Viewers

Swyvl opens every supported file in a browser-based viewer. The right viewer is picked automatically when your file uploads — no setup, no plugins, no app install. Every 3D and map viewer also carries measurement tools; see Measuring.

What opens as what

Your file	What you see
Point clouds — LAS, LAZ, E57, PLY, PTX, PTS, XYZ	3D point cloud viewer with orbit, pan, zoom, and color by height, intensity or classification
3D models — OBJ, FBX, GLB, GLTF, STEP, IGES	3D model viewer with orbit and zoom
BIM — IFC	BIM viewer with Orbit, Walk and Plan navigation
CAD — DXF, DWG	2D CAD viewer with layer support
Geospatial vector — GeoJSON, SHP, GPX, GeoPackage	Interactive 2D map
Geospatial 3D — KMZ, KML, CZML, 3D Tiles ZIP	3D globe
Orthomosaic — GeoTIFF	Slippy map with the orthomosaic overlaid
360° images and video — equirectangular JPG/PNG/MP4/MOV	Spherical 360° viewer with click-and-drag
Drone video + GPS — MP4 + SRT/GPX	Split-screen: video on one side, live GPS map on the other
Images — JPG, PNG, WebP	Image viewer with pan and zoom
Video — MP4, MOV, AVI, WebM	HTML5 video player
PDF	Multi-page PDF viewer
Gaussian splats — SPLAT, KSPLAT, SPZ, SPLZ, splat-PLY	Spark splat viewer with Orbit and Walk navigation
XGRIDS LCC2 scenes (ZIP with a `.lcc2` manifest)	Interactive 3D scene viewer with Orbit and Walk modes
Large point datasets — CSV, large GeoJSON	Performance-optimized 2D map

If Swyvl picks the wrong viewer for a file, you can change it in the file detail panel — open the file, choose a different viewer from the Viewer dropdown.

Collection filmstrip

A collection can show a filmstrip along the bottom of the viewer with thumbnails of the other files in the same collection, in the hub and in share links. Click any thumbnail to switch to that file without returning to the Files tab, and use the arrow keys to move between them. The filmstrip shows by default on photos and 360° photos, and is hidden on every other file type. To change it for a collection, use the viewer’s View menu (File setup → Thumbnail gallery); the choice then applies to every file in that collection.

Point clouds

File types: LAS, LAZ, E57, PLY, PTX, PTS, XYZ

Renders large point clouds in the browser — billions of points are supported. Detail streams in as you orbit and zoom.

Viewer controls (everyone): the rail in the top-left corner has Reset view, Orbit and Walk; in Walk it also shows Speed (1× is walking pace; WASD to move, E / Q up and down, hold Shift to move faster). The View menu in the top-right corner sets what the cloud is colored by, the point size, the quality, the backdrop and eye-dome lighting. These are per-session; the file owner’s saved look is what each visit starts from. Navigation hints pop out beside the rail when the viewer opens and when you change mode, then tuck into the rail’s help button. The measurement tools sit in the pill along the bottom, the same as in the other 3D viewers.

Controls:

Left drag — orbit
Right drag / middle drag — pan
Scroll — zoom
Double-click — set orbit center

Tips:

If the point cloud appears as a small dot when first opened, zoom in with scroll — Potree starts with the full bounding box visible
Adjust point size in the sidebar if points appear too dense or too sparse

E57 scans with 360° photos

Many scanners save a 360° photo at each scan position inside the E57. Swyvl pulls these out automatically when the E57 is uploaded. The E57 stays one file in your file list, with a 360° × N badge showing how many photos it holds. Only the E57 you uploaded counts toward your storage.

Scan positions show as discs in the point cloud. Click one to open that 360° photo.
Side by side: a 360° photo from an E57 opens next to its point cloud. Switch between Split, 360° (the photo full size, the cloud in a corner card) and Cloud (the other way round), and swap sides in Split.
Sync view links the two views both ways: turn the photo and the cloud turns with it, and the reverse. Moving through the cloud opens the nearest 360° photo. Switching the cloud to Walk turns Sync view on; Orbit turns it off.
Click to walk: in Walk mode, a ring follows your cursor across the floor, and a smaller ring marks the 360° photo you’ll land at. Click to go there. The same ring works inside the 360° photo: move over the ground and click to hop to the photo it marks, still facing the same way. Dragging only turns the view, and there’s no ring above the horizon. On a phone, tap the ground.
360° photo locations: editors can hide the teal circles marking each photo in the point cloud from the View menu (360° photo locations). The photo you’re in still shows, and walking still moves between photos.
Start view: in any layout, View → Set this view as the start view saves how the E57 opens: at that photo, in that layout and facing that way, or from Cloud as a point cloud at that camera. Pressing Back from the photo goes to the plain point cloud. On a share link it opens at that photo only if the photo is on the link; otherwise it opens at the point cloud camera.
Sketches capture the layout you’re in, and reopen in it at the same photo.
Notes and measurements live on the point cloud and show in the 360° photos too, including lines and areas. Clicking in a 360° photo to add a note or measure places the point on the 3D point the photo shows, so you can measure from the photo, where the detail is easiest to see.
Sketches capture the layout you’re in, the cloud, the photo or both, so you can draw on what the photo shows.
On the map: if the E57 has a coordinate system, its 360° photos are placed on the map as a tour. Without one, the side by side view still works from the scan positions in the file.
An E57 that holds 360° photos but no readable scan points opens as its 360° photos.
Leica and Matterport E57s: Leica Cyclone REGISTER 360, Leica Cyclone FIELD 360 and Matterport store each 360° photo as six square faces. Swyvl stitches these into one 360° photo per scan position.

This works the same in share links.

3D models

File types: OBJ, FBX, GLB, GLTF (STEP and IGES are converted to GLB on upload)

Full orbit, pan, and zoom controls. Textures, materials, and lighting are applied automatically from the file.

Controls:

Left drag: orbit
Right drag: pan
Scroll: zoom

The model turns slowly when it opens, and stops as soon as anyone drags, scrolls or touches it. To turn the spin off for everyone, open View → File setup and switch off Spin the model. Saving a start view also turns it off unless you switch it back on.

Start view: Navigate to your preferred camera position then choose View → Set this view as the start view to save it and update the thumbnail.

Stand upright: drone and photogrammetry exports (DJI Terra, WebODM, ContextCapture and similar) often store height on a different axis, so a site loads lying on its side and tumbles when you drag it. Swyvl stands clear cases upright when the model is converted. For anything else, open View → File setup and switch on Stand upright. It changes only how the model is shown, applies to everyone including share links, and can be switched off again. If you saved a start view before changing it, save it again.

The model opens framed to fit, however large it is. A site several kilometres across opens whole, and you scroll to zoom in.

The 3D model viewer orbits only: it has no Walk mode and no measuring tools. To walk through and measure a building, upload the IFC (BIM viewer, below) or the point cloud.

Tips:

GLB is preferred for delivery — it embeds textures in a single file and is the most efficient format for the browser
An OBJ with its .mtl and texture images, or a model exported as several tiles, goes up as one ZIP. See Textured model packages
glTF packages with separate texture files can be uploaded as a ZIP — Swyvl extracts and serves all referenced textures
For a large photogrammetry site, 3D Tiles look better than a single model: they stream in detail as you zoom and nothing is simplified. See Geospatial 3D

BIM models

File types: IFC

Renders Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) BIM models in the browser. Compatible with exports from Revit, ArchiCAD, Tekla, and other BIM software.

Three navigation modes sit along the bottom of the viewer, with a line above them showing the controls for the current mode:

Orbit: left drag to rotate, right drag to pan, scroll to zoom.
Walk: drag to look around, WASD or the arrow keys to move, E and Q to go up and down, Shift to run, scroll to step forward or back. Walking pace is the same as in the point cloud viewer.
Plan: a straight-down view. Drag to pan, right drag to turn the plan, scroll to zoom.

Reset goes back to Orbit and frames the whole model (or the saved start view).

The BIM viewer has no measuring tools yet. For measurements, use the point cloud of the same site.

Start view: Navigate to your preferred perspective then choose View → Set this view as the start view.

CAD drawings

File types: DXF, DWG

Renders 2D CAD drawings — lines, arcs, polylines, circles, and splines from as-built surveys, site setout plans, and site drawings. Layers are preserved. Pan and zoom controls.

Controls:

Left drag — pan
Scroll — zoom

Tips:

DWG is read on our servers and drawn as vector in the browser, so it opens like a DXF. Very large or very detailed DWGs may not get a prepared view; export a DXF if one doesn’t open.
Most CAD applications (AutoCAD, MicroStation, BricsCAD) can export to DXF

Geospatial vector

File types: GeoJSON, SHP (Shapefile), GPX, GeoPackage

Displays 2D vector data on an interactive base map. Polygons, lines, and points are all rendered. The map auto-fits to your data.

Controls:

Drag — pan
Scroll — zoom
Double-click — zoom in

Notes:

SHP: Upload shapefiles as a ZIP containing all component files (.shp, .dbf, .prj, .shx). Swyvl extracts the ZIP automatically. Any coordinate system works as long as the .prj is in the ZIP: projected shapefiles (UTM, MGA, state plane) are converted to WGS84 for the map. Without a .prj the coordinates must already be WGS84 (EPSG:4326). One shapefile is shown per ZIP; if a ZIP holds several layers, upload each as its own ZIP.
GPX: Track logs from GPS devices and drone flights. Shows the track as a line with waypoints as points.

Geospatial 3D

File types: KMZ, KML, CZML, 3D Tiles (ZIP)

Renders data on a 3D globe with satellite imagery and real-world terrain elevation. Imagery and terrain are provided by Swyvl — no API keys or third-party accounts needed.

Controls:

Left drag — move across the globe
Scroll / right drag — zoom
Ctrl + left drag, or middle drag — tilt and turn the view
Double-click — fly to location

3D Tiles: Upload your 3D Tiles as a ZIP file. Swyvl extracts and loads it on the 3D globe automatically. Photogrammetry meshes, instanced models, point clouds, and composite tilesets are all supported, in both 3D Tiles 1.0 (.b3dm tiles) and 3D Tiles 1.1 (.glb tiles, including implicit tiling). Gaussian Splats packaged as 3D Tiles render natively with terrain context.

For photogrammetry of a large site this is the best-looking option: detail streams in as you zoom, nothing is simplified, and the model sits at its real location. DJI Terra, RealityScan, Metashape Professional and Pix4D all export 3D Tiles.

Detail: View → Detail sets how much of the tileset streams in: Low, Medium, High or Max. Files open at High on computers, which loads the finest tiles the export contains and draws at your screen’s full resolution, and at Medium on phones and tablets, which is lighter on memory. Choose Max to inspect up close, such as cracks in a wall: every tile loads at its finest, which uses the most memory. Switch to Low or Medium if a large model is slow on your computer.

Terrain: View → Terrain switches the globe’s ground between On (real hills and valleys) and Flat. Use Flat for a model at the coast or one that dips below the ground, where the globe’s land or sea surface can cover parts of the model; the hills around the model go flat too. To have a file always open with your Detail and Terrain choices, for you and on share links, set them and choose Save in the View menu.

Start view: Fly to the camera angle you want, then choose View → Set this view as the start view to save it and capture a thumbnail.

Source photos (inspection view)

A 3D Tiles model or orthomosaic uploaded with the photos it was built from shows a dot on the model for every photo, where it was taken. Click a dot to open the original photo beside the model; zoom in for full detail, which is sharper than any model texture. Close the photo to give the model the full width again.

The camera chip filters the photos: Straight down, Angled, the direction each camera pointed, and Hide camera positions. With a photo open, the chip sits in the photo panel’s header. Notes and measurements made on a photo are placed on the model.

To set this up, upload the model with its photos and camera positions (see Uploading files). Whoever edits the file can switch camera positions off for everyone in View → File setup.

Orthomosaics

File types: GeoTIFF (.tif, .tiff)

Displays georeferenced rasters as a layer on an interactive 2D map. Large orthomosaics stream tile-by-tile. The original file is always preserved for download.

Controls:

Drag — pan
Scroll / +/− buttons — zoom
Double-click — zoom in

TIFFs with no map position: a TIFF exported without a coordinate system (no CRS and no geotransform) opens as a flat image: you can zoom and pan with full detail, but there is no basemap, no position and no measuring, and it can’t be used as a site base map. To place it on the map, export it again from your GIS or photogrammetry software as a GeoTIFF with its coordinate system included, and upload that. (Separate .tfw / .prj sidecar files are not yet paired with the image.)

Drone video with GPS

File types: MP4 + SRT sidecar, MP4 + GPX sidecar

Displays drone video alongside a live GPS map showing the drone’s flight path.

Layout:

Left panel: Video playback with standard controls
Right panel: Interactive map with the full flight path drawn as a line and a marker that moves with the video

How it works:

Upload a DJI .mp4 video alongside its .srt GPS subtitle file (or a .gpx track) in the same batch
Swyvl detects the sidecar, extracts the GPS track, and opens the multi-panel viewer
As the video plays, the map marker follows the drone’s position in real time

Scrub from the map: Click anywhere on the flight path and the video jumps to the moment the drone was at that point. Useful for finding a spot you can see on the map but can’t find on the timeline.

360° viewer

File types: Equirectangular JPG, PNG (images), MP4, MOV (video)

Renders 360° panoramic images and video in an interactive spherical view. Click and drag to look around. Scroll to zoom.

Swyvl automatically assigns the 360° viewer to equirectangular files from cameras such as the Ricoh Theta, Insta360 and XGRIDS, and from any file tagged with 360° (spherical) metadata.

Controls:

Click and drag — look around
Scroll — zoom in/out
Double-click — reset view

Downloading 360° video: The 4K and 1080p versions available for download keep their 360° (spherical) metadata, so they open as 360° in external players such as VLC or YouTube instead of a flat, stretched image.

GPS map overlay: If the 360° photo is geolocated, a map is shown alongside it — toggle between a floating minimap and a split view from the toolbar. The map has a Map / Satellite basemap toggle and can be zoomed and panned. If the site has custom base maps (e.g. a drone orthomosaic), they appear beneath the markers here too — as on all map and minimap views.

360° video with a GPS track: When a 360° video has a track alongside it, the map marker shows a cone pointing the way you’re currently facing, so it’s clear which direction you were looking, not just where the camera was. Clicking the track scrubs the video to that point, and switching between minimap and split view keeps playback running rather than restarting it.

Connected collection tour: When a collection contains two or more geolocated 360° photos, the map shows all of them as points. Click any point to jump straight to that 360°.

Display options (collection owner): Open the View menu in the viewer toolbar and use File setup to control how a 360° collection presents. The choice applies in both the hub and your share links:

Thumbnail gallery: show a strip of the collection’s files along the bottom
Cluster nearby photos: group close-together stops on the map, or show every marker individually
Map path line (Path line on an E57): connect the stops with a line, or leave them as plain points
360° photo locations (E57 only): show or hide the teal circles marking each photo in the point cloud
Navigation arrows: show on-the-ground arrows for walking between stops, or navigate via the map only
Camera facing: choose how each stop opens: facing the direction of travel along the route, or a fixed compass direction (in degrees). An optional offset nudges every stop by the same amount, handy for correcting a camera mounted off-axis or backwards

Hiding individual connections: The path line joins your stops in capture order, so a long gap between two groups of photos can leave a stray line stretched across the map. To remove one, open a 360° photo, show the tour map, and click the connecting line you want to hide. It disappears for everyone you share the tour with, and the matching navigation arrow inside the 360° view goes with it. Hidden connections stay visible to you as faint “ghost” lines, so you can click one to bring it back at any time. Clients only ever see the tidy result. Switch the map to split or full view and zoom in to make the exact line easier to click.

Large point datasets

File types: CSV (with coordinate columns), large GeoJSON

Renders thousands of points on a 2D map. Optimized for performance on large feature collections.

Gaussian splat viewer

File types: SPLAT, KSPLAT, SPLZ, SPZ (v1 and v2), PLY (Gaussian splat). All Gaussian splat file types now open in the Spark splat viewer below by default; this viewer remains available as a manual alternative you can switch to per file, via the Viewer dropdown, if a particular splat renders better here.

Renders 3D Gaussian Splat captures — photorealistic real-time 3D scenes created through photogrammetry. Full orbit, pan, and zoom controls.

Large splats load progressively — a coarse version of the scene appears within moments and sharpens as the rest streams in, with a small “Loading…” indicator shown until it has fully loaded.

Viewer controls (everyone): the same layout as the Spark viewer below: the top-left rail has Reset view, Orbit and Walk (with Speed in Walk), the top-right View menu sets the field of view, and the measurement tools sit in the pill along the bottom (marked Indicative, as for every splat). Backdrop and brightness are Spark-only. Picks need the whole file loaded, so the measurement tools wait until the “Loading…” indicator has gone.

Left drag — orbit
Right drag — pan
Scroll — zoom

Start view: Navigate to the angle you want, then choose View → Set this view as the start view. This saves the camera position and generates a new thumbnail from the current view. The next time the file is opened, by you or a client on a share link, it starts from that exact position.

Flip: If a splat renders upside down, click Flip in the toolbar to turn it the right way up. The corrected orientation is saved and applied for everyone who opens it. Available on every plan, and you can click it again to revert.

Spark splat viewer

File types: SPLAT, KSPLAT, SPZ (all versions, including v3), SPLZ, PLY (Gaussian splat)

A high-performance Gaussian splat viewer (SparkJS) with level-of-detail rendering for smooth frame rates on large scenes. Every Gaussian splat file type opens here by default. SparkJS decodes SPZ v1, v2, and v3, whereas the standard viewer only handles v1/v2. (It downloads the full file before displaying; progressive streaming for SPZ is planned.)

The viewer opens with the scene framed automatically, so you land looking at the capture instead of far away from it.

Viewer controls (everyone): the rail in the top-left corner has Reset view, Orbit and Walk; in Walk it also shows Speed (1× is walking pace, and the slower settings suit inspecting detail up close). The View menu in the top-right corner sets the backdrop, brightness and field of view for your own session; the file owner’s saved look is what each visit starts from. Navigation hints pop out beside the rail when the viewer opens and when you change mode, then tuck into the rail’s help button. All of this is visible to everyone, including clients on a share link.

Orbit (default) — drag to orbit the scene, scroll to zoom, right-drag to pan, double-click to focus on a point
Walk — drag to look around, WASD to move, E / Q to move up and down, hold Shift to move faster, and double-click or tap to glide toward a point

Measurements: the measurement tools sit in the pill along the bottom, the same as in the other 3D viewers. Splats carry no verified scale, so every measurement here is marked Indicative: the numbers assume the file is in meters, and each pick lands on the nearest splat rather than a true surface. Good for a rough sense of size, not for anything that needs to be right.

Start view: Navigate to the angle you want then choose View → Set this view as the start view. This saves the camera position, the mode it opens in, and a fresh thumbnail. The next time the file is opened, by you or a client on a share link, it starts from that exact view. The Flip button works here too if the splat is upside down.

Display settings (file owner): In the viewer’s View menu, the File setup options let you bake how the scene looks. Your choices apply in both the hub and every share link for this file, and clients receive the result without seeing the controls:

Backdrop — the color behind the scene (Dark, Charcoal, Light, or White)
Brightness — brighten or darken the whole capture
Field of view — Standard for truer geometry, or Wide for roomier interiors

To switch a splat to the standard Gaussian splat viewer above, use the Viewer selector in the file detail panel.

Supported splat file types:

.splat — raw Gaussian splat format
.ksplat — compressed Gaussian splat (KSplat format)
.spz — Niantic SPZ compressed format (v1/v2/v3 supported)
.splz — compressed splat ZIP format
.ply — PLY files containing Gaussian splat data (auto-detected from file header)

XGRIDS LCC2 scene viewer

File types: LCC2 scene package (ZIP containing a .lcc2 manifest)

Renders LCC and LCC2 scenes: the Gaussian splat + mesh capture format produced by XGRIDS LiDAR scanners (the Lixel line). Both versions are supported. Upload the scene package as a ZIP and Swyvl extracts it and assigns this viewer automatically. See XGRIDS LCC and LCC2 scenes for packaging and archive limits.

Two ways to move, Orbit or Walk: Use the Orbit / Walk toggle in the viewer to switch navigation styles. It is visible to everyone, including clients on a share link.

Orbit (default): drag to orbit the scene, scroll to zoom
Walk: drag to look around, click the ground to move there (a ring shows where you will land), WASD to move, hold Shift to move faster

Collisions in Walk mode: when the capture includes a collision mesh, the Collisions control in the viewer keeps you at eye level (1.6 m above the floor) and stops you passing through walls. Turn it off to fly freely, using E / Q to move up and down. Captures exported without a collision mesh always fly freely: include the mesh when exporting the scene from XGRIDS software to enable collisions.

Viewer controls (everyone): the rail in the top-left corner has Reset view, Orbit and Walk; in Walk it also shows Speed and Collisions. The View menu in the top-right corner switches between Splats and Points and sets the Quality. These are per-session; the file owner’s saved look is what each visit starts from. Navigation hints pop out beside the rail when the viewer opens and when you change mode, then tuck into the rail’s help button, which you can hover or tap.

Start view: Navigate to the angle you want then choose View → Set this view as the start view. This saves the camera position and a fresh thumbnail. The next time the file is opened, by you or a client on a share link, it starts from that exact view.

Display settings (file owner): In the viewer’s View menu, the File setup options let you bake how the scene presents. Your choices apply in both the hub and every share link for this file:

Render mode: Splats for the photoreal look, or Point cloud for a lighter view that shows structure
Environment: show or hide the far-field surroundings captured around the scene
Quality: High, Medium, or Low. Lower settings render fewer splats for smoother frame rates on modest hardware
Navigation: whether the scene opens in Orbit or Walk
Walk speed: the walking pace the scene starts at (viewers can still adjust it)
Collisions: whether Walk mode starts at eye level with wall stopping. On by default when the capture has a collision mesh; grayed out when it has none

Image viewer

File types: JPG, PNG, WebP

Pan and zoom with full-resolution viewing. Metadata (EXIF GPS, capture date, camera info) is shown in the sidebar where available.

If the image has GPS coordinates, a minimap is shown in the viewer.

Video player

File types: MP4, MOV, AVI, WebM

Standard HTML5 video player with playback controls. MP4 with H.264 encoding is recommended for maximum browser compatibility.

PDF viewer

File types: PDF, including GeoPDF

Plans, drawings, reports and forms open in the browser, in the workspace and on share links.

Reading: scroll through the pages or jump with the page number, zoom (fit width, fit page), search the text with Ctrl/Cmd + F, and use the sidebar’s page thumbnails and the PDF’s own bookmarks (Outline). Links inside the PDF work, and Print prints the original file.

Notes on pages: pin a note, outline an area or sketch on any page. Select text to comment on it. Notes stay with their page and show on share links like notes on any other file. See Notes.

Scale and measuring: choose the scale chip on the toolbar to set the scale of a drawing, either by typing the ratio printed on it (for example 1 : 200) or, more reliably, by measuring something of known length such as a dimensioned wall. Use for all pages applies it to every page; untick it to set pages one at a time. With a scale set, the measuring tools work on the page. See Measuring. Pages of a GeoPDF that carry their own coordinates have a scale already.

Fill & sign (paid plans): fill in form fields, add text, freehand drawing and highlights, and add a signature. A signature can be drawn, typed or uploaded as an image; a photo or scan of a signature on white paper has its background removed. Tick Remember this signature for next time to keep it for yourself: it is saved privately to your account, and Forget deletes it. A signature added here is a picture of your signature, not a certified digital signature. When you’re done, choose:

Download copy, to download the filled-in PDF;
Save as new file, to add it beside the original in the same session;
Save to this file, to save into the same file. The file as uploaded is kept as its original: Download → Original (pre-edit) downloads it, and Reset to original in the file’s details puts it back.

Organize pages (paid plans): rotate, reorder (drag a page, or use the arrows), delete or pick pages, then download, save the result as a new file, or Save over the original. Saving over the original moves notes, measurements and scales with their pages, and turned pages turn their notes with them. If a page you are deleting has notes on it, Swyvl asks you to move or delete them first, so nothing is lost. The original is kept, and Reset to original puts the pages and their notes back.

On the Free plan you can view, search, print and download PDFs, add notes and links, and measure; Fill & sign and Organize pages show a lock.

No viewer available

If a file shows “No viewer available”:

The file type may not be supported for in-browser viewing; the file can still be downloaded
The file may still be processing — wait 60 seconds and refresh

Terrain and imagery

Satellite imagery and terrain elevation are provided by Swyvl — no API keys or third-party accounts needed. See Workspace & branding for details.

Want a walkthrough? Book a 30-min demo with Alex →