Bringing your work in
Importing a mesh
Your own 3D arrives as geometry rather than as a picture of geometry, with its materials, and it behaves like everything else on the board.
Your own 3D arrives as geometry. Drop a `.glb`, `.gltf`, `.obj`, `.fbx` or `.stl` and what lands is a real mesh you can orbit, light and render on the spot, sitting on the same canvas as your images. That is the whole reason 3D is not behind a viewer here. ## Bringing materials with it **GLB** is the format to prefer, because it packs geometry, materials and textures into one file. Nothing to match up by hand and nothing left behind on your desktop. **glTF** works the same way when its companion files come with it. **OBJ** carries geometry reliably and materials unreliably, because the format leaves too much to convention. Expect to re-apply materials, and prefer GLB where you have the choice. **FBX** comes in with its materials, textures and skeleton. **STL** is geometry only, by design, and arrives with a default material for you to replace. Note that FBX is the one format Plnty reads but cannot write, so a mesh that came in as FBX leaves as GLB or as the original file. :::tip[Textures that arrived separately] Drop a folder of maps as a group and they get matched to the mesh by filename rather than assigned one at a time. Base colour, normal, roughness and metallic all follow their usual naming. ::: ## What you can do once it is in The mesh is a full participant on the board: - **Orbit and light it** in place - **Render it** with the pathtracer at a real focal length and angle - **Feed a view of it** into any image tool, which is how 3D enters a generation - **Remesh or retopologise it**, locally and free - **Repaint or retexture it** - **Comment on a point** on its surface, which stays pinned as the object turns The third one carries more than it looks like. A mesh cannot be handed to an image model directly, so the route is to frame the shot you want and feed that view. The geometry is correct because it came off the real object rather than out of a description. ## Quads survive Where a mesh has quad topology, it is carried through rather than being triangulated on the way in. That matters for anything going back into a modelling package, and it is why the remesher here is worth using on generated meshes before you export them. ## Scale and orientation Meshes arrive at the scale and orientation they were exported at, so a model authored in millimetres and one authored in metres will not agree with each other. Right-click offers **Fix Orientation** for the common case of a model lying on its side. Scale is a normal canvas transform. :::caution[Very heavy meshes] A multi-million-triangle scan will load and will make the board heavier for everyone on it, since the board is shared. Decimating or remeshing before import is kinder than after, and the local remesher is free either way. ::: ## Coming from Cinema 4D There is a plugin that skips the export step entirely, moving scenes between C4D and a board in both directions. See [Cinema 4D with Plnty Connect](/docs/using-plnty/bringing-your-work-in/cinema-4d/).Your own 3D arrives as geometry. Drop a .glb, .gltf, .obj, .fbx or .stl and
what lands is a real mesh you can orbit, light and render on the spot, sitting on the
same canvas as your images.
That is the whole reason 3D is not behind a viewer here.
Bringing materials with it
Section titled “Bringing materials with it”GLB is the format to prefer, because it packs geometry, materials and textures into one file. Nothing to match up by hand and nothing left behind on your desktop.
glTF works the same way when its companion files come with it.
OBJ carries geometry reliably and materials unreliably, because the format leaves too much to convention. Expect to re-apply materials, and prefer GLB where you have the choice.
FBX comes in with its materials, textures and skeleton. STL is geometry only, by design, and arrives with a default material for you to replace. Note that FBX is the one format Plnty reads but cannot write, so a mesh that came in as FBX leaves as GLB or as the original file.
What you can do once it is in
Section titled “What you can do once it is in”The mesh is a full participant on the board:
- Orbit and light it in place
- Render it with the pathtracer at a real focal length and angle
- Feed a view of it into any image tool, which is how 3D enters a generation
- Remesh or retopologise it, locally and free
- Repaint or retexture it
- Comment on a point on its surface, which stays pinned as the object turns
The third one carries more than it looks like. A mesh cannot be handed to an image model directly, so the route is to frame the shot you want and feed that view. The geometry is correct because it came off the real object rather than out of a description.
Quads survive
Section titled “Quads survive”Where a mesh has quad topology, it is carried through rather than being triangulated on the way in. That matters for anything going back into a modelling package, and it is why the remesher here is worth using on generated meshes before you export them.
Scale and orientation
Section titled “Scale and orientation”Meshes arrive at the scale and orientation they were exported at, so a model authored in millimetres and one authored in metres will not agree with each other.
Right-click offers Fix Orientation for the common case of a model lying on its side. Scale is a normal canvas transform.
Coming from Cinema 4D
Section titled “Coming from Cinema 4D”There is a plugin that skips the export step entirely, moving scenes between C4D and a board in both directions. See Cinema 4D with Plnty Connect.