Rendering Survey - Formats

Information on specific formats

BGF - the binary geometry format for Division's VR software.
DXF - interchange format originally for AutoDesk's AutoCAD software. Many CAD systems and modelling packages can export DXF and there are convertors from DXF to most other 3D geometry formats.
IGES - used for the exchange of information between CAD systems.
Inventor - the format associated with the SGI Open Inventor toolkit. Its usage widened when it became the basis for VRML 1.0.
NFF - in fact two different formats. One is the Haines Neutral File Format and was used in conjuction with tests of rendering algorithms. The other is the neutral file format for the Sense8 World ToolKit.
VDI - the format for defining a virtual environment for Division's VR software.
VRML - with its high profile on WWW and its progress towards standardisation within ISO, this is becoming accepted as a way of exchanging information about virtual environments and linking them together over the Internet.
3DS - designed as the interchange format from AutoDesk's 3D Studio modelling, rendering and animation system. Can be converted to the formats for other rendering systems and VR systems. Appropriate if using 3D Studio for modelling and using a different system for rendering.

Keith Rule's 3D Home Page - uses Common Ground conventions and is only readable on MS Windows.
Graphics File Formats Page from University of Edinburgh
A brief summary of 3D object file formats , some of them including a link to the specification.