OFF is a minimal academic mesh format: a vertex list and a face list in plain text, nothing else. Its simplicity makes it a favorite in computational-geometry research, mesh-processing courses and tools like CGAL and MeshLab.
OFF comes out of computational-geometry tooling: CGAL, MeshLab, geometry-processing courses and the research datasets that ship with them. It is a vertex list and a face list in plain text, and that is deliberately all.
Best for: Research, teaching and mesh-processing pipelines. There is a fuller write-up on the OFF format reference page.
Every format on this site also gets the same viewport tools: orbit, pan and zoom with fit-to-view, isometric and the six standard views, a perspective/orthographic toggle, shaded, shaded-with-edges, wireframe and X-ray display, hide-selected, and a PNG screenshot of the current view. The same controls are on the general 3D and CAD viewer, which accepts every importable format at once.
Worth knowing before you rely on it. A viewer that overstates what it can read wastes more of your time than one that is specific about its limits.
| OFF files | |
|---|---|
| Extensions | .off |
| Geometry | Polygon mesh |
| Units | No |
| Colors & materials | Optional vertex colors |
| Animations | No |
| Typical use | Research & geometry processing |
OFF stores bare coordinates with no unit, so the dimension, area and volume readouts are the file’s own numbers with a millimetre label attached.
OFF can be written as well as read here, so it is often a stop on the way into or out of a research pipeline. The converter runs on the same local pipeline as this viewer, so a conversion is just as private as a preview: OFF to OBJ is the usual choice.
OFF (Object File Format) is a plain-text mesh: a vertex list, then a face list. MeshLab and CGAL-based tools read it, and this page reads it in a browser tab with counts, area, volume, sections and measurement.
Yes. Polygonal faces are fan-triangulated as the file is read, so quad and n-gon meshes display normally. The triangle count you see is the count after triangulation, not the face count in the file.
No. The parser recognises the COFF, NOFF and STOFF headers and steps over the extra per-vertex values, so a colored OFF file renders in the default grey. Its geometry is read in full.
No. Parsing happens in a Web Worker inside your browser, so research data and coursework meshes stay on your machine.
Geometry: polygon mesh. Units: no. Colors and materials: optional vertex colors. Animations: no. Of that, the viewer draws geometry and flat base colors; texture maps and animation are never displayed. OFF stores bare coordinates with no unit, so the dimension, area and volume readouts are the file’s own numbers with a millimetre label attached.
Read the OFF format reference for the format itself, open the general 3D and CAD viewer if you have several formats to look at, or start from the 3D and CAD converter.
If the model is heavier than it needs to be, the mesh simplifier reads .off directly, decimates it in your browser and previews the result before you export. If the file is headed for a 3D printer, the G-code viewer shows the sliced toolpath layer by layer once your slicer has run.