PLY to USDZ converter: vertex colours where the file has them kept
Drop a .ply and get one .usdz 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 USDZ?
Drop the file on this page, wait while the server converts it, and download one .usdz file.
- 1Choose a .ply. Files up to 50 MB.
- 2The converter opens it in Blender on our server and writes USDZ. Most files take under a minute; the page shows the result in 3D when it is done.
- 3Download one .usdz file. The upload and the result are deleted 3 days later.
- In:
- .ply, ASCII or binary
- Out:
- one .usdz 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 a .usdz package: Y-up, metres, a default prim, UsdPreviewSurface materials with the textures inside, uncompressed as the specification requires. It is checked as a package, not on a phone; try it on your own device before shipping it.
PLY and USDZ 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. USDZ is what AR Quick Look on iPhone and iPad, and USD pipelines, read.
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.
Materials become UsdPreviewSurface
That is the one material model AR Quick Look reads: base colour, metallic, roughness, normal, opacity, emission. Toon shading, glTF extensions such as transmission, and custom node graphs have no place in it and arrive as a plain surface.
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.
Will this open in AR Quick Look?
It is written the way Apple's viewer expects: a .usdz package, Y-up, metres, UsdPreviewSurface materials, textures inside. We check the structure of the file, not a device, so try it on your own phone. The usual failures are very large textures and materials the preview surface cannot express.
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.
PLY to GLB
PLY 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.
USDZ to GLB
USDZ in, GLB out, free: one file.
USDZ to FBX
USDZ in, FBX out, free: one file.
USDZ to OBJ
USDZ in, OBJ out, free: zipped with its files.
GLB to USDZ
GLB in, USDZ out, free: one file.
FBX to USDZ
FBX in, USDZ out, free: one file.
OBJ to USDZ
OBJ in, USDZ out, free: one file.
STL to USDZ
STL 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.
DAE to USDZ
DAE in, USDZ out, free: one file.
USDZ to STL
USDZ in, STL out, free: one file.
USDZ to PLY
USDZ in, PLY out, free: one file.
USDZ to DAE
USDZ in, DAE out, free: zipped with its files.
GLB to PLY
GLB in, PLY 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.
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