What it is
tab3d is a website with a tool for each job that usually sends people looking for software: seeing what is in a file someone sent, reading a size off it, or turning it into a format another program accepts.
- Viewers for STL, STEP, IGES, DXF and G-code files, each with measuring.
- Converters from 3MF to STL, STL to STEP, STEP to STL, SVG to DXF and PNG to DXF.
- A print cost calculator for 3D prints.
Drop a file on any page and it opens in the tool that reads it.
How it works
Most online converters upload your file to a server, work on it there and send a result back. tab3d does the work on your own device. The page brings the reader for your file format with it, the same kind of code a desktop program uses, and runs it in your browser.
That has three consequences.
- Your file stays with you. There is nowhere on this site to send it. How your files stay private shows how to check that yourself.
- There is no queue and no size limit set by a server. The limit is your device’s memory.
- It keeps working without a connection once a tool has been used, because nothing it does needs one.
What it does not do
- It is not a CAD program. You can look, measure, hide parts and convert, not model or edit.
- It does not read formats that only their maker’s software can read, such as DWG and SolidWorks files. Drop one anyway and the page gives the shortest route to opening it.
- It does not repair files. When a mesh has holes or a drawing has gaps, the tools show where.
What it is built with
The viewers are drawn with three.js. STEP and IGES files are read by OpenCascade, the open-source CAD kernel, compiled to run in a browser. The rest (the 3MF, DXF, SVG, G-code and STL readers and writers, the tracer, the measuring) is tab3d’s own code. Every open-source part, with its license, is listed in the open-source notices.
Who is behind it
tab3d is an independent project, and tab3d is the operator of this site. It is not affiliated with Autodesk, Bambu Lab, Prusa Research, Dassault Systèmes, Microsoft or any other company whose products or file formats are named on this site.
The tools are free, with no account, no watermark and no limit on how many files you open. If a tool gives a wrong result or cannot open a file it should, say so: a file that fails is the most useful thing you can report.