What is a .3DS file?
3DS is the legacy model format of 3D Studio, the ancestor of today’s 3ds Max. Read by Autodesk 3ds Max and many 3D tools.
- Did you know
- 3DS comes from the original DOS-based 3D Studio of the early 1990s.
- The format stores triangles only and caps each mesh at 65,536 vertices, a limit of its 16-bit indices that forces big models to be split.
- 3D Studio for DOS was retired when 3D Studio MAX 1.0 replaced it in 1996, but the 3DS format lived on as a common interchange format.
- What Analyser reads
- Identify CAD files and read header metadata: AutoCAD DWG (DXF now opens as a 2D drawing preview - see Diagrams), SolidWorks (SLDPRT, SLDASM, plus .sldreg Settings Wizard backups - release year, settings groups and the saved registry keys - and SOLIDWORKS Visualize .svap appearances and .svpj projects, opened as the ZIP packages they are), Fusion 360 (F3D), Inventor (IPT, IAM), Rhino (3DM) and Grasshopper (GH, GHX), SketchUp (SKP), 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Houdini, ZBrush, Maya, CATIA, Eagle, and KiCad.
- Depth of analysis
- .3DS is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .3DS file
- Drag a .3DS file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.