CAD formats

What is the 3DS format?

3DS — 3D Studio Scene

3DS is the scene format of Autodesk 3D Studio from the DOS era: models with materials and texture references, still found in old 3D model libraries.

RW converts both ways 3DS Converter

Convert 3DS to

Convert to 3DS

About the 3DS format

3D Studio for DOS introduced 3DS in 1990. It stores meshes, materials, texture names, cameras, lights and simple animation. It has hard limits, such as 65,535 vertices per object and short 8.3 texture file names, and 3ds Max replaced it with the MAX format.

Thousands of free and stock models are still offered as 3DS, but many current programs no longer open it. Converting 3DS to OBJ, FBX or GLB brings such models into modern software, and to STL or 3MF makes them printable.

Programs that open 3DS

  • Autodesk 3ds Max
  • Blender
  • Cinema 4D
  • MeshLab
  • SketchUp (import)

What 3DS is used for

  • Old 3D model libraries
  • Legacy game and architecture models
  • Archived 3D Studio scenes

Other CAD formats

All 12 CAD formats · all supported formats