Valve Studiomdl Data .smd
Valve’s plain-text bridge into Source. Bones and weights.
What an .smd file holds
SMD is the intermediate format Valve’s studiomdl compiler consumes: a plain-text bone hierarchy, per-frame bone transforms, and triangles with per-vertex skin weights. It is not a shipping format; it is what you export before compiling to a Source .mdl, which makes it the format every Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike mod passes through. The .vta variant carries vertex animation for facial flexes.
Also seen as .vta.
Commonly seen in: Source engine, Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Blender Source Tools.
| Data | Stored in SMD |
|---|---|
| Geometry | Yes |
| Materials and colour | Yes |
| Texture maps | Yes |
| Animation and rigs | Yes |
| Scene hierarchy | Yes |
| Read here | Yes |
| Written here | No |
Tested against a real file
The last sweep loaded holy_grailref.smd from Assimp test models with its 1 sidecar files through the viewer on this site: 896 triangles across 1 meshes and 1 materials, in 2.3 seconds. Every format's result is on the test results page, run 2026-09-08.
Convert SMD to another format
Every pairing has a page saying what survives the trip.
Other things to do with an .smd file
Questions about SMD
How do I open an .smd 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 SMD a good format to archive in?
SMD 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 .smd is well served.
Does converting SMD 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
Or go back to the full format reference.