The following are largely my personal collection of references to a range of data formats in use in the computer industry, some are just copies of manuals and documentation, others are my own investigations and associated reports. The largest section is on 3D geometric formats, but there are also notes on image formats, conventions and other miscellaneous data representation topics.
| 3D2 | Stereo CAD-3D object format |
| 3DML | Flatland 3DML language |
| AC3D | AC3D |
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3DS ASE ASC |
3D-Studio File Format 3D Studio Max Ascii Export Format 3D Studio Ascii Format |
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asc | Arc Info Ascii grid |
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ALC | Alchemy III molecule file format |
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AL2 | Alchemy 2000 molecule file format |
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BMF | 3D data format BMF by David Farrell |
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BMF | BMF as used by FleetFeet and Volumental foot scanners |
| CDF | Cyberspace Description Format |
| CGM | Computer Graphics Metafile (ISO/IEC standard for vector graphics) |
| cinema4d | Cinema4d file format from "Maxon Computer" |
| glTF | GL Transmission Format |
| COB | Calgari trueSpace2 File Format |
| DAE | Sony / Khronos Collada |
| cmod | 3D model format for Celestia |
| cube | Gaussian cube file format for volumetric data |
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| dat | ECG files from the Holter recorder |
| dat/hea | ECG files from EDAN SE-2012 Holter recorder |
| DF3 | Povray DF3 density (volumetric) format |
| Direct-X | Microsoft's answer to QuickDraw3D and OpenGL |
| DMO | Duke Nukem 3D or Redneck Rampage |
| DWF | Format used by AutoDesks attempt at an internet format for it's models, used by the WHIP viewer. |
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DXF2000 Release 14 Release 12 Release 10 | DXF, AutoDesk/AutoCAD interchange format in the various format versions that have appeared over the years. |
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Minimal 3D DXF | The minimal requirements to represent 3D geometry in DXF, useful for creating geometry for commercial packages from your own software. |
| EDF and EDF+ | European Data Format |
| EGDR | MOLA Experiment Gridded Data Record |
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| e57 | 3D Imaging Data Exchange, most commonly laser scanners |
| FACT | From ElectricImage |
| FBX | Autodesk FBX |
| FFIVW | File Format for the Interchange of Virtual Worlds |
| fld | AVS Field format. |
| FLT | OpenFlight format by MulitGen Inc |
| GDF | GDF from the WAMIT software |
| GEO | Videoscape geo an early Amiga 3D animation program written by Allen Hastings. |
| Geom | Geom format as used by "Stereo", an OpenGL interactive stereo pair package. |
| GLF | 3D font format for the GLF library |
| GOCAD | GOCAD ASCII data format |
| HDF | Hierarchical Data Format |
| HIV | HyperChem molecular format |
| HPGL | Hewlett Packard Graphics Language for platters |
| hf | Hyperfun: Language for F-rep Geometric Modelling |
| IGES | Initial Graphics Exchange Specification by the National Bureau of Standards |
| ILDA | International Laser Display Association |
| Infini3D | Infini3D internal format |
| Inventor | Inventor ASCII format from SGI |
| IRIT | IRIT interchange format by Gershon Elber |
| ktx | Format for storing textures for OpenGL |
| LAS and LAZ | LASer file format, currently version 1.4 |
| ldt | EULUMDAT File Format |
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LWOB Lightwave 5.x |
LightWave Object File format Importing geometry into Lightwave 5.x |
| MDL | From Cornell University and Indiana University |
| MGF | Materials and Geometry format originally appearing as part of the Radiance package. By Greg Ward, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. |
| MI | Mental Images, as used by Mental Ray, SoftImage, and others |
| MOL2 | Tripos mol2 molecule format |
| MovieBYU | Format from Brigham Young University to represent polygons, originally designed for FORTRAN file IO. |
| MS3D | MilkShape 3D format |
| MSLD | Manchester Scene Description Language |
| mme | Data format for crystals, notably for the Pacor software |
| MTL | Lightwave / OBJ material file |
| NDO | NENDO by Izware |
| nff | For Eric Haines' SPD package |
| nff | Neutral ASCII File Format |
| enff | Extensions to Neutral File Format |
| nrrd | Nearly Raw Raster Data |
| NUAGES | Format for the NUAGES software, a tool for 3D reconstruction from parallel cross-sections |
| OBJ | Wavefront .obj file format specification for the Advanced Visualizer software. |
| OFF | OFF format as used by the Geometry Center |
| OFF | OFF format specification originally developed by WSE. |
| OOGL | As used by GeomView |
| PEDR | MOLA Precision Experiment Data Records from NASA |
| PDB (V2.1) | Protein Data Base (Atomic Coordinate File) |
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| PHD | Polyhedra Database (NetLib) |
| PI | Format for the polyray raytracer by Alexander Enzmann |
| PLG, FIG, WLD | Virtual World formats as used in Gossamer, Rend386, and others. |
| PLY | Polygon File Format also known as the Stanford Triangle Format. |
| Poly | Another Polygon Format from the University of Iowa, Image Analysis Facility |
| PS | Introduction to Postscript |
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POVRAY (v3.6) POVRAY (v3.7) |
Scene format for the Persistence Of Vision RAYtracer (and derivatives). City Generator |
| PTX | Laser scan data format |
| PTS | Laser scan data format |
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PVL | Processed VoLume (and other RAW formats) as used by the Drishti volume rendering software. |
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PVM | Volume files from Stefan Roettger. |
| Macperspective | Translator for this undocumented format. The MacPerspective manual |
| nii | NIfTI-1 Data Format: Neuroimagine Informatics Technology Initiative |
| PowerFlip | Data format (SGI) |
| PRT | PRT raytracer format by Kory Hamzeh |
| PRT | Unigraphics "parts" file format. |
| q3o | Quick3D Object File and Scene file format (.q3s) |
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QuickDraw3D Primitive summary | Apple's Quickdraw 3D meta format |
| radio | Radio format by Anthony D'Agostino |
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RAD V3.1 RAD V2.5 |
Radiance scene description by Greg Ward. Converters (old) |
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RAW | PovRay raw triangle format |
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RAY RAY summary | RayShade scene description format, a solid modelling by Craig Kolb. |
| RIB | Pixar RenderMan scene description (RenderMan Interface Bytestream) |
| Rotater | Macintosh interactive line and point viewer by Craig Kloeden. |
| rsd | Playstation |
| SAT | ACIS 3D format for viewing and transferring solid information |
| SCENE | A proposed format for 3D geometry |
| SCN | SCeNe format designed to replace SFF for the Rtrace ray-tracer. |
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SDML Old SDML | Spatial Data Modelling Language |
| SGS | Stadtplan-Dateien Map File Format |
| SHP | ERSI Shapefile |
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| sjt | SiroVision 3D image format |
| SLC | SLiCe format |
| STL | Industry standard format for stereoLithography. |
| STP | SteinLib format |
| STEP | Standard for Exchange of Product models |
| Super3D | Text export format used by the Macintosh modeller Super3D. |
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| SURF | Export format from 3D-XplorMath |
| Tachyon | Preliminary scene format for Tachyon by John E. Stone |
| FORM TDDD | By Impulse's Turbo Silver for Sense8's WorldToolKit Neutral File Format specification |
| tet | Format for tetrahedra, originating at the Computer Science department of Williams College. |
| TIN | Triangular Irregular Network |
| TM | LONI triangle surface model format to represent surface models. |
| TP | TecPlot file format |
| TRI | Triangle format |
| txm | Xradia X-ray transmission image data |
| U3D | Universal 3D |
| UNREAL | UNREAL File Format |
| USD | Universal Scene Description |
| V | VIVID file format by Stephen Coy |
| VEF | Vertex - Edge - Face format |
| Vision3D | Text format for the Macintosh Vision3D modeller, manual (historic interest only) |
| VLA | Digistar II VLA format |
| vmd | VMD - WinOSi (XOSi, MacOSi) raytacer by Michael Granz. |
| vol | .vol by Mark Dow |
| vol | Paul Bourke volumetric data format |
| vox | Volumetric voxel format |
| VRI | Virtual Reality Interchange Language |
| vwf | Vioso Warp Format. Warp and blend data for multiple projector displays. |
| WLD | Morfit's WorldBuilder format |
| WRM | World Reference Model by Multigen Inc. |
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VRML V1.0 | The Virtual Reality Modelling Language |
| WMF | Windows Metafile Format |
| XYZ | XYZ molecular format |
| YASRT | YASRT - Yet Another Simple Ray Tracer |
Audio formats: AIFF, AU (SUn), WAVE. Descriptions of the minimal requirements necessary to create standard audio data files.
Stereo Pair Image File Format. Format for defining stereo pair attributes proposed by VRex Inc and the interleaved format.
Various EEG file formats and Conventions. Includes continuous (cnt) and average (avg) EEG format from neuroscan, EEG format as used at Westmead Hospital (Sydney), and Pauls ad-hoc ascii format for EEG.
Various character and file standards. The famous ASCII code set. Latin Character set. ANSI Standard (X3.64) Control Sequences. VT100 commands and control sequences. Description of mmencode (rad64) format. MacBinary II format specifications. CSV - Comma Separated Value files.
Beginners guide to bitmaps (Historic interest only). Mostly what one needs to know about how images are stored on computers, including colour depth.