Home > Supported File Formats > FBX to U3D

How to convert FBX (FilmBox v5/v6/v7,.fbx) to U3D (Universal 3D, 3D PDF)?

PolyTrans|CAD+DCC performs mathematically precise CAD, DCC/Animation, GIS and BIM 3D file conversions into all key downstream 3D packages and file formats. Okino software is used and trusted throughout the world by many tens of thousands of 3D professionals in mission & production critical environments, backed by respectable personal support directly from our core development team.

FBX

FBX is a 3D 'digital asset interchange' file format that had been pushed on the 3D industry by Autodesk after they acquired it from the bankruptcy assets of its prior owners, Alias Research and Kaydara of Canada. FBX has its placed in the DCC/Animation world but it does have its limitations, given that it is a closed and proprietary file format of Autodesk.

Note: if you are one of the many people who use FBX to convert data out of Navisworks, Revit, AutoCAD or Inventor then please use DWF-3D file format and Okino's DWF-3D import converter instead. It is a night and day difference but little known except to our core Okino users. Likewise, use our native program support for 3ds Max, Maya and Cinema-4D rather than use FBX.

FBX supports all the common attributes of a DCC/Animation file format such as mesh geometry with vertex normals and vertex colors, non-solids NURBS ('old school NURBS'), lights, cameras, hierarchy, bones and mesh skinning (deformations), materials and textures. In basic terms, it is similar to the capabilities of the COLLADA and VRML2/X3D file formats, and to Okino's long standard BDF data translation file format.

Okino has a very long history associated with FBX as it created the very first and fully implemented set of FBX import and export converters in 2002, with full animation, skinning and trimmed NURBS support. This was long before anyone had much heard of FBX. And to this very day we are still the only company that actively ships and supports FBX v5 (Kaydara), v6 (Alias) and v7 (Autodesk). However, FBX was just one of many 'not invented here' file formats which came to glut the 3D market in the 2005-2007 era, many of which petered away over time.

A key reason for its early adoption, throughout the 3D industry, was the availability of a free and officially supported (but closed) FBX SDK from Autodesk.

The downsides of the FBX file format is that (1) it has stagnated in recent years, (2) it is based on a legacy material model and not on modern PBR, (3) it is based on legacy lighting models and not on physically based lighting, and (4) it is a closed file format which only Autodesk can update or change. Otherwise, these restrictions have made it easier for software developers to implement FBX just once and then not have to worry about costly yearly revisions.

U3D

U3D is a semi-obsolete 3D mesh file formats from the 2000-2009 era of the 3D graphics world and whose history is little understood outside the confines of a few 3D graphics companies. Even so, U3D is still a fine 3D file format as a pipeline to get 3D data embedded within 3D PDF files, especially with the full and extensive implementation made by Okino.

For more details on the U3D file format, its core features and limitations, how to embed U3D files within 3D PDF files and the features of the Okino U3D import/export converters, please refer to this WEB page.

Generally speaking, U3D was implemented by a few 3D companies in the mid to late 2000s when it was pushed by Adobe+Intel as part of the line of 'Acrobat-3D' software packages. In very loose terms, U3D is used to convey and embed 3D model data within 3D PDF files, where PDF would be the container for the 3D data.

U3D started off in the 1990s as Intel's "IFX" gaming toolkit which was than thrust upon Macromedia, Alias Research, Softimage and other similar companies around the year 2000 to be accepted as a new "industry standard" 3D file format called "Shockwave-3D". The dotCOM bubble caused SW-3D to die pre-maturely after 2001 only to be rebranded as U3D or the "Universal 3D file Format" in 2004 (ECMA-363). Its specification PDF document described it as "An extensible format for downstream 3D CAD repurposing and visualization". However, U3D was highly profit/sales motivated/biased and not consumer/end-user motivated. As such, partly due to the 2008/2009 recession, those companies and their investments in U3D died away.

Okino is and was critical of U3D back in the day as it was the company which created the main conversion implementation of U3D for both import and export. It understood the limitations of U3D well and of its false promotion as a "universal file format" whose title should really have gone to those such as COLLADA, FBX, VRML2, etc. When implemented well U3D is a fine file format by itself but few companies invested enough time and money to support U3D import and export in a most ideal manner.

FBX import converter's overview

Limitations of the U3D File Format

U3D export converter's overview