3D Thing

Plugins for Blender, 3ds Max and SketchUp

From your 3D program to a link

Press Send in Blender, 3ds Max or SketchUp. The plugin converts the materials, compresses the scene and puts it in your 3D Thing account, ready to publish as a link anyone can open.

Download for Blender3ds Max and SketchUp

Blender 4.2 and newer, tested. The 3ds Max and SketchUp plugins are in preview.

Three plugins

Which program do you send from?

One plugin for each. Every one of them signs in the same way and sends to the same place.

Tested in Blender

Blender

Blender 4.2 and newer

A scripted run in Blender 4.4 builds a scene, exports it, converts and compresses it, and checks what comes out.

What it sends

  • The whole scene, or only what is selected, through Blender’s own glTF exporter, with modifiers applied
  • Principled materials as they are, with Cycles and Eevee node groups flattened
  • V-Ray and Corona for Blender materials, converted with the same tables as 3ds Max
  • Procedural textures baked to 1024 by 1024 images when you tick Bake procedural textures (in Cycles, slower)
Download for BlenderBlender add-on, ZIP, 132 KB

Install and send

  1. 1Download the ZIP and keep it zipped.
  2. 2In Blender, open Edit > Preferences > Add-ons, open the menu at the top right, choose Install from Disk and pick the ZIP. Tick 3D Thing Bridge if it is not on already.
  3. 3If the add-on's preferences list missing Python modules, press Install Python dependencies once. Leave API URL as it is: it already reads https://api.3dthing.in.
  4. 4In the 3D viewport press N, open the 3D Thing tab and press Log in. Approve the code in your browser.
  5. 5Name the project, pick a preset and press Send. A progress bar shows the upload, and Open takes you to the project.

Preview, tested in 3ds Max 2025 with Corona

3ds Max

3ds Max 2023 and newer

Tested by sending real Corona scenes, with their cameras and textures, from inside 3ds Max 2025. V-Ray and Arnold are in preview: their conversion is tested, but not yet run inside 3ds Max.

What it sends

  • The scene, or only the selected objects, through whichever glTF exporter is installed
  • Your cameras, read from the scene and placed in the file, because the exporter leaves them out
  • Corona, V-Ray, Physical, Standard, Arnold, OpenPBR and USD Preview Surface materials, converted for the web and given to the right objects even when the exporter has renamed them
  • Colour corrections, mixes and common procedural maps worked out by 3ds Max itself and sent as a colour or a picture; anything else approximated where a colour can stand in for it, otherwise dropped and named in the report.
Download the installerWindows installer, EXE, 1.3 MB
Or the ZIP, to set up by handZIP, 194 KB

Install and send

  1. 1Download the installer and run it. It is not signed yet, so Windows shows a blue Windows protected your PC box: click More info, then Run anyway.
  2. 2Tick the 3ds Max versions you want it in and press Install. It puts the plugin where every 3ds Max loads it at startup, then installs whatever else it needs. It needs no administrator rights, and there is nothing to copy afterwards.
  3. 3Start 3ds Max. In Customize > Customize User Interface, find the 3D Thing category and put Send to 3D Thing on a toolbar. You do this once; 3ds Max remembers it after a restart. 3ds Max 2024 and older also get a 3D Thing menu.
  4. 4Press it, log in with the code, and press Send to 3D Thing. Leave the API URL field empty; empty means 3D Thing.
  5. 5Would rather do it by hand? Take the ZIP instead. Its readme has the two commands that install the Python packages, and you copy 3DThingBridge.ms, the two .py files and the bridge_core folder into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\3dsMax\2025 - 64bit\ENU\scripts\startup, with your version in place of 2025.

It needs a glTF exporter. Autodesk added one in 3ds Max 2023, under File > Export as GL Transmission Format; any exporter that writes .glb or .gltf will do. The installer covers 3ds Max 2023 to 2026; for 2027, use the ZIP.

Preview: not yet run in SketchUp

SketchUp

SketchUp 2024 and newer

Its sign-in and upload code is tested against a stand-in for the 3D Thing server and for SketchUp; the extension itself has not been run inside SketchUp yet.

What it sends

  • The whole model, through SketchUp’s own glTF export
  • Its materials as SketchUp exports them: colour, texture and opacity
  • Straight from SketchUp, with nothing else to install. There are no presets: publishing makes the lighter copy for the link.
Download for SketchUpSketchUp extension, ZIP, 13 KB

Install and send

  1. 1Unzip the download into SketchUp's Plugins folder: threed_thing_bridge.rb and the threed_thing_bridge folder next to it.
  2. 2Restart SketchUp. Extensions > 3D Thing > Send to 3D Thing opens the dialog; the toolbar button does the same.
  3. 3Press Log in and approve the code in your browser.
  4. 4Name the project and press Send to 3D Thing. The project opens in your browser when the upload is done.

SketchUp 2023 and older cannot export glTF. From those, save the model as OBJ and open that file in the editor.

The downloads are unsigned preview builds; your system may ask you to confirm before it opens them. Last updated 14 October 2026.

After you press Send

What happens after you press Send?

The scene travels from your program into your account. Nothing is public until you publish it.

Example: a scene sent from Blender

  1. 1.Send

    Your program

    ProjectPavilion v3

    PresetBalanced

    Uploading64%

  2. 2.Converted

    Your computer
    • Principled BSDFPBR material
    • PicturesMade smaller
    • Report1 note

  3. 3.Saved

    Your account

    Pavilion v3

    from Blender · Cycles

    Conversion report: 1 note

  4. 4.Published

    When you choose

    3dthing.in/s/pavilion-v3-a1b2c3/1

    PasswordEnd dateView only

  • Nothing is public until you say so

    Send puts the scene in your account as a project. It becomes a link only when you publish it, from the editor or the project page.

  • A dropped connection is not a restart

    Uploads go in 8 MB pieces and pick up from the last one that arrived. Sending an unchanged scene into the same project again uploads nothing.

  • The link gets its own smaller copy

    Publishing makes a lighter copy of the model for the link, without moving a corner or renaming a part.

Signing in

How does the plugin sign in without your password?

With a one-time code that you approve on this site, the way a TV app signs in.

Approve a plugin sign-inSee your tokens

Example code

ABCD-1234

Eight characters, shown by the plugin and typed on the approval page

  1. 1Press Log in in the plugin. It asks 3D Thing for a one-time code, shows it, and opens the approval page on this site in your browser.
  2. 2Sign in there as you normally do, check the code is the one the plugin shows, and approve it. You can deny it instead. A code works for 10 minutes.
  3. 3The plugin receives a token of its own, named after the program and the computer, such as Blender on STUDIO-PC, and keeps it on that computer. Your password never goes into the plugin.
  4. 4The token is listed on your API tokens page, where you can revoke it at any time, and a notice appears on your account whenever a new device is linked.

Materials

Which renderer materials survive the trip?

They become the web's standard material, with the extras for glass, coatings, fabric sheen and glow. Anything that cannot come across is written in the conversion report, never dropped silently.

Corona Physical and LegacyColour, shine, metal, glass, coatings, fabric sheen, glow and bump come across. Translucency is approximated and named in the report.
V-Ray Mtl and VRayBRDFColour, reflection, glass, coatings, sheen, glow and opacity come across. In preview: not yet run inside 3ds Max.
3ds Max Physical MaterialComes across wherever the web has a matching setting.
Standard and BlinnColour and shine come across, closely rather than exactly.
Arnold Standard SurfaceColour, shine, glass, coatings, sheen and glow come across. In preview: not yet run inside 3ds Max.
OpenPBR and USD Preview SurfaceColour, shine, metal and the extras for glass, coatings and glow come across. In preview.
Blender Principled BSDFComes across as it is.
SketchUp materialsColour, texture and opacity come across. In preview: not yet run inside SketchUp.

Textures are found from the paths your program uses and from its asset library, and a missing file is named in the report.

Presets

Which preset should I pick?

Balanced, unless you have a reason. Every preset opens in the viewer as it is.

  • Preset

    Fast

    The quickest send, for a first look or a quick review.

    TexturesMade a little smaller, with the least waiting.

  • Preset

    Balanced

    The default, and the right one for links a client will open.

    TexturesMade smaller for the web, a good middle between size and sharpness.

  • Preset

    Max

    The smallest file, for slow connections. Fine detail can soften a little.

    TexturesMade as small as they go.

Publishing also makes its own smaller copy for the link. The presets are in the Blender and 3ds Max plugins; SketchUp sends the model as it is.

Revit, Rhino, Archicad

What if there is no plugin for my program?

Save the model as a GLB, glTF, FBX or OBJ file and open that in the editor. It takes a few minutes, and you end up exactly where the plugin would have put you.

3D Thing opens GLB, glTF, FBX and OBJ. It cannot open a .rvt, a .3dm, a .dwg, a .pln or a .skp directly, and it does not pretend to.

RevitFBX, from File > Export > FBX. If your office has a glTF exporter add-in, that carries materials across better. Either way, export a 3D view rather than a sheet.
RhinoIn Rhino 8 and newer, glTF or GLB, from File > Export Selected or Save As. In Rhino 7, OBJ or FBX.
AutoCADAutoCAD 2019 and newer save none of these. Ask whoever made the drawing for a GLB, glTF, FBX or OBJ, or open it in a 3D program that reads DWG and save one from there. Flat 2D linework has nothing to walk through either way.
ArchicadLook in File > Save as and File > Export for glTF, OBJ or FBX. Which of them appear depends on the version and the add-ons your office has installed.
SketchUpUse the plugin above, or export the model as glTF where your version offers it, and as OBJ where it does not.
Anything elseIf it can write GLB, glTF, FBX or OBJ, it works here. If it cannot, ask whoever made the model for a glTF; it is a normal thing to be asked for.

Not sure the file is any good before a client sees it? Open it in the free viewer: it says what is in the file, what it will weigh once it is open and what is wrong with it, with no account and without the file leaving your computer.

If Enscape or Twinmotion makes your presentation images, that does not change. This is not a renderer. It is the link you send when the client wants to move around the model in their own browser.

Want a plugin for your program? Tell us which, at hello@3dthing.in.