MeshToZero

A browser-based workspace for centering, orienting, and precisely aligning 3D meshes and point clouds.

Open MeshToZero

Overview

MeshToZero provides non-destructive tools for preparing PLY, OBJ, and STL models directly in the browser. Import a model, create geometric reference planes, align it to world axes or the XY bed, and export the transformed geometry in its original format.

The application is built with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Three.js. It has no framework dependency, build step, account requirement, or server-side component.

Workflow

1. Import or drag and drop a PLY, OBJ, or STL file.
2. Inspect the model as a mesh, edge view, vertex view, or point cloud.
3. Move, rotate, and scale with numeric fields or the transform gizmo.
4. Create automatic or manual construction planes from the model geometry.
5. Align the model to world axes, lay a selected surface flat, or drop it onto the XY bed.
6. Review or restore any operation from Transform History.
7. Export the transformed model in the same format as the imported file.

Features

Transform and placement

• Center-pivot Move and Rotate gizmos
• World and Local coordinate spaces
• Position-to-grid and rotation-to-angle snapping
• Linked or independent scale controls
• Automatic six-orientation analysis
• Sequential plane-to-world alignment
• Normal flipping and 90-degree turns around a target normal
• Lay Flat placement from a selected mesh or point-cloud surface
• Exact Drop to Bed placement without changing model rotation
• Non-destructive alignment previews

Construction geometry

• Automatic Top, Front, and Right model planes
• Model-oriented and source-axis boundary-box planes
• Separate boundary-face and center-plane sets
• Planes through points, edges, paths, and triangles
• Local planar-surface detection for meshes and point clouds
• Best-fit, tangent, offset, angle, midplane, and perpendicular planes
• Model-space planes that follow model transformations
• Fixed Top, Front, and Right world-origin grids

Editing and navigation

• Model-centered orbit, unrestricted camera rotation, pan, zoom, and fit
• Mesh, edge, vertex, and point-cloud display modes
• Light-gray and dark-gray interface themes
• Responsive desktop and mobile layout
• 100-step undo and redo
• Clickable Photoshop-style Transform History
• Full-workspace file drag and drop

Supported formats

Format	Import	Export	Notes
OBJ	Yes	Yes	Geometry only; external MTL files and textures are not loaded
PLY	Yes	Yes	Meshes and point clouds; ASCII or binary representation is preserved
STL	Yes	Yes	ASCII or binary representation is preserved

Current model transformations are baked into exported vertex coordinates.

Controls

Input	Action
Left click	Select model geometry or interact with tools
Middle-mouse drag	Orbit around the current model center
Right-mouse drag	Pan
Mouse wheel	Zoom
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z	Redo

Technical notes

• Requires a modern browser with WebGL 2 support
• Uses pinned Three.js ES modules from jsDelivr
• Runs entirely in the browser
• Published as a static GitHub Pages application