glTF 2.0 describes scene assets, including mesh primitives and nodes that place them. GLB is its binary container form; JSON glTF can instead refer to separate or embedded resources. Packaging does not change the need to interpret node transforms and distinguish geometry from material appearance.
- Geometry
- Mesh primitives referenced by scene nodes; nodes can have nested matrix or translation/rotation/scale transforms.
- Units
- glTF uses metres for linear distances. This workbench normalizes imported geometry to millimetres.
- Resources
- A glTF may refer to external buffers/images. Only self-contained GLB or bounded embedded-data glTF is accepted here.
- Scene features
- The wider format includes materials and animation features; the local mesh subset is intentionally static.
Choose a self-contained file for local processing
When exporting from a modeling application, package the required buffers into GLB or embed them in glTF. Any external URI, even for an unused image, is rejected. The workbench never follows a model-supplied URL or silently skips a missing geometry buffer.
Scene-to-mesh conversion bakes placement
GLB/glTF→STL and →OBJ apply the default scene’s supported node transforms. Output does not preserve the hierarchy, materials or texture images; OBJ groups preserve useful geometry boundaries. STL/OBJ→GLB asks for source coordinate units and packages geometry/normals into metres without inventing appearance.