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GLBKit

PLY Converter from ZIP Package

Unpack a ZIP archive and convert the model inside to ASCII PLY with positions, normals and vertex colour. Runs in your browser.

Drag & drop your ZIP file here

or click to browse

Supported Formats

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

Format Information

Source Format

ZIP.zip

ZIP (archive)

A ZIP archive is not a 3D format — it is how most multi-file assets actually arrive. A glTF with its .bin and images, or an OBJ with its .mtl and texture files, is a folder, and a folder travels as a ZIP.

What it carries: Whatever the model inside the archive supports. The converter unpacks the archive, identifies the root model file and resolves that model's companion files by name.

Target Format

PLY.ply

PLY (Polygon File Format)

PLY is a flexible text or binary format that can describe either a polygon mesh or a bare point cloud, depending on whether the file declares a face element alongside its vertices. That dual nature is why PLY appears in both modelling and LiDAR workflows.

What it carries: Per-vertex position, optional normals, optional RGB colours, optional UVs on mesh PLY files, and face indices. Image textures, material graphs and animation are not part of the format.

Open a PLY file in the viewer

About this conversion

The archive is unpacked and the model inside is written as an ASCII PLY 1.0 file. A practical way to turn a packaged asset into the data format most geometry-processing libraries read.

Why convert ZIP to PLY

  • Get a multi-file asset into an Open3D, PCL or trimesh workflow.
  • Produce a plain-text data file you can post-process with a script.
  • Convert a textured or rigged asset into geometry plus vertex colour.

What happens during the conversion

Geometry

The geometry is read from the model inside the archive and written as one PLY vertex list and face list, with faces triangulated. If the inner model is itself a point cloud, points are written as points.

Materials and textures

Image textures are not transferred — PLY has none. Per-vertex RGB colour is, so a colour-bearing asset inside the archive keeps its colour in the PLY.

Animation

Animation depends entirely on what is inside the archive, and PLY is a static geometry data format. A rigged FBX or glTF inside the ZIP arrives as a mesh in a single pose, with the rig left behind.

Common use cases

  • Moving a packaged asset into a geometry-processing pipeline.
  • Unpacking an archived model and ending up with geometry a script can read without unpacking anything else.
  • Converting a colour-bearing asset into a data file for analysis.

Limitations of this conversion

  • The archive must contain a model this tool can open. A .ply inside is read as a PLY, so if it is a point cloud the points are written as points rather than as a surface — and a .stl inside brings no unit information, because STL has none to carry.
  • If the archived model had textures or a material model, that data ends here, because the PLY keeps geometry attributes only.
  • The .ply download is ASCII text, so a large archived model converts to a noticeably bigger file than the archive it came from.

How to convert ZIP to PLY

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

1
STEP 1

Zip your asset

Include the .bin and any images with the .gltf, or the .mtl and textures with the .obj, so materials are not lost.

2
STEP 2

Upload the .zip

The archive is unpacked and the model inside is loaded, then the geometry is written as an ASCII PLY vertex and face list.

3
STEP 3

Load the .ply in your processing library

Positions, normals and any vertex colour — no materials or textures.

Related tools and formats

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions people ask when turning ZIP files into PLY.

Looking for a different direction? See every supported conversion.