Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software company that makes software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, product design, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. It bills itself as a “… leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software”.
The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, who was a joint developer of the first versions of AutoCAD, the company’s best known software application. Autodesk is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, it has over 15,000 employees, and is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area.
While Autodesk develops many high quality applications they are proprietary software. And the vast majority of their products are not available for Linux. This series looks at the best free and open source alternatives.
FBX Review is a lightweight, standalone software tool for viewing 3D assets and baked animations quickly and efficiently.
FBX Review is proprietary software and not available for Linux. We recommend the best free and open source alternatives for Linux.
1. F3D
F3D (pronounced `/fɛd/`) is a fast and minimalist 3D viewer desktop application.
F3D also contains the libf3d, a simple library to render meshes, with a C++17 API, Python Bindings, and experimental Java and JavaScript bindings.
2. Mayo
Mayo is a 3D CAD viewer and converter based on Qt and OpenCascade.
Mayo can read/write 3D files from/to STEP, IGES, STL and many other CAD formats. Mayo 3D viewer supports clip planes, exploding of assemblies, measurement of shapes, and show/hide parts.
3. Exhibit
Exhibit software which lets you preview your 3D models.
Based on the F3D library, it supports many file formats, from digital content to scientific datasets including glTF, STL, STEP, PLY, OBJ, FBX, USD, Alembic and many others. You can drag and drop 3d models into the app and export an image of the rendered model. Change many settings like tone mapping, ambient occlusion, anti aliasing, material roughness, metallic, color and opacity to achieve the perfect render. You can use an HDRI image or a custom color as a background.
4. fstl
fstl is a viewer for .stl files. It uses Qt.
It is optimized to quickly load and render very high-polygon models.
The Porsche model below is two million triangles. On a mid-range laptop, this model loads in one second and renders at a smooth 60+ frames per second.
| Alternatives to Autodesk's Products | |
|---|---|
 | 3ds Max is a 3D computer graphics program for making 3D animations, models, games and images. |
 | Arnold is software for rendering three-dimensional, computer-generated scenes using unbiased, physically-based, Monte Carlo path tracing techniques. |
 | AutoCAD is computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software. It's used in industry, by architects, project managers, engineers, graphic designers, city planners and others. |
 | EAGLE is a scriptable electronic design automation (EDA) application with schematic capture, printed circuit board (PCB) layout, auto-router and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) features. |
| FBX Review is a lightweight, standalone software tool for viewing 3D assets and baked animations quickly and efficiently. |
 | Flame is 3D visual effects (VFX), finishing, and color grading software. It includes AI-powered tools and remote solutions. |
 | Fusion is a computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE) and printed circuit board (PCB) design software application. |
 | Maya creates assets for interactive 3D applications (including video games), animated films, TV series, and visual effects. |
 | MotionBuilder is 3D character animation software. The software is designed for virtual cinematography, motion capture, and traditional keyframe animation. Capture, edit, and play back complex animations. |
 | Motion FX is software to create real-time video effects using your computer’s camera. It's also a video editor. |
 | Mudbox is 3D digital painting and sculpting software. Sculpt and paint highly detailed 3D geometry and textures. |
 | ReCap lets you create rich and accurate digital models of existing conditions. Capture high-quality, detailed models of real-world assets. |
 | ShotGrid is project management software used for visual effects and animation project management in television shows and movie production and video game development. |
 | Sketchbook is a raster graphics software app intended for expressive drawing and concept sketching. It's also useful for making animations. |
 | Tinkercad is an online 3D modeling program that runs in a web browser. Tinkercad uses a simplified constructive solid geometry method of constructing models. |