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3ds Max ASCII Scene Export .ase

3ds Max’s readable ASCII export. Verbose but complete.

What an .ase file holds

ASCII Scene Export is 3ds Max’s plain-text dump of a scene: geometry, materials, UV channels, transforms and animation keys in a nested readable structure. It was the standard way to get data out of Max into a custom game pipeline before FBX took over, so asset and level archives from that era are full of .ase files.

Also seen as .ask.

Commonly seen in: 3ds Max, Source engine tooling, legacy game pipelines.

DataStored in ASE
GeometryYes
Materials and colourYes
Texture mapsYes
Animation and rigsYes
Scene hierarchyYes
Read hereYes
Written hereNo

Tested against a real file

The last sweep loaded ThreeCubesGreen.ASE from Assimp test models with its 2 sidecar files through the viewer on this site: 36 triangles across 3 meshes and 3 materials, in 2.0 seconds. Every format's result is on the test results page, run 2026-09-08.

Convert ASE to another format

Every pairing has a page saying what survives the trip.

ASE to OBJASE to FBXASE to glTFASE to GLBASE to STLASE to PLYASE to DAEASE to 3DSASE to 3MFASE to AMFASE to VRMLASE to USDZASE to PCDASE to XYZASE to USDAASE to OFFASE to DXFASE to RAWASE to X3D

Other things to do with an .ase file

Inspect it in the viewerCompress itRender it to an imageConvert it

Questions about ASE

How do I open an .ase file?

Drop it into the viewer on this site and it opens in the browser, with the scene tree, the materials and the mesh statistics. Nothing is uploaded. If you want it in another program instead, convert it to GLB, which almost everything reads.

Is ASE a good format to archive in?

ASE carries geometry, materials, textures and animation, so an archive copy keeps nearly everything. The usual caveat applies: a format is only as future-proof as the readers that exist for it, and .ase is well served.

Does converting ASE lose quality?

Geometry is copied vertex for vertex, so the shape does not degrade. What gets lost is whatever the target format has no field for: convert to STL and the materials go, convert to OBJ and the animation goes. The comparison table on each converter page says exactly which.

Formats that hold the same things

FBXglTFGLBDAEUSDZUSDUSDAUSDC

Or go back to the full format reference.