Free online USDZ and USD viewer

USD, USDA, USDC and USDZ

Universal Scene Description (USD) is the scene format Pixar built for film production and released as open source. It describes geometry, materials, transforms and how scenes are layered together. It has three file forms:

• .usda — plain text, readable in an editor;
• .usdc — binary "crate" format, compact and fast to load;
• .usd — either of the above, with the encoding detected from the content.

.usdz is Apple's single-file package for USD: an uncompressed ZIP that holds a USD layer (usually USDC) and its textures. It is the format behind AR Quick Look on iPhone and iPad, and what Reality Composer and Object Capture produce.

Why you might need a viewer

Apple devices preview USDZ natively — tap one in Files and it opens in Quick Look, with an AR button. Everywhere else, support is thin: Windows has no built-in USDZ preview, Android's file managers cannot show one, and many general 3D viewers only read the text form or older USDZ files.

Mes3D reads the text and binary forms and USDZ packages in the browser, so a USDZ from a client, a product configurator or an iPhone scan can be checked on any computer.

How to open a USDZ or USD file here

1. Drag the .usdz, .usd, .usda or .usdc file onto the drop zone above, or click Choose 3D file.
2. Rotate, zoom and pan; use preset views and orthographic projection.
3. Choose Original as the model colour to see the file's materials and textures; pick a solid colour to inspect the shape.
4. On a computer, measure point-to-point distances and open the mesh analysis for volume, surface area and watertightness.

The scene's metersPerUnit setting is honoured, and the file never leaves your device.

From USDZ to a 3D print

USDZ files from photogrammetry and object scans are increasingly used as the starting point for prints. They are designed to look right, not to be solid, so before slicing:

• check watertightness in the analysis panel — scans often have holes at the base;
• check the dimensions — a scan may not be at real-world scale;
• look at the triangle count — scan meshes can be very dense, which makes slicing slow without improving the print.

Converting to STL or 3MF for printing is a job for a tool such as Blender, or the Mes3D app, which can export STL, OBJ or 3MF.

AR and the Mes3D app

The web viewer shows USDZ files in 3D; it does not do AR. On iPhone and iPad, the system's own AR Quick Look already opens USDZ. The Mes3D app for iPhone, iPad and Android brings AR to other formats as well — on iPhone and iPad to every format it opens, STL, 3MF, OBJ and STEP included — alongside measuring, mesh analysis and cross-sections. It also runs on the Mac.

Limits

• Up to 200 MB per file in the browser.
• USD's composition features (references, payloads, variants) are resolved when they are inside the same file or package; external references to files that were not included cannot be loaded.
• Animation and physics are not played; the viewer shows the geometry and its materials.