Viewer and editor

Getting started

Browser viewer

Open the viewer to read and edit a document, inspect its cubes or paint a supported slice grid. The viewer starts in Cubes. Choose Preview to read notes, prose or frame documents one plane at a time; it does not autoplay.

Try an example

These links open existing public GitHub files directly in the viewer.

Example	Open in the viewer	What to try
Reusable canopy	Text sculpture	Orbit in Cubes, choose Slice and draw a cell.
Layered notes	Reading example	Choose Preview and select a plane.
Canopy binary, kind 2	Portable binary	The same canopy opens from the structured binary file.
Canopy binary, kind 1	Older portable binary	Existing uncompressed kind-1 files remain readable.
Shared grove	Self-contained composition	This GitHub link opens the root document. Download the file and use Open file, or search for the built-in shared-grove binary example, to choose entries with Inside.

Open the Examples folder to browse the public files, or open the repository. Load an example shows the curated examples. Search also finds the wider example catalog, binary samples and the built-in folder · LinkedVillage example.

Open your own files

Open file reads a .3md text document or an uncompressed standard .3mdb. You can also drop a file onto the viewer. Markdown and text imports can become planes using Document → Headings to planes.
Open folder reads files from the folder you choose, including nested folders. Keep linked children alongside their scene, with the paths named in its 3md-files ledger. The folder loader prefers scene.3md and resolves reachable linked documents from the supplied files.
The GitHub field accepts a public repo, folder, file or raw GitHub URL. Paste an address and choose open. Select another document in Files; filter that list or search its lines to find a plane.

For example, paste one of these into the GitHub field:

CorvidLabs/3md
https://github.com/CorvidLabs/3md/tree/main/Examples
https://github.com/CorvidLabs/3md/blob/main/Examples/Extensions/canopy.3md
https://github.com/CorvidLabs/3md/blob/main/Examples/Extensions/canopy.structured.3mdb

For a linked project, download the repo and choose Open folder on Examples/LinkedVillage, keeping scene.3md and models/ together. The built-in folder search result opens those same linked entries without downloading the repo. A GitHub folder currently lists its files individually; it does not resolve the scene's linked entries through the same folder path.

Read, rotate and edit

Edit changes the source. Preview reads the selected plane. Cubes shows a compatible character grid in 3D. Slice edits compatible rectangular grids and includes a live 3D reference. All views use the current document.

In Cubes, drag to orbit through a full turn. Choose Pan, or Shift-drag or right-drag, to move the sculpture on screen. Scroll to zoom; two fingers pan and pinch on touch screens. Fit restores the starting camera. Use Free or X, Y, Z to choose the rotation constraint; Precise movement offers numeric rotation and pan steps. Arrow keys orbit a focused canvas, Shift-arrows pan, plus/minus zoom and Home fits. Click a cube to select its slice.

In Slice, choose a thumbnail, then Draw, Erase or Fill, a character and a brush size. Drag to paint; one stroke is one undo step. Arrows select a cell and Space applies the tool. Selected cell lets you enter exact X/Y coordinates. Use grid zoom or Show previous slice as needed. Expand returns to Cubes with the same camera and selected slice.

Keep your changes

The Document menu downloads the current document as readable .3md or uncompressed kind-2 .3mdb. Ctrl/Cmd-S downloads readable text. Copy share link puts the current document in the link so another reader can open it.

Edits and undo history survive file and linked-entry switches within the current open collection. Download exports a copy; it does not overwrite the original file, save back to a folder, commit to GitHub or clear the Edited marker. Refreshing or opening another collection clears the in-memory drafts, so download the documents you want to keep first. Composition exports contain the selected document; edits do not rebuild the original composition profile.

Supported files and limits

Input or view	Browser support
`.3md`	UTF-8 ThreeMD text, including prose and grid documents.
Standard `.3mdb`	Uncompressed payload kind 2 and older payload kind 1; self-contained compositions can expose their embedded entries.
Apple LZFSE `.3mdb`	Unsupported. Use readable text or uncompressed binary.
Sculpt compact `.3mdb`	A separate app format. Save readable `.3md` or export an upstream uncompressed binary copy from Sculpt first.
Local linked folders	Resolve reachable `3md-files` references from the selected folder's files.
Public GitHub	Repo/folder/file/raw locators; up to 400 files, skipping tree entries larger than 1,500,000 bytes. Private repos and authentication are unsupported. GitHub can rate limit requests.
Cubes	Character grids up to 64 × 64 per plane, at most 12 distinct non-space characters and up to 4000 occupied cells. Space, dot and tab are empty. Requires WebGL2.
Slice	Complete fenced grids of matching dimensions, up to 64 × 64, 256 planes, 4000 occupied cells and 1.5 MiB source, using Sculpt's palette `#@*+ox:=-` with dot/space empty.

Prose, ragged grids, other glyphs or larger documents can stay in Edit/Preview when Slice is unavailable. The 2D Slice editor works without a WebGL reference. These browser limits do not change the ThreeMD library's storage capabilities.

Three loading gaps remain: GitHub linked folders list individual documents rather than resolving their scene entries; a GitHub composition file opens only its root document, without Inside entries; and a non-GitHub direct binary ?src= URL is read as text. Download a composition or direct binary and use Open file to retain its supported binary content. The built-in shared-grove binary search result also exposes its embedded entries.

For storage details, see the binary format, linked file composition, and Sculpt.3md. Sculpt's default compact save has a different format from the standard ThreeMD binary, despite sharing .3mdb as its filename extension.