OBJ Viewer

OBJ Viewer can be used to read and display OBJ WaveFront files, equipped with a proprietary triangulation engine that serves to reduce faces to triangles.

It deals with files in OBJ format, which typically describe a 3D model built with various CAD software, such as 3ds Max, SketchUp or DAZ Studio. The program was designed to cover small to medium models that can contain up to one hundred thousand triangles, but no more than that.

OBJ Viewer is comprised inside a package that doesn’t require installation, which does not write to the registry when launched. As far as the user interface is concerned, the program relies on a simple, uncluttered appearance that doesn’t necessarily makes an impression, but is likely to meet the needs of most users.

The largest part of the interface is dedicated to the model itself, with a side bar that displays a tree where meshes are displayed hierarchically, each one with its own calculated parameters. Details such as surface type, number of triangles, points and edges, as well as volume and surface area become available when you click any of the meshes.

The model can be zoomed in and zoomed out with the aid of the scroll button of your mouse, in the lack of dedicated magnifying commands. You can also move the object around and explore it in space by holding the left click of the mouse and dragging it to the desired position.

Other options allow you to enable the drawing of face and triangle edges, or to generate normals for the current model. The ‘Lights On’ feature creates a slightly brighter view in order to make the triangles more visible.

OBJ Viewer comes across as an intuitive OBJ reader, but could use a more user-oriented approach in what the handling of the model is concerned. Nonetheless, it gains points for ease of use and portability.