3D & splat export
Write geometry or gaussian splats out to standard 3D files.
Meshes export two ways. In the Export panel, choose the 3D type, select the node whose geometry you want, and press Export: the graph cooks once at the current frame and the selected node's geometry is written. Selecting nothing gives you Select a geometry node in the graph, then press Export.
In the graph, an Export node with format set to 3D Mesh writes whatever is wired into it. Splats export only that way, with format set to Splat.
Mesh formats
GLB: binary glTF, carrying geometry, normals and UVs in a single file. The most portable choice for handing a model to another artist or loading it into a game engine, and the one to use when in doubt.
OBJ: the Wavefront format. Widely readable, geometry plus normals and UVs.
USD / USDZ: Pixar's Universal Scene Description, written as ASCII
.usda. USDZ is the single-file package form, which previews instantly on Apple devices and suits AR. The binary.usdcform is not written.PLY: a plain polygon mesh of points and triangles, read by scanning and research tools.
Mesh options
The panel carries Scale:, an Up axis: of Y up or Z up, and Include UVs, Include normals and Include materials (USD). Dropping normals or UVs makes a lighter file.
Those five are panel-only. Export declares none of them and always writes at scale 1, Y up, with UVs, normals and materials on. PLY carries none of them anywhere: its only control is Binary (little-endian).
The mesh formats expect actual geometry. Points, curves and splat clouds are refused with Expected geometry collection, and an empty result with Cannot export empty mesh. No file is written either way.
Gaussian splats
Splats export on their own track, separate from meshes, through Export's splat_format:
PLY: the standard 3DGS interchange format, with the full spherical-harmonic colour data.
Splat: the compact 32-byte-per-splat binary read by web splat viewers. It carries degree-0 colour only.
The splat PLY and the polygon PLY above share an extension and hold different contents, so pick the splat output when the data is splats.
Both splat writers use the axis convention 3DGS files are published in, the same one the splat loaders read back, so a file written here opens the right way up in other viewers and re-imports unchanged. Neither one takes the Scale: or Up axis: options above; those belong to the mesh formats.
For splats that move over time, such as a loaded splat sequence (see Gaussian splats), set render_mode to Batch, give it a start_frame and end_frame, and trigger enabled. The timeline is stepped and one file per frame is written into the output directory as frame_0000 upward, numbered by files written rather than by timeline frame. Frames holding no splats are skipped rather than failing. A still splat in Live mode stays a single file.
Caveats
Plain glTF, a separate .gltf file plus a .bin, is not written. It is filtered out of the panel's format list and Export does not offer it. Use GLB. The node's Browse button also filters to glb, obj, usdz and ply, so typing the path by hand is the only route to a .usda or .splat file.
See also
Exporting: all the ways to get work out of DNA
Geometry (meshes): what counts as a mesh
Points: points and splat clouds
Export: the export node