3D mesh visualization

Load and display 3D meshes from common file formats.

This example demonstrates how to load and visualize 3D meshes using viser’s mesh rendering capabilities. Meshes are fundamental for displaying complex 3D geometry from CAD models, 3D scans, or generated content.

Key features:

• viser.SceneApi.add_mesh_simple() for basic vertex/face arrays

• viser.SceneApi.add_mesh_trimesh() for direct trimesh object integration

• viser.SceneApi.add_grid() for reference grounding

• Mesh transformation using viser’s transform utilities

The example shows two ways to display the same mesh: using raw vertices/faces arrays or directly from a trimesh object. This flexibility allows integration with various 3D processing pipelines and file formats supported by trimesh.

Note

This example requires external assets. To download them, run:

git clone -b v1.0.0 https://github.com/nerfstudio-project/viser.git
cd viser/examples
./assets/download_assets.sh
python 01_scene/02_meshes.py  # With viser installed.

Source: examples/01_scene/02_meshes.py

Code

import time
from pathlib import Path

import numpy as np
import trimesh

import viser
import viser.transforms as tf


def main():
    mesh = trimesh.load_mesh(str(Path(__file__).parent / "../assets/dragon.obj"))
    assert isinstance(mesh, trimesh.Trimesh)
    mesh.apply_scale(0.05)

    vertices = mesh.vertices
    faces = mesh.faces
    print(f"Loaded mesh with {vertices.shape} vertices, {faces.shape} faces")

    server = viser.ViserServer()
    server.scene.add_mesh_simple(
        "/simple",
        vertices=vertices,
        faces=faces,
        wxyz=tf.SO3.from_x_radians(np.pi / 2).wxyz,
        position=(0.0, 0.0, 0.0),
    )
    server.scene.add_mesh_trimesh(
        "/trimesh",
        mesh=mesh,
        wxyz=tf.SO3.from_x_radians(np.pi / 2).wxyz,
        position=(0.0, 5.0, 0.0),
    )
    server.scene.add_grid(
        "/grid",
        width=20.0,
        height=20.0,
        position=np.array([0.0, 0.0, -2.0]),
    )

    while True:
        time.sleep(10.0)


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()