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Free Professional 3D Modeling & Animation Package

1. Introduction
2. File-Formats
3. Manual

Blender is a free 3D development kit for UNIX (Linux, FreeBSD etc) developed by Neogeo in Netherlands.

You get the precompiled binaries from Blender Homepage direct, and also documentation, FAQ and mailing-list archive. Check that site first.

Blender is a professional program and its commercial version comes with additional features and support, definitly something to consider if you use Blender professionally.

Blender 2. File-Formats

- Blender reads Inventor 1.0 ASCII

- Blender writes 3D geometry as VideoScape3d

To convert from VRML to Inventor, just change the header from '#VRML V1.0 ascii' to '#Inventor V1.0 ascii'.

Models

3DLinks: Objects 3D Objects (look for .wrl) 3DCafe: Objects 3D Object (look for free-models)

3DStudio

There is no direct way to import/export 3ds files (yet as for Blender 1.38). But here some related infos: VRML Tools 3DS Specifications + C-Source (misc. Authors) Unofficial 3DS Specifications (Jeff Lewis)

VRML

VRML Repository First place to look for

Related Resources

Clax: 3D Studio Keyframer David Farrel: Binary Stars 3DS to OpenGL converter Mediatel: 3D File Formats List of 3d-file-formats CICA: 3D Formats Overview File Formats

Blender 3. Manual

Manual 1.5 Blender Manual

Manual 1.02 Blender Manual

                                                                                                                                   

3D Graphics