PLY to GLB converter: vertex colours where the file has them kept
Drop a .ply and get one .glb file, converted in Blender on our server. The trip keeps vertex colours where the file has them; nothing the source holds is lost on the way. Free, no account, nothing to install.
How do I convert PLY to GLB?
Drop the file on this page, wait while the server converts it, and download one .glb file.
- 1Choose a .ply. Files up to 50 MB.
- 2The converter opens it in Blender on our server and writes GLB. Most files take under a minute; the page shows the result in 3D when it is done.
- 3Download one .glb file. The upload and the result are deleted 3 days later.
- In:
- .ply, ASCII or binary
- Out:
- one .glb file
- Keeps:
- vertex colours where the file has them
- Cost:
- free, no account
What survives the trip
A PLY holds a mesh or a point cloud with per-vertex colour, ASCII or binary. A file with points and no faces is refused rather than converted into an empty model: every target here stores surfaces, and turning points into one is reconstruction, not conversion.
The result is one .glb with the geometry packed inside it, and the materials and images where the source has them, in metres and Y-up as glTF defines. The source has no skeleton, so none is written.
PLY and GLB do not hold the same things, and the page says so before you upload: the trip keeps vertex colours where the file has them, and nothing the source holds is lost on the way. GLB is what web viewers, three.js, model-viewer, Godot, Unity and Unreal importers read without a plug-in.
What this conversion cannot do
Measured on real files, not assumed. Everything below is a property of the formats or of the pipeline, and knowing it beforehand is cheaper than discovering it in your 3D tool.
A point cloud is refused
Many scanners write a PLY with points and no faces. There is no surface to carry into a mesh format, so the converter stops with a message. Reconstruct a surface first (Poisson or ball pivoting in MeshLab or CloudCompare), then convert.
Vertex counts go up, triangle counts do not
glTF stores one vertex per unique position, normal and texture coordinate, so a hard edge or a UV seam splits a shared vertex into two or three. A viewer that counts vertices will show more than your 3D tool did; the triangle count is the one that means the same on both sides.
Uploads stop at 50 MB
A larger file is refused before anything is uploaded. Decimate a dense mesh or shrink the textures in your 3D tool first; neither changes the format.
Frequently asked questions
Does the unit survive?
PLY has no unit field, so the numbers are copied as they are. A program that works in metres reads a scan stored in millimetres a thousand times too large; scale it by 0.001 where you open it.
Do I get a .glb or a .gltf?
A .glb, the single-file form. Every viewer and engine that reads .gltf reads .glb, and there is no folder to keep together.
Is anything uploaded, and for how long?
Yes: the file you drop goes to our server in New York, is converted there, and both the upload and the result are deleted 3 days after the conversion. Nothing is shared with anyone.
Can I look at the PLY first?
Yes, without uploading anything: the PLY viewer draws it in your browser. Open the PLY viewer →
Can this become a VTuber avatar?
Not as it is: an avatar needs a skeleton, skin weights and a face that moves, and a .ply has none of them. Rig and texture the model in Blender first, then convert the rigged file to VRM.
The other format pairs
All 50 are free, all run the same pipeline, and all say what they drop.
GLB to FBX
GLB in, FBX out, free: one file.
GLB to OBJ
GLB in, OBJ out, free: zipped with its files.
FBX to GLB
FBX in, GLB out, free: one file.
OBJ to GLB
OBJ in, GLB out, free: one file.
STL to GLB
STL in, GLB out, free: one file.
PLY to FBX
PLY in, FBX out, free: one file.
PLY to OBJ
PLY in, OBJ out, free: zipped with its files.
DAE to GLB
DAE in, GLB out, free: one file.
USDZ to GLB
USDZ in, GLB out, free: one file.
GLB to STL
GLB in, STL out, free: one file.
GLB to PLY
GLB in, PLY out, free: one file.
GLB to DAE
GLB in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
GLB to USDZ
GLB in, USDZ out, free: one file.
PLY to STL
PLY in, STL out, free: one file.
PLY to DAE
PLY in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
PLY to USDZ
PLY in, USDZ out, free: one file.
3MF to GLB
3MF in, GLB out, free: one file.
GLB to 3MF
GLB in, 3MF out, free: one file.
FBX to PLY
FBX in, PLY out, free: one file.
OBJ to PLY
OBJ in, PLY out, free: one file.
STL to PLY
STL in, PLY out, free: one file.
DAE to PLY
DAE in, PLY out, free: one file.
USDZ to PLY
USDZ in, PLY out, free: one file.
Only want to look at the file? GLB viewer, FBX viewer and OBJ viewer all run on your own device — nothing is uploaded.
Is your model going into VTubing?
A .ply is a surface without a skeleton, so no converter can make a VRM avatar out of it directly. Rigged and textured in Blender, the same model converts to VRM on the FBX to VRM converter, with the bones mapped onto the VRM humanoid.
Open the VRM converter