Blaze3D | BuckMartin.de

The blazingly fast 3D data viewer for Windows and Linux.
Blaze3D might be the fastest 3D data viewer currently available.
It supports both the visualization of triangle mesh and pointcloud data stored in many file formats.

Showcase

As you’ll notice in the videos below, Blaze3D is very fast and supports many workflows for viewing your files.

Running from console

You can view your model by calling:

blaze3d file.name

Or an entire folder via:

blaze3d folder

Drag&Drop support

You can drop any supported model or folder on the already opened window

Stream loading

Get instant visual feedback even before loading is done

Folder traversal

You can traverse the currently opened folder with the arrow keys

Folder view

You can view all models within a folder and use Blaze3D like any other file browser

Colored point shading

Point data is always shaded colorized. This makes it easy to understand even complex 3D models

Camera controls

Move, rotate and zoom are fully supported

Supported file formats

Blaze3D Lite and Blaze3D Pro

.stl both binary and ASCII
.xyz
.xyzc ignoring colors
.xyzn ignoring normals
.csv if formatted similar to .xyz
.txt if formatted similar to .xyz
.obj
.gcode

Blaze3D Pro exclusive

.ply both binary and ASCII ignoring colors etc.
.off
.psl
.ptx
.las only loading point coordinates
.pts
.glb basic support (v2.0, index meshes, no colors, no textures …)
.gltf basic support (v2.0, index meshes, no colors, no textures …)

Editions

Blaze3D is available as free Lite and paid Pro edition.
The Pro edition supports additional file formats.

High efficiency

Blaze3D causes no CPU usage when idle and uses very little memory (if double_buffer_data is turned off). Saving power and allowing you to work on other tasks in parallel.
Incremental rendering of point clouds is also supported. This makes it possible to render very large point clouds that do not fit into your GPU’s memory.

No installer required

You can directly run Blaze3D without having to use an installer or make changes to your system.

Active development

Blaze3D is in active development and will further improve in the future. Feature requests and bug reports are very welcome.

Changelog

2.7.3

Fix a bug where Blaze3D would crash when dropping unsupported file formats

2.7.2

Have separate cameras for perspective and ortographic projection
This resolves issues when switching between both frequently such as clipping the model
Fix bug where flickering text might be shown while loading a file

2.7.1

Fix a bug where opening an invalid file might prevent the folder view from loading additional models

2.7.0

Now loading all files within a folder, not only the currently visible ones
Files which are visible are still loaded first
Display error reasons within the render window
Increase default and minimum window size
Now possible to enable face culling via the face_culling setting
This can also be toggled during runtime by pressing C
Now possible to enable flat shading via the flat_shading setting
This can also be toggled during runtime by pressing F
Current configuration and controls can now be shown in the render window (press Q or W)
Now possible to change the point size during runtime by pressing O or P
Now possible to change the line width during runtime by pressing K or L
Now possible to toggle the projection (orthographic / perspective) during runtime by pressing E
Not spawning a console window on Windows anymore (run Blaze3D from console to still see the console output)
Fix a bug where the window title was incorrect after re-activating a file view
Fix a bug where the folder view would display loading dots when starting with an empty folder

2.6.1

Fix a crash in font renderer that could be triggered by hovering files/folders with long names

2.6.0

Change folder view to display all folders instead of only those containing files that can be opened
The previous behavior could cause very long wait times if e.g. the root folder of the system was being viewed
The new solution is very fast in all cases
Viewing models in file view now also creates their thumbnails for folder view
Now showing a ‘drop files here’ message when Blaze3D is opened blank
Now showing a ‘drop to open’ message when hovering files above Blaze3D
Now showing an error message within the render window if a file could not be loaded / is only supported via Blaze3D Pro
The render window now has an icon
Blaze3D now stays open when trying to initially load an invalid file
Fix a bug where switching back and forth between a broken and valid file could result in the valid file not being displayed
Fix a bug in .stl loader in case the file does not end with a new line

2.5.1

Improve Linux support (binaries now compiled on older host machine)
Fix an issue within the .gcode loader in case a ; is located directly behind a value

2.5.0

Greatly improve performance of .glb loading in case there are many seek operations (caused by e.g. many BufferViews)
Slightly improve loading speed of smaller files
Fix bug where clicking another folder while still fetching the current folder could cause loading to stop completely
Fix bug where renderer would make unnecessary render calls

2.4.0

Now also support inline base64 data in .gltf files

2.3.0

Add basic .gltf v2.0 support

2.2.0

Split Blaze3D into Lite and Pro editions
Fix issue in bounding box calculation in case the first stream chunk has no valid size
Support models that don’t have a valid 3D bounding box (e.g. flat surfaces)
In case indices within a .glb file are undefined or not supported, the data is now rendered as points

2.1.0

Add basic .glb v2.0 support
Slightly improve performance when using single buffering (double_buffer_data = false)

2.0.0

Data is now streamed and rendered directly. Resulting in instant visual feedback
Add stream_chunk_size to configuration
Improve loading speeds by double buffering the loaded data
Since this causes higher memory usage, you can configure it via double_buffer_data
(Enabled by default)
Remove on_duplicate_stl_vertex from configuration, now always assuming Allow
Drop gpu_capacity_growth_factor from configuration, now handled internally

1.9.0

Improve folder structure of released zip files
IO Error messages now contain more information
Change the initial model pose so more of the model is shown (90 degree rotations only)

1.8.0

Only show folders that potentially contain valid models (checked via extension)
Improve .ply support (now supporting types int8, uint8, int16, uint16, int32 and uint32)
Fix bug where folder up / traverse didn’t work when starting Blaze3D from the current directory
Fix bug where scrollbar is incorrect if folder mostly/only contains other folders

1.7.1

Avoid bad alloc crashes in case of invalid .stl data
Handle invalid normals within an .stl file more gracefully

1.7.0

Can now scroll in the folder view via mouse wheel
Now showing loading and error texts for single files within folder view
On errors when loading ASCII files, the invalid line’s content is now printed
Now showing stats about loaded model within the rendering window
Slightly increase the default font size

1.6.0

The folder view can now be used as full file browser
Now displaying names of files
Now displaying folders including ..
Folder view now shows in title whether loading is in progress
Now possible to use the back buttons in the folder view as well
The (empty) folder view now uses less VRAM
The scale factor of the window / your OS is now considered for all sizes
You can use font_size to configure the font size
The upscale setting is now removed and always considered to be 1
Due to the rendering of text and internal changes, a value != 1 makes little sense now

1.5.0

Improve smoothness of interactive rendering while also dropping CPU usage during interactions
Folder view now behaving more responsive
Slightly improved (loading) performance
Now more reactive when resizing the folder view window
Reduce VRAM usage for folder icons
There’s now a minimal window size
Folder view is now rendered with a padding
Now displaying error text in title in case file could not be loaded
The size of icons (single files) within the folder view can now be configured via icon_width and icon_height
The upscale of the folder view can now be configured
print_detailed_time is even more detailed now
Going back to the folder view is now correctly possible via mouse-back on Windows

1.4.1

Fix issue on Windows where CPU usage was high even with no interaction

1.4.0

The folder view can now be very efficiently redrawn
This avoids any file reloads when resizing the window or traversing the folder
At the cost of a slight VRAM usage increase for every cached file
Files within the folder view are now rendered with a fixed size
Due to the above changes, max_models_folder_view has been removed from the configuration
Now the maximum number of shown files depends solely on the window size
Reduce VRAM usage when rendering folder view (especially on large screens)

1.3.0

The folder view can now be configured to load at most max_models_folder_view models
Set this value to 0 to have the previous, unlimited behavior
Add a scroll indicator for the multi view in case it is limited
Traversal with the arrow keys is now also possible within the folder view in case its model count is limited
Arrow up/down can now also be used for traversal
Loading of folder view is now aborted more often when requesting other actions / views, allowing for faster interaction
If initially loading an invalid file, Blaze3D is now closed
Split print_timelog into print_total_time and print_detailed_time
Originally defaulted to true, total now defaults to true, but detailed to false
Further improve console logs
Improve error logging in case the ASCII .stl import fails
Improve error message in case there’s issues within the configuration file
Fix a bug in ASCII .stl import
Fix a bug where quick switching between folder and file view could cause the incorrect model to be rendered

1.2.0

Add option to render point clouds incrementally
This makes it possible to render large point clouds even with very little GPU memory
See max_points_per_render_call in the configuration file
Add a coordinate cross
It is rendered at the origin
You can edit line_width to change its appearance
Add option to print the time spent rendering a frame via print_frame_time
The rendered point size can now be configured via point_size
Shorten the “Non-commercial” window title

1.1.0

Now supporting display of multiple models at once when opening a folder
Add option to reload a file or folder by using the R key
Add option to display folder of currently loaded file via Backspace, ESC or the back button of your mouse
ESC doesn’t close the application anymore (to avoid mistakes during display of multiple models)

1.0.0

Remove the blaze3df executable
Add setting on_duplicate_stl_vertex to the configuration as replacement
"Allow" equates the previous behavior of blaze3df
"Merge" equates the previous behavior of blaze3d
"Allow" is the default, causing blaze3d’s default behavior to be the same as previously blaze3df
Now following symlinks when trying to find the configuration file. The location next to the executable is considered
Reduce amount of ‘unnecessary’ text in the window title
Improve display of currently opened file in the window title
Display drag&drop notice in title if nothing loaded
Printing of the timelog can now be toggled in the configuration file via print_timelog
Printed vertex / face counts now have a thousands separator

0.17.0

Add .pts support
All values within configuration are now optional
Add switching between perspective and orthographic projection via configuration
Add field of view setting for perspective projection
Add initial window size to configuration
Improve error handling if configuration file is invalid or missing
Improve initial / cold loading time
Improve time logging
Always print active configuration fully

0.16.0

Now supporting .ply files that only contain point data
Now able to open folders directly (will load first valid file in folder)
Icon for the Windows executable

0.15.0

Add .las support

0.14.0

Greatly improve speed for all text/ASCII file formats [time to first frame, hot]
31% .stl
25% .gcode
32% .ply
20% .xyz
34% .obj
20% .ptx
and others (no data for benchmarks available)

0.13.0

Further greatly improved performance (> 2x in some cases)
There’s changes to the configuration, you’ll have to update yours

0.12.0

Arrow keys can now be used to load the previous/next file of the current folder
Readme and Changelog now .html pages
The camera controls can now be configured by editing blaze3d.toml

0.11.0

.gcode support greatly improved

0.10.0

Add .ptx support
Add .gcode support (reading G1 commands assuming absolute positioning)

0.9.0

Greatly improve loading speed especially when loading .stl files
Extend time logging to track time loading -> finish rendering frame
Use normals provided by .stl files if they seem to be valid
Now always showing the render window, even if there are issues initially (such as no file provided)
Rendering nothing if invalid files are dropped onto the render window (instead of just showing the previous model)

0.8.1

Fix issue where binary .stl files were detected as ASCII and failed to load properly
Fix issue where .stl files with invalid faces could not be loaded

0.8.0

Nicer time logging and output
Support for binary .ply files
.ply import is now more capable and should be able to open most (possibly all) files
Free community edition for non-commercial use is now available

Used models

The following models were used within the videos / images: