Free 3DS (.3ds) to OBJ (.obj) converter — running entirely in your browser. No upload, no signup, no file limits: your files never leave your device.
STEP · IGES · BREP · STL · OBJ · PLY · GLB · glTF · 3MF · COLLADA · AMF · FBX · 3DS · OFF · LAS · PCD · XYZ · PTS
The .3ds format comes from Autodesk 3D Studio for DOS and is one of the oldest mesh formats still in circulation. Despite hard limits — 16-bit vertex counts, 8.3 material names — enormous archives of legacy models exist in .3ds, so being able to read it still matters.
OBJ is a plain-text mesh format from the world of computer graphics. It stores vertices, normals, texture coordinates and polygon faces, and nearly every 3D application — Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, game engines, renderers — can read and write it, making it a dependable lowest common denominator for mesh exchange.
| 3DS | OBJ | |
|---|---|---|
| Geometry | Polygon mesh | Polygon mesh |
| Units | No | No |
| Colors & materials | Basic materials | Via MTL sidecar |
| Animations | Limited | No |
| Typical use | Legacy model archives | DCC tool interchange |
Yes — free with no accounts, no watermarks and no file-size limits. Conversion runs on your own machine, so there are no server costs behind it.
No. The converter runs entirely in your browser using WebAssembly. Your .3ds file never leaves your device, which makes it safe for confidential designs.
Yes — parts and assembly hierarchy are preserved where OBJ supports them, and you can optionally merge everything into a single mesh during conversion.
Yes. Every converted model opens in the built-in 3D viewer with an assembly tree, display modes and section views, so you can inspect the result first.
3DS is reduced to geometry, hierarchy and one flat base color per part before export, so format-specific metadata and animation do not carry through. The OBJ result is a single geometry file with no generated MTL sidecar, so it does not carry textures or material definitions.