What does 3MF carry that STL does not?

Per-vertex colour, a material model, unit metadata and a proper OPC package structure. Geometry itself is the same triangle data.

Do the 3MF's embedded textures survive into the .glb?

No. Textures in a 3MF are not read. Colour is preserved, but as flat per-vertex or base-colour values rather than a mapped texture.

Can I convert a 3MF to STL?

Yes, and it is the usual choice if your slicer is STL-only. Just be aware the colour will be dropped, since STL cannot store it.

3MF to GLB Converter

Convert a 3MF print package to a self-contained GLB, keeping geometry and per-vertex colour for the web and engines. Runs in your browser.

Drag & drop your 3MF file here

or click to browse

Supported Formats

.glb.gltf.obj.fbx.stl.ply.3mf.off.zip

Format Information

Source Format

3MF.3mf

3MF (3D Manufacturing Format)

3MF is the modern replacement for STL, built for 3D printing and industrial additive manufacturing. It is an OPC package — a ZIP container holding XML metadata and mesh parts — which is why it can carry colour and material information that STL cannot.

What it carries: Triangle geometry, per-vertex colour and a base material colour. This converter writes geometry and colour; image textures and the wider 3MF material model are not written, and textures inside an imported 3MF are not read.

Open a 3MF file in the viewer

Target Format

GLB.glb

GLB (glTF Binary)

GLB is the binary packaging of glTF 2.0. Meshes, materials, image textures, animation and the node hierarchy are all written into one file, so an asset can be dropped into an engine or a web page without shipping a folder of sidecar files.

What it carries: Vertex positions, normals, UVs and vertex colours, full PBR materials (base colour, metallic/roughness, normal, occlusion, emissive), embedded image textures, node hierarchy, skinning, morph targets, keyframe animation, cameras and lights.

Open a GLB file in the viewer

About this conversion

3MF is STL's successor: the same triangle geometry, plus colour and unit information. Converting to GLB takes that print-ready package and turns it into a scene file that a browser or engine can open as one self-contained asset.

Why convert 3MF to GLB

Take a colour-bearing 3MF print file into a web or game project.
Open a 3MF in a proper viewer rather than a slicer.
Upgrade a print asset to a modern interchange format with a node graph and camera-ready lighting support.

What happens during the conversion

Geometry

The triangle geometry from the 3MF model part is written into a single GLB mesh. Node transforms are baked into the positions, since 3MF parts do not carry a scene graph.

Materials and textures

Colour is what makes this conversion worthwhile: per-vertex RGB from the 3MF becomes a glTF colour attribute, and the 3MF base material colour is applied as the material's base colour. Image textures are not read from a 3MF and are not written, and there is no PBR metal/roughness data on either side.

Common use cases

Moving a multi-colour print file into a real-time project.
Previewing a 3MF outside a slicer.
Turning a manufactured part into a web-viewable asset.

Limitations of this conversion

Textures inside a 3MF are not read, so a textured 3MF arrives with flat colour.
UVs are not written to the GLB, so a texture-wrapped print file will need a new layout.
Objects hidden in the 3MF scene are not written, because GLB output exports visible objects only.
3MF is a print format, so there is no animation, skinning or scene structure to carry across.
The package's unit attribute is read but never used to rescale. The numbers in the .glb are the numbers that were in the file, and glTF has no unit field to move the label into, so a package authored in inches arrives at the same numeric size and unlabelled.

How to convert 3MF to GLB

Three steps in the browser. Nothing is uploaded to a server, so an unwieldy file is limited only by your own device's memory.

STEP 1

Upload your .3mf

The 3MF package is read directly — no unpacking needed.

STEP 2

Convert to GLB

Geometry and colour are written into a single binary glTF with a base-colour material.