About the model-viewer category

directory · May 12, 2025, 11:52am

model-viewer: > ## � Status: Experimental

<model-viewer> is currently in the Experimentation phase. Someone on the team thinks it’s an idea worth exploring, but it may not go any further than this. Use at your own risk.

`<model-viewer>`

<model-viewer> is a web component that makes rendering interactive 3D
models - optionally in AR - easy to do, on as many browsers and devices as possible.
<model-viewer> strives to give you great defaults for rendering quality and
performance.

As new standards and APIs become available <model-viewer> will be improved
to take advantage of them. If possible, fallbacks and polyfills will be
supported to provide a seamless development experience.

Demo • Documentation • Kanban • Quality Tests

sample-render

Installing

You can load a bundled build via
unpkg.com by including the snippet below. This will automatically load the correct version for the user’s browser.

<!-- � Include both scripts below to support all browsers! -->

<!-- Loads <model-viewer> for modern browsers: -->
<script type="module"
    src="https://unpkg.com/@google/model-viewer/dist/model-viewer.js">
</script>

<!-- Loads <model-viewer> for old browsers like IE11: -->
<script nomodule
    src="https://unpkg.com/@google/model-viewer/dist/model-viewer-legacy.js">
</script>

Alternatively, you can install the npm package:

npm install ---save @google/model-viewer

Important note on bundling

Bundled builds are useful for demos or for kicking the tires. However,
the bundled build includes some third party dependencies. Some of these
dependencies (like three) are quite large. For
production use cases we recommend that you use the npm package and your
own bundler (such as Rollup or
Webpack) to eliminate potential duplicate
dependencies.

Usage

If you are using a bundled build, first add a script tag to your page to load
<model-viewer> as described in the Installing section.

Alternatively, if you are using the npm package and a bundler (see
“Important note on bundling” above), you can import the module:

import '@google/model-viewer';

After the library has been loaded, a new custom element will be defined. You can
use it anywhere you would write HTML. For example, using the bundled build in
an HTML document might look like this:

<!doctype html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>3D Test</title>
    <script src="path/to/bundled/model-viewer.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <model-viewer src="path/to/model.gltf"></model-viewer>
  </body>
</html>

Alternatively, using the npm package in a JavaScript module might look like
this:

import '@google/model-viewer';

const model = document.createElement('model-viewer');
model.src = 'path/to/model.gltf';

document.body.appendChild(model);

You can think of <model-viewer> sort of like an <img> or <video> tag, but for
3D content. Just set its src attribute to the URL of a valid glTF (or
GLB) file and voila!

Browser Support

<model-viewer> is supported on the last 2 major versions of all evergreen
desktop and mobile browsers. <model-viewer> is also supported on IE11.

	Chrome	Firefox	Safari	Edge	IE11
Desktop
Mobile					N/A

<model-viewer> builds upon standard web platform APIs so that the performance,
capabilities and compatibility of the library get better as the web evolves.

However, not all browsers support all of these features today. Check out
POLYFILLS.md to
learn how to polyfill for maximum browser compatibility!

API

For full details regarding the attributes, properties, events and more supported
by <model-viewer>, please refer to our
online documentation.

Styling

Currently no custom CSS variables are supported, but the model viewer’s containing box
can be sized via traditional width and height properties, and positioned with
the typical properties (display, position, etc.).

Format Support

A <model-viewer>'s attributes allows developers to specify multiple file types to
work across different platforms. For WebGL and WebXR purposes, both
glTF and GLB are supported out of the box. Additionally,
developers can specify a USDZ file (using the ios-src attribute) that
will be used to launch Quick Look on iOS Safari as an interim solution until
Safari has support for something like the WebXR Device and Hit Test APIs.

Loading Performance

Models are often large, so especially on pages with large numbers of them it
may be desirable to load them after user action. Three parameters -
poster, preload, and reveal-when-loaded - control the loading
behavior.

Four configuration options are available:

By default, the model will load with the page and will be displayed once
it’s loaded.
With a poster specified, the model will not load or display until the
user takes action (for instance, by clicking on the model element).
With both poster and preload set, the model will load with the page, but
the poster image will be displayed until the user takes action.
With all of poster, preload, and reveal-when-loaded set, the poster
will be displayed until the model is loaded, at which time the poster will
be hidden and the model displayed.

See the loading examples

Important note on data usage

iOS Quick Look only supports model files that use the USDZ format. This
means that iOS users who see a live-rendered model in the browser (loaded as
glTF/GLB) will have to download the same model
a second time in USDZ format when they launch Quick Look.

Augmented Reality

There are currently multiple options for viewing content in augmented reality.
Different platforms enable slightly different experiences, but generally finds
a real-world surface and allows the user to place the model, to be viewed through
a camera.

The attributes ios-src, magic-leap and unstable-webxr enable AR features
on certain platforms – read the API attributes for each to
understand the support and caveats.

When in augmented reality, all current platforms assume that the models unit size
be in meters, such that a 1.5 unit tall model will be 1.5 meters when in AR.

See the augmented reality examples.

Development

After you have cloned the repository locally, you should run:

npm install

This will install dependencies, run a build and run the tests. Build artifacts
are placed in the lib and dist folders.

The following npm scripts are available:

npm run clean - Deletes all build artifacts
npm run build - Builds the distributable from the src/ directory.
npm run watch - Watches the src/ directory, rebuilding when a file changes.
npm run serve - Serves a static server on port 8000 from the project root.
npm run dev - Combination of npm run watch and npm run serve – watches the src/ directory, rebuilding when a file changes and opens a static server on port 8000.
npm test - Runs tests.
npm run check-fidelity - Compare rendering to third-party renderers
npm run bootstrap-fidelity-dev - Bootstrap the project for developing
fidelity testing infrastructure or updating screenshots. NOTE: This will
download hundreds of megabytes of data and spend a significant amount of
time compiling renderers the first time you run it.
npm run update-screenshots - Take screenshots of fidelity tests using third-party renderers

Examples

This repo contains examples to demonstrate how <model-viewer> may be used. Before running them do the following:

cd path/to/cloned/repo
npm install
npm run build

To run the examples:

npm run serve