Convert NC to X3D
Free, in your browser, with nothing uploaded. Drop your .nc file in and take the .x3d away.
Drop your NC file here
.nc in, .x3d out
Choose filesNothing is uploaded No account, no email No file size limit
How to convert NC to X3D
- 01
Add your .nc file
Drag your G-code (Numerical Control) file onto the drop zone, or click it to browse. Nothing is uploaded: it is read where it already sits.
- 02
Check the preview
The model is parsed on your machine and drawn in the viewport, so a wrong axis or a missing texture shows up before you commit rather than downstream.
- 03
Save the .x3d file
Press convert. The Extensible 3D file is written in the tab and lands in your downloads folder. No link, no expiry, no account.
What carries over, and what does not
A format conversion is a translation, and translations lose things. Here is what actually happens when an NC file becomes an X3D file.
| Data | NC | X3D | Survives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geometry | No | Yes | n/a |
| Materials & colour | No | Yes | n/a |
| Texture maps | No | Yes | n/a |
| Animation & rigs | No | No | n/a |
| Scene hierarchy | No | Yes | n/a |
This is a comparatively lossless pairing: 0 of the five categories above are supported by both formats, so most of what is in your NC file has somewhere to go in the X3D file.
What our X3D writer puts in the file
Geometry, normals and per-mesh material colour. Texture images are not written, for the same reason as VRML: X3D references them by filename rather than carrying them.
About G-code (Numerical Control)
An .nc file is G-code under the name CNC machining has always used for it, numerical control. The command vocabulary is the same as a 3D printer’s, though the dialect leans on tool changes, spindle speeds and coolant rather than extrusion. Like any G-code, it describes a path a machine will follow, not a shape.
Commonly seen in: Fusion 360, Mastercam, LinuxCNC, GRBL, Haas controllers. More on the NC format page.
About Extensible 3D
X3D is the ISO standard that replaced VRML, and it describes a scene as an XML document: a tree of Transform nodes holding Shape nodes, each pairing an Appearance with a geometry node such as IndexedFaceSet, IndexedTriangleSet or a primitive. It is the archival format for a great deal of scientific, medical and museum 3D work, and because it is XML it is one of the few 3D formats you can usefully read in a text editor.
Commonly seen in: Web3D Consortium tooling, scientific visualisation, museum and heritage archives, BlenderX3D. More on the X3D format page.
How the conversion works
When you drop a file in, the bytes are handed to a parser compiled to run in your browser. The NC data is decoded into an in-memory scene graph of meshes, materials and transforms, which is what the preview is drawing. Pressing convert walks that scene graph back out through a X3D writer and hands you the resulting bytes as a download.
The whole round trip is local. The page itself is static: it is delivered once and then does its work offline. That is why the privacy claim is checkable rather than a promise.
NC to X3D: common questions
Is my NC file uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read by code running inside this browser tab and never crosses the network. You can prove it by disconnecting from the internet before you convert, the page keeps working, or by watching the Network tab in your browser's developer tools while you drop a file in.
How large an NC file can I convert?
There is no server-side limit because there is no server. The practical ceiling is your own machine's memory: a browser tab can usually handle models up to a few hundred megabytes. Very dense scans or scenes with millions of triangles will take a few seconds and a lot of RAM.
Why does my converted X3D file look untextured?
Because this writer leaves them out. X3D references an image by filename rather than storing it inside the file, so the images would have to travel separately and land where the file expects them, which is how a converted model arrives broken. Convert to GLB, FBX or USDZ instead if the textures need to stay with the model.
Does it cost anything?
No. There is no fee, no account, no watermark and no per-file limit. Since the conversion runs on your hardware rather than ours, serving this page costs about as much as serving a blog post.
Does it work on a Mac, on Windows or on a phone?
All of them. There is nothing to install: any browser with WebGL 2 will do, which covers current Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari on desktop, and Safari and Chrome on mobile. A phone has less memory than a laptop, so a very heavy scene may be the one thing it cannot finish.
Related conversions
Other things to do with the same file.
From NC:
Other ways to get to X3D:
Or do something else with it: