Wings 3D is a free

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

, open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

, subdivision modeler

Subdivision surface

A subdivision surface, in the field of 3D computer graphics, is a method of representing a smooth surface via the specification of a coarser piecewise linear polygon mesh...

 inspired by Nendo and Mirai from Izware. Wings 3D is named after the winged-edge data structure

Winged edge

The winged edge data structure is a data representation used to describe polygon models in computer graphics. It explicitly describes the geometry and topology of faces, edges, and vertices when three or more surfaces come together and meet at a common edge...

 it uses internally to store coordinate and adjacency data, and is commonly referred to by its users simply as Wings.

Wings 3D is available for most platforms, including Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

 and Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

, using the Erlang environment.

Overview

Wings 3D can be used to model and texture low to mid-range polygon models. Wings does not support animations and has only basic OpenGL

OpenGL

OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...

 rendering facilities, although it can export to external rendering software such as POV-Ray

POV-Ray

The Persistence of Vision Raytracer, or POV-Ray, is a ray tracing program available for a variety of computer platforms. It was originally based on DKBTrace, written by David Kirk Buck and Aaron A. Collins. There are also influences from the earlier Polyray raytracer contributed by its author...

 and YafRay

YafRay

YafaRay is a free, open source ray tracing program that uses an XML scene description language. It has been integrated into the 2.49 version of the 3D modelling software Blender, but requires an exporter for the redesigned 2.5 version of Blender....

. Still, Wings is often used in combination with other software, whereby models made in Wings are exported to applications more specialized in rendering

Rendering (computer graphics)

Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model , by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene...

 and animation such as Blender

Blender (software)

Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software product used for creating animated films, visual effects, interactive 3D applications or video games. The current release version is 2.60, and was released on October 19, 2011...

.

Interface

Wings 3D uses context sensitive menus as opposed to a highly graphical, icon oriented interface. Modeling is done using the mouse and keyboard to select and modify different aspects of a model's geometry in four different selection modes: Vertex, Edge, Face and Body. Because of Wings' context sensitive design, each selection mode has its own set of mesh tools. Many of these tools offer both basic and advanced uses, allowing users to specify vectors and points to change how a tool will affect their model. Wings also allows you to add textures and materials to your models, and has built-in AutoUV mapping

UV mapping

UV mapping is the 3D modeling process of making a 2D image representation of a 3D model.-UV mapping:This process projects a texture map onto a 3D object...

 facilities.

Features

• A wide variety of Selection and Modeling Tools
• Modeling Tool support for Magnets and Vector Operations
• Customizable Hotkeys and Interface
• Tweak Mode lets you make quick adjustments to a mesh
• Assign and edit Lighting, Materials, Textures, and Vertex Colours
• AutoUV Mapping
• Ngon mesh support
• A Plugin Manager for adding and removing plugins
• Import and Export in many popular formats

Supported File Formats

Wings loads and saves models in its own format (.wings), but also supports several standard 3D formats as well.

Import

• Nendo (.ndo)
• 3D Studio (.3ds)
• Adobe Illustrator (.ai)
• Autodesk FBX (.fbx)
• Lightwave/Modo (.lwo/.lxo)
• Wavefront (.obj)
• PostScript (Inkscape) (.ps)
• Encapsulated PostScript (.eps)
• Stereolithography (.stl)

Export

• Nendo (.ndo)
• 3D Studio (.3ds)
• Adobe Illustrator (.ai)
• BZFlag
  BZFlag
  BZFlag is a free, open source, online multiplayer video game.A first-person tank battle game, similar in concept to Battlezone, it was originally written by Chris Schoeneman for SGI graphics workstations running IRIX, but has now been ported to other operating systems including...
  
   (.bzw)
• Kerkythea (.xml)
• Autodesk FBX (.fbx)
• Lightwave/Modo (.lwo/.lxo)
• Wavefront (.obj)
• POV-Ray (.pov)
• Cartoon Edges (.eps)
• Stereolithography (.stl)
• Renderware (.rwx)
• VRML 2.0 (.wrl)
• DirectX (.x)
• Collada (.dae)

External links

• The Wings 3D website (The Wings 3D source code repository)
• The Wings 3D Official Development Forum (The best place to get help with Wings 3D)
• The Wings 3D user forum at Renderosity (requires log in)
• The Wings 3D user forum at CGTalk (This forum has been locked, however it remains a valuable Wings 3D resource)
• Wings3d.es | The Spanish language Wings 3D Community
• Wings3d.de | The German language Wings 3D Community
• The Brazilian language Wings 3D Community
• Wings 3D on the BeyondUnreal.com Wiki
• Video Tutorials in the YouTube wings3dchannel