F3D

F3D is a quick solution for all designers, architects, VFX artists, and other professionals who need to analyze 3D models simply and efficiently.

Being an open-source project, F3D offers a lot of transparency and accessibility. The cross-device tool was mainly built using the C++ language. It runs on the most popular operating systems — Windows, Linux, and macOS —, and it's free. What might be surprising for a tool of its kind is the lack of a graphical user interface. After all, you don't quite need one if your purpose is to just view models.

However, to make up for the lack of a GUI, the program has an in-built command line that runs super quickly and efficiently. All you must do is start typing your commands and their given arguments. The tool is super responsive, and although not equipped with a more user-friendly/interactive menu, it still manages to do the job. If you're not sure what kind of commands or options you can use, simply type 'h' and the object-viewing controllers are going to be displayed on the screen.

Loading a model can be done in different ways: using the drag-and-drop function, running the program from your PC's terminal with a command-line option, or with the 'open-with' command executed on an existing 3D object from your machine. The tool supports a bunch of well-known formats such as VTK, other XML-based VTK formats, PLY, STL, DCM, GML, OBJ, 3DS, PTS, WRL, and others.

By typing 'h' when viewing a model, you are shown the simple interaction commands. However, if you need to access a more complex set of instructions that can be used in the app's command-line, you can check them all in their documentation. Among the generic available options, you can also opt for using custom instructions for materials and textures, PostFX/OpenGL, camera configuration, raytracing, testing, or scientific visualization techniques (that include scalar components).

F3D is a simple, systematically-built application that covers all the basic requirements one could have from a 3D viewer.