Best 3D Viewers for Mac of 2025

Meshmixer is an exceptional program designed for manipulating triangle meshes in various ways. Whether your goal is to refine a 3D scan, prepare for 3D printing, or create a component that integrates seamlessly with another object, Meshmixer offers the tools you need. It serves as a versatile "Swiss Army Knife" for all things related to 3D meshes. The software features drag-and-drop mesh mixing capabilities, along with 3D sculpting and surface stamping options. It also boasts a powerful Convert-to-Solid function, ideal for 3D printing projects, and allows for the creation of intricate 3D patterns and lattices. Users can easily hollow objects while incorporating escape holes and generate branching support structures tailored for 3D printing needs. Additionally, Meshmixer optimizes print bed orientation and layout, making the printing process more efficient. Advanced selection features such as brushing, surface-lasso, and constraints further enhance usability, while remeshing and mesh simplification tools provide great flexibility. Mesh smoothing, free-form deformations, and various repair functions—like hole filling, bridging, and boundary zippering—ensure high-quality results. Plane cuts, mirroring, and Boolean operations facilitate more complex designs, while extrusions and offset surfaces enable further creativity. The program also supports interior tubes and channels, ensuring precise 3D positioning with the use of pivots. Automatic surface alignment and accurate 3D measurements are additional highlights, along with stability and thickness analysis to guarantee structural integrity in your designs. Meshmixer truly empowers users to bring their 3D visions to life with ease and precision.

FreeCAD is a versatile, open-source parametric 3D modeling software created for the purpose of designing tangible objects in various sizes. Its parametric modeling feature enables users to easily revisit the model's history and alter its parameters, facilitating design modifications. With FreeCAD, you can create constrained 2D sketches that serve as foundational elements for constructing additional objects. The software encompasses numerous components that allow for the adjustment of dimensions and the extraction of design specifics from 3D models, aiding in the production of high-quality, ready-to-use drawings. As a cross-platform tool compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux, FreeCAD offers extensive customization and extensibility options. It supports a wide array of open file formats, including STEP, IGES, STL, SVG, DXF, OBJ, IFC, DAE, and many more, which enables smooth integration into various workflows. Designed to accommodate diverse applications such as product design, mechanical engineering, and architectural projects, FreeCAD caters to a broad audience. Regardless of whether you are a hobbyist, an experienced CAD professional, a student, or an educator, the user-friendly interface of FreeCAD ensures that everyone can find their place within the software. Embracing the community-driven development, FreeCAD continues to evolve, incorporating user feedback to enhance its functionality.

The schematic editor allows you to create unlimited designs. There are no paywalls for unlocking features. A built-in schematic editor and an official library of schematic symbols will help you quickly get started with your designs. Professional PCB layouts can be made with up to 32 copper layers. KiCad now includes a push-and-pull router that can route differential pairs and adjust trace lengths interactively. KiCad also includes a 3D viewer that you can use to view your design in an interactive canvas. To inspect details that are difficult or impossible to see in a 2D view, you can rotate and pan around. Multiple rendering options make it possible to change the board's aesthetic or hide and show certain features. The schematic capture in KiCad is fast and efficient. It also includes all the tools necessary to do so. The interface is focused on productivity. As large designs can be broken into hierarchical subsheets, there are no limits to their complexity.

ABViewer is a versatile software application for PC designed for handling various types of drawings. This powerful tool allows users to view, edit, convert, measure, and print DWG files along with other CAD formats, 3D models, and raster images. Users have the flexibility to focus on specific sections of a drawing or manage multiple files simultaneously, all while enjoying an affordable pricing structure! ABViewer supports the conversion of both individual files and batches, offering a comprehensive array of export options such as black-and-white settings and customizable output file sizes. In the 3D section panel, users find controls that enhance the visual representation of 3D models and define section planes, accessible in the 3D Viewer mode. The features available in the 3D Section panel allow for tailored adjustments in how 3D models are viewed, enabling users to easily display different parts of a model by utilizing the settings positioned at the top of the interface. Additionally, it’s possible to create multiple section planes simultaneously, providing even greater control over the visualization process.

view3dscene serves as a versatile viewer compatible with a wide array of 3D model formats, including glTF, X3D, VRML, Collada, 3DS, MD3, Wavefront OBJ, STL, as well as 2D formats like Spine JSON and sprite sheets in CGE, Cocos2d, and Starling XML formats. Users can delve into a virtual environment that features collisions, gravity, animations, sensors, shadows, mirrors, shaders, and additional effects. Furthermore, it offers the capability to convert all models to the X3D format seamlessly. If you possess the Castle Game Engine, you can simply execute the view3dscene from the CGE bin subdirectory without needing a separate download. All model formats supported by the Castle Game Engine, such as X3D, VRML, Collada, 3DS, MD3, Wavefront OBJ, and Spine JSON, can be easily accessed. The application provides various navigation options including examine (which allows users to rotate and reposition the entire model), walk (which simulates movement like first-person shooter games with collision detection and gravity), fly (akin to the walk mode but without gravitational effects), and 2D navigation. Additionally, users can convert between X3D classic and XML encodings in either direction, as well as transition from VRML 2 to X3D, enhancing the flexibility of model handling. This makes view3dscene an essential tool for anyone working with 3D and 2D model formats in various development environments.

I often encountered issues where the STL files I downloaded required minor modifications to be compatible with my 3D printer. Usually, this involved simply centering the model on the build platform or resizing it to fit. A few months ago, I developed OpenGL code to visualize both STL and GCode files for a different extensive project, which proved useful. Additionally, I faced challenges when trying to open ASCII-encoded STL files in my 3D/CAD application, which only supports binary STL files, prompting the need for a straightforward conversion method. To address these challenges, I created Pleasant3D, a compact utility designed to resolve these issues while incorporating my earlier visualization code for STL and GCode files. This latest version enhances the error checking within the Quicklook plugins and ensures that if Quicklook generation fails, the standard document icon is shown, preventing quicklookd from crashing during error occurrences. With these improvements, users can now expect a smoother and more reliable experience when handling their 3D printing files.

Autodesk Viewer is capable of handling a wide array of 2D and 3D file formats, such as DWG, STEP, DWF, RVT, and SolidWorks. Its efficient drawing and annotation features enable you to obtain necessary feedback swiftly. You can collaborate on and access your designs from any device or operating system using Autodesk Viewer. It allows you to view DWG files or convert them for compatibility with earlier AutoCAD software versions. Additionally, you can incorporate Design Review, which enables you to mark up 2D and 3D files without needing the original design software. For enhanced versatility, Autodesk Viewer and the AutoCAD web app can be considered as options. The AutoCAD web app provides quick, on-demand access to CAD drawings, allowing you to view, edit, share, and create DWG files directly within a web browser on any computer. This approach requires no software installation, ensuring you can utilize familiar drafting tools and commands as you work. Embracing these tools can significantly streamline your design workflow.

Open CascadeCAD Assistant is an offline 3D CAD viewer/converter with an intuitive interface. It is free for personal and commercial use. The solution was originally developed to showcase the Open CASCADE Technology on mobile platforms. It has been widely used by thousands of users on desktops and mobiles around the world as a fast and useful 3D viewer. CAD Assistant puts the power of open technologies in the hands of engineers who work with 3D data. CAD Assistant is based upon open source libraries (Open CASCADE Technology Qt, FreeType and FreeImage, etc.). Open formats are available for CAD and mesh data (STEP and IFC, IGES and BREP), glTF and JT, PLY STL, OBJ and 3DM. It supports a variety of file formats, including DXF and SAT (ACIS), XT(Parasolid). Additional functionality in CAD Assistant includes the ability to view mesh models and associated data. You can read files in PLY format to view mesh.

Complete and sign forms directly on your Mac without the need to print any PDF documents. Simply utilize the Markup tools to fill out the form and append your signature as needed. For PDFs that include confidential information, you can enhance security by setting a password to restrict access. It's also straightforward to merge multiple PDF files and move pages between them. Preview is compatible with a wide range of image formats, such as JPEG, PNG, PSD, and TIFF. If you encounter a photo that is incompatible with your editing software, you can often convert it to a usable format effortlessly. This functionality makes managing documents and images on your Mac simple and efficient.

F3D serves as a rapid and streamlined 3D visualization tool that accommodates a variety of file formats ranging from digital assets to scientific data, such as glTF, STL, STEP, PLY, OBJ, FBX, and Alembic, while also enabling animation playback and offering an extensive array of rendering and texturing capabilities, including real-time physically based rendering and ray tracing. This versatile viewer is entirely manageable through command line inputs and supports configuration files, allowing for the generation of thumbnails, interactive hotkeys, drag-and-drop functionality, and seamless integration with file managers. In addition to its viewing capabilities, F3D features the libf3d library, which provides a straightforward means of rendering meshes and includes bindings for both C++ and Python, along with experimental bindings for Java and JavaScript as well. Furthermore, the user-friendly interface ensures that both novice and experienced users can easily navigate and utilize its features effectively.