00mesh

PLY

Polygon File Format

PLY was designed for scanned data and carries arbitrary per-vertex properties — most usefully per-vertex colour, which STL and plain OBJ cannot express. Photogrammetry and LiDAR tools output it constantly.

Extension: .ply
MIME type: application/octet-stream

01 Convert PLY to something else

PLY to STL Reads ASCII and binary PLY. Says when it is a point cloud.
PLY to OBJ Text output that Blender, Maya and Cinema 4D all read.

02 Convert something else to PLY

STL to PLY The format MeshLab, CloudCompare and Open3D prefer.
OBJ to PLY Indexed geometry into the research-tool format.

03 Related formats

STL
OBJ
3MF
glTF
GLB

Opening a .ply file

If you landed here because something handed you a .ply file and nothing on your machine will open it, converting it to a format you already have a reader for is usually faster than installing new software. Every conversion above runs in this browser — the file is not uploaded, so it works on a locked-down work machine and on a file you are not allowed to send anywhere.