
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