Updated: 12/29/2005
Graphics-3d
3d Canvas , 7,490kb
3D Canvas is a freeware real-time 3D modeling and animation tool that incorporates an intuitive drag-and-drop approach to 3D modeling. Complex models can be constructed from simple 3D primitives, or created using 3D Canvas' Object Building Tools. Modeling tools are provided to deform, sculpt, and paint 3D objects. Creating an animated scene is as simple as positioning the objects within your scene for each point in time in your animation. 3D Canvas will ensure that the resulting animation runs smoothly. Your animation can be stepped through a frame at a time, viewed in real-time, or recorded to a Video (AVI) file so that you can distribute your creation. Tool roll-up groups allow you to customize the 3D Canvas interface so that only those items you use most frequently are visible. And if you need access to a less frequently used feature, the tool roll-up is always one click away. 3D Canvas is freeware, no registration is required. Also available are 3D Canvas LP and 3D Canvas Pro which include all of the features of 3D Canvas plus many additional features. Plus texture editor and free textures online. Program contained only about 4 textures. Get more online.

Free version imports: DXF. Exports: POV, Renderman RIB. Free version features: Direct3d realtime rendering, material editor (ambient, specular, diffuse, color mix, transparency), 30 3d primitives, several light types, lathe building object, extrude objects, 3d True Type fonts, object face and point editing, skeletal animation, IK, fog, smooth, flat, and wireframe rendering, scene hierarchy, shadows, object merge, deform, bend objects, trim, soften edges of object. No: CSG, radiosity, atmospheric fx, landscape generator, refraction, focal blur.

System Requirements for 3D Canvas: Microsoft Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000 or XP Pentium Processor or equivalent 64 MB of RAM 8 MB Video card, with a minimum resolution of 800x600 @ 16 bit color. http://www.tmanor.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=119&title=3D%20Canvas%20/%207.49MB Program crashed when I tried to place text into the scene. [Report a dead link]
http://www.amabilis.com/

Alice , 17,000kb
Interactive 3d graphics for the web. [Report a dead link]
http://www.alice.org

Amapi 3D
3d modeller. [Report a dead link]
http://amapi.idevgames.com/

Art of Illusion
Java-based modeller, rendering engine, animator. Runs on any OS that supports Java 1.1. Supports: procedural textures, triangle mesh smoothing. [Report a dead link]
http://www.artofillusion.org/index.html

Blender 2.23 , 1,900kb
FREE modelling, raytracing, animation package for Windows, Unix, BeOS. Free version has no manual. Supports: UV Texturing. Since NAN has declared bankruptcy, they have disabled downloads at their home page. Here are some alt pages for downloading Blender Creator: http://www.download.blender.pl/, http://www.escape.gr/blender/b_download.html, http://www.blender3d.com/BlenderProducts/plugin_download_general.php, http://www.upperfold.com/blender.shtml, www.blender3d.org.

Old site: www.blender.nl [Report a dead link]
www.blender3d.com

Bolt3d Engine
Bolt3D is a real-time 3D engine for Win32 systems. It supports real-time gouraud, phong, texture-mapping, particle systems (for stuff like smoke and bubbles), bilinear-filtering, surface mapping, artificial spotlights, fog effects, 3D object creation (spheres, cones, sweeps, cubes, hardware acceleration, etc. You can interface the code from Visual C++, Delphi and Visual Basic. The engine is free. Also at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/7233/. [Report a dead link]
http://www.thefreecountry.com/latest/out3.php?id=1

Convertors
Many freeware convertors for audio and 3d graphics formats. [Report a dead link]
http://www.file-ext.com/multimedia.html

Cosmos 4d
Make 3d animated scenes, uses Opengl, make 3d objects, materials, save GL scenes, loads 33 image formats, load/save Delphi GLScene VCL library files. Loads several object files like Stanford PLY, Wavefront OBJ, Quake II MDL, RTG, TIN. [Report a dead link]
http://users.hol.gr/~sternas/Cosmos4D/cosmos4d.htm

Crocus
A 3d parametric modeller, needs OpenGL. Reads and writes Wavefront OBJ files and Lparser files. [Report a dead link]
http://www.eclectasy.com/twg/default.html

Eon Studio PE , 15,411kb
Create 3d interactive worlds. This software is focused on making simulations for ecommerce, e-learning, and architecture. You can click on an object to disassemble it, move objects around, turn lights off and on. Simulations can be deployed on internet, or standalone on a CD. Simulations can also be integrated with other applications via Activex. Free tutorials, user guide, reference available.

Supports Direct3D, OpenGL, and 3DS files. Supports light sources, camera, ambient lighting, etc. A scene is made up of components (objects), a simulation tree (objects linked together in a tree), and routes (components linked together with actions). Some components: walk about, weather, rotate, rigid body, switch, sound shadow, shading, sequence, spring, spin.

You can show video on a tv screen model. You can allow user to click on an object to affect it. You will need to send them your email address to get a registration code. [Report a dead link]
http://www.eonreality.com/

Fractal Explorer , 1,004kb
Generates regular and 3d fractal images. [Report a dead link]
http://www.eclectasy.com/Fractal-Explorer/index.html

Fractal Landscapes
Generates random fractal landscapes using parameters the user supplies. [Report a dead link]
http://www2.unil.ch/biomapper/opengl/FractalLandscape_exe. zip

Genesis II
Landscape renderer. [Report a dead link]
http://www.geomantics.com/

Geo3d
Geo3D is an interesting computerized tool for viewing geographical elevation data using topographic maps and 3D drawings. Various elevations are displayed with topographical lines and varying colors. The U.S. government has been gathering high-resolution topography data for years. Only recently has this data become widely available on the Internet for import. Information on Internet locations for this data is included. Several sample maps illustrate the various functions and operation of the program. Tools include zoom in/out, a color editor, and bookmarks. Registration brings additional map files. Also at http://www.topoi.ch/. [Report a dead link]
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/software/utilities/3d/sw63.html

gmax , 21,400kb
Free 3D content creation platform designed to let game enthusiasts create custom art for their favorite titles. It includes many powerful tools including polygon and patch editing, texturing, lighting, and simple keyframe animation. Looks like a professional package. [Report a dead link]
http://www.discreet.com/products/gmax/

L3DT , 3,780kb
Heightfield terrain editor/generator. Looks very good.
* Designable heightfields using a high-level design-map in which you can specify land altitudes, roughness, lakes, climate, etc.
* Supports heightfields and textures up to 32k × 32k pixels in size (1Gpxl) using a RAM / hard-disk caching system.
* A fast and flexible fractal 'inflation' based heightfield generator, including effects such as erosion, terraces and cliffs, volcanos, mountain peaks, etc (all controlled from the design map).
* Automatic and manual water-flooding routines, for making sea and lakes at different water levels.
* A extensible climate-modelling engine, including water-table and salinity modelling. Supports up to 65,000 unique and user-definable land types per map.
* A fast light-mapping module for pre-calculated terrain lighting and shadow-casting (example screenshot).
* A texture generator for high-resolution interpolated texture maps.
* Support for a range of file formats, including common binary terrain formats, image formats, and mesh files.
* Real-time 3d rendering of maps in L3DTVi2, as well as support for Terragen and VTP Enviro. [Report a dead link]
http://users.tpg.com.au/blakest2/l3dt/

Ldraw
Draws lego models. [Report a dead link]
www.ldraw.org

Leocad
A drawing program which uses bricks to assemble toys. Over 1600 different brick parts. Supports POV, animation (you specify start and end points of objects and Leocad interpolates the frames in between), and keyframing (you specify position of each object in each frame in the animation), terrain editor. Saves in: POV, Wavefront, 3d studio, HTML (web page with stepwise assembly instructions), bitmap. [Report a dead link]
http://www.leocad.org/

MLCad
CAD interface for Ldraw library of parts. Requires Ldraw. [Report a dead link]
http://lm-software.com/mlcad/

Moray 3.3
Modeller for POV-Ray. Includes material editor. Very good. [Report a dead link]
http://www.stmuc.com/moray/

Nurbana
Modeller for windows. Features: Extrude, de-extrude, duplicate, size, grab, rotate, subdivision, lofting, blending (2 surfaces). Import and export DXF and 3d nurbs (3dm). [Report a dead link]
http://www.nurbana.cx/

OpenGL
Free GL drivers. These require that your graphics card supports OpenGL, and almost all do since 2002. [Report a dead link]
http://www.opengl.org

PCRock
Generate rocks as DXF files. [Report a dead link]
http://www.laffeycomputer.com/macrock.html

PlantStudio , 1,229kb , Rating: 4
Makes 3d models of vegetation. FREE to try. $19.95 to register. Export to DXF files. Looks very good. Breed plants and various mutations, define where in the growing cycle you would like your picture of the plant, plant wizard for creating brand new plants. [Report a dead link]
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/PlantStudio/gallery.htm

Polymap
Mapping program, free to try. PolyMap is a 32-bit desktop mapping and geographic presentation software package that lets you create thematic and informative maps from its included map files. Use the built-in spreadsheet to enter data or paste it from other Windows applications. The Map Presentation Wizard gives you a step-by-step process to customize your map and the map's legend. Any data in a spreadsheet column may be utilized for labeling. You may use a set of geographic layers in different formats (state and county boundaries, five-digit ZIP codes, U.S. and state highways, cities, rivers, and lakes) to add details and create your new thematic map. [Report a dead link]
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/software/utilities/3d/sw12.html

Polywog
Vertex-based editor for POV-ray pictures. [Report a dead link]
http://www.washedashore.com/projects/wog/polywog.html

ppModeller
A 3d modeller for Windows, BeOS, and Linux. Features: save/load materials, scripting, 3ds export. [Report a dead link]
http://webplaza.pt.lu/saunier/ppmodeler.html

Princeton model search
Search 36000 3d models. Requires Java and Javascript enabled. [Report a dead link]
http://shape.cs.princeton.edu/search.html

Qcad 1.4.7 (Expires)
Free 2d cad system. Since it doesn't make true 3d objects, it is mainly suited for making 2d diagrams and drawings of objects. Saves as DXF files (but I thought it didn't support 3d?!) www.qcad.org. [Report a dead link]
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad.php3

QTPovEditor
SDL (Scene Description Language) Editor for POVray for Linux, Windows, Mac. With: Auto/manual tabulation system, bracket matching, declarations/macro listing, file parsing (to get macro definitions), INI editor, INI profile assistant, scene rendering via INI files. [Report a dead link]
http://qtpoveditor.sourceforge.net/

Quasz
QuaSZ graphs 3D slices of formulas based on 4-D complex number planes. QuaSZ currently supports quaternion, hypercomplex, octonion, alternate quad algebra and cubic Mandelbrot renderings of the Mandelbrot set and Julia sets. The complex math functions supported include sin(z), sinh(z), z^z, e^z, z^n, sqrt(z), cos(z), cosh(z), tan(z), tanh(z), log(z), ln(z), n^z and others. Random image generators and a random formula generator, batch mode and integrated video routines make the program easy for beginners and a powerful complement to advanced fractal artists. [Report a dead link]
http://www.hypercomplex.org/software.htm

Terragen
Landscape creator with lots of options, including small preview. You can adjust atmosphere, haze, fog, sun position and much more. You can subdivide the region palette (snow, rock, grass, beach, water) into many parts. So you can have many colors of snow, rock, etc. Free for personal use. Free version limited in resolution to 1280x960. [Report a dead link]
http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/
[Screenshot]

Tree Magic Shape Maker , 2,200kb
Tree Magic Shape Maker has grown up and can now make tree trunks too! But that's not all. Flowers, glasses, goblets, amphoras, pipes, tubes, logs, caves and other shapes are possible. Creates OBJ files. Also has Tree Magic Stump Maker and Rod and Tube Maker. [Report a dead link]
http://members.aol.com/schafermeyer/index.html

Visual Explorer
GIS Map viewing software. [Report a dead link]
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/software/utilities/3d/sw56.html

Wings 3d
Modeller for Mac, Windows, and Linux. [Report a dead link]
www.wings3d.com

Worldforge
Software to produce 3-d interactive worlds. Not much creation software yet, viewers only. It's supposed to support 3-d games, but they're working on making the tools still. Since 1998. Clients appear to be on Windows and Linux. You will need their special client to see the worlds. Some clients are via Java, others via OpenGL. [Report a dead link]
http://www.worldforge.org/

Worldmachine (BETA)
Create 3d heightfields. [Report a dead link]
http://www.world-machine.com/

Xara 3d
Online program makes basic 3d text with some options. You can even add the java program to your website. See Buttonz n Tilez with does something similar and is FREE. [Report a dead link]
http://www.tmanor.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage& pid=5

X-fonter
View fonts, and create 3d images with fonts. [Report a dead link]
http://users.pandora.be/eclypse/xfonter.html

Zmodeler
Free 3d modeller. Plugins allow you to edit various 3d model formats. Supposed to edit several 3d game model formats, like for Need For Speed 4, Midtown Madness, Formula One 2000, 4x4 Evolution. [Report a dead link]
http://zmodeler.nfscheats.com/