Open dental STL and PLY files online — free viewer

Upper arch

STL · PLY

Choose file

Lower arch

STL · PLY

Choose file

Check the arch assignment before opening the viewer. Original scan positions are preserved. Scans are not automatically aligned.

Explore a dental example

Two arches with teeth and gums to try paired viewing and measurements.

A real intraoral scan, in color. It is only for trying the viewer.

Files are processed in your browser. They are not uploaded to a server.

What this tool does

Opens STL and PLY from iTero, TRIOS, Medit, 3Shape, Carestream and any standard intraoral scanner.

Nothing to install and no licence to pay: it runs in the browser and the scan is never uploaded.

Pair mode: upper and lower arch in occlusion, keeping the scanner's original coordinates.

Measurements in real millimetres with an orthographic camera, clinical material presets and on-model annotations.

How it works

Drop the file

The STL or PLY from your scanner or your lab. Drop both arches together to see them in occlusion.

Look at it from wherever you need

Orbit, zoom and switch material — Realistic, Plaster or Glossy — to read the occlusal surface or the margins of a preparation clearly.

Measure, annotate and share your screen

Distances and angles in real millimetres, plus notes anchored to points on the model to explain something to the lab or show it to the patient chairside.

Frequently asked questions

How do I open a dental STL file without installing software?

By dragging the file onto this page. The ilove3d dental viewer runs entirely in your browser using WebGL: the file opens as a local blob and is drawn on your own graphics card, with no install, no account and no cost. It works in Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox, and on a tablet too, which is the usual case when you want to show a scan to the patient in the chair. It takes STL and PLY, which is what intraoral scanners and labs export. The first load can take a few seconds while the browser fetches the 3D engine; after that everything is local and the model appears instantly. If the file is larger than roughly 200 MB it pays to reduce it first, because the ceiling here is your machine's memory rather than a server's.

My lab sent me a scan — what do I open it with?

If the file ends in .stl or .ply, the ilove3d dental viewer is enough. This is the most common situation in a practice: the lab or a colleague sends the scanner file and on the receiving end there is no CAD software installed, no licence, and no appetite for installing several gigabytes just to look at a model. You don't need exocad, Meshmixer, Blender or 3Shape to open it, rotate it and measure it. Drag the file onto the page and it appears. If both arches arrived as separate files you can load them together and check the occlusion in pair mode. What the viewer does not do is design: it doesn't trim, sculpt or generate restorations, and for that you do need CAD. For reviewing what you were sent, judging whether the scan is good and taking a measurement, it is plenty.

Is it safe for patient data?

Yes, and for a structural reason rather than a promise: the scan never leaves your machine. The ilove3d dental viewer opens the file as a local blob and processes it in the browser, so there is no upload, no intermediate server and no remote copy for anyone to delete later. Open your browser's network panel while loading a model and you won't see a single outgoing request carrying your file. That matters because an intraoral scan is patient health data: uploading it to a free online converter is a compliance problem even if the site promises to erase it within 24 hours. There is also no sign-up and no account, so nothing ends up tied to you. And because all processing is local, you can keep using the viewer offline once the page has loaded.

What's the difference between STL and PLY in dentistry?

STL stores only the triangle mesh with no colour information at all, so the model shows up in a single flat tone. It is what almost every scanner exports when the destination is the lab, because colour adds nothing to milling or printing. PLY can additionally store per-vertex colour, so it shows the scan's real texture: gingiva in its own shade, the tooth in another, staining and the finish line. For showing something to a patient, or for checking where a margin ends, that difference is substantial. The ilove3d dental viewer opens both and honours the colour when it is there. If your scanner offers both outputs, keep the PLY for reviewing and send the STL to the lab: they differ in size and they serve different purposes. Both open at the same speed in the viewer; PLY files are simply larger, because they carry a colour value for every vertex in the mesh.

Can I measure on the scan?

Yes: distances and angles, in real millimetres rather than relative units. The camera in the ilove3d dental viewer is orthographic, the standard in clinical software, and that choice has a concrete consequence: without perspective, two objects of the same size look the same size whether they are near the camera or far from it, so a measurement taken at the edge of the model is worth exactly as much as one taken at the centre. With a perspective camera — what almost every generic viewer uses — that does not hold and peripheral measurements distort. Points snap to the nearest mesh vertex rather than to a floating spot in the air, so two measurements over the same place return the same number. It works for crown height, margin thickness or distance between teeth. Measurements are read straight off the file's own coordinates, without any normalisation in between, so the number you get is the one the scanner recorded.

How do I see the bite with both arches?

Load both files together and switch on pair mode. Intraoral scanners export the maxilla and the mandible in the same coordinate system, which means the relative position between them is already recorded in the files: if each mesh were centred on its own, that relationship would be lost and the occlusion you saw would be fabricated. That is why the ilove3d dental viewer centres and scales the GROUP and never each arch separately, so the bite on screen is the one the scanner registered. You can hide one of the two to inspect the other and bring it back without anything shifting. If the arches appear intersecting or floating apart, the problem is in the scan registration rather than in the viewer, and it is worth re-taking it before sending anything to the lab.

Question of the month

Which printer do you use?