3D model to blocks: turn a .glb or .obj model into a Minecraft build
Turn a 3D model (.glb, .gltf or .obj) into blocks at the size you choose, colored from its textures, with a 3D preview, a layer plan, block counts and a schematic.
A 3D model can be anything: a car, a dragon, a castle, a scan of a statue. This tool turns one into blocks. Choose the model and the size, and it works out which blocks the model's surface passes through, gives each the closest block color from the model's own colors and textures, and shows the build in 3D and layer by layer, with every block counted and a schematic to paste.
How to use it
- Choose a model with the button, or drop it on the box. A .glb file is the easiest: one file with its colors and textures inside. For a .gltf or an .obj, choose all its files at once (the .bin, the .mtl and the texture pictures). Until you do, the tool shows a sample toadstool cottage drawn for this page.
- Set the size: how many blocks the model's longest side is. 30 to 60 is a good start; bigger keeps more detail and takes more blocks.
- If the model lies on its back, switch to Z up. Use Turn to face it the way you want: at 0° its front faces south.
- Turn groups of blocks on or off. Wool, concrete and terracotta give the cleanest colors; other solid blocks add browns, grays and greens.
- Choose Hollow or Solid. Hollow keeps only the outside, so a big build takes far fewer blocks.
- Check the result in 3D. Show switches between the blocks and the model itself, so you can compare.
- Step through the layers in the plan, save a layer as a picture, or download the schematic to paste it with WorldEdit or Litematica: how to use a schematic in the game.
Where to get a model
Use a model you made, or one whose license lets you use it. Blender, which is free, exports both formats: File, Export, glTF 2.0, with the format set to glTF Binary (.glb). Many model sites show a license on each model, such as CC0 (use it freely) or CC BY (give credit as it asks). Read it before you build and share.
How the blocks are chosen
The tool samples the whole surface of the model, points less than half a block apart, and adds each point's color to the block it falls in: the material's color, times its vertex colors, times its texture where the point is. Each block of the surface takes the average, matched to the block whose side color is closest. The air around the model is then filled in from outside; whatever the air cannot reach is inside the model, and a solid build fills it with the color of the nearest surface block.
- A detail smaller than a block blends into its neighbors. A face needs a size of about 60 or more to show eyes and a mouth.
- A part thinner than a block, such as a leaf, a flag or a sword blade, still takes a whole block, so it comes out thicker than in the model.
- Parts that glow in the model, such as a lamp's glass, look like their light and become blocks that give light: glowstone, shroomlight or sea lantern, whichever is closest in color. Turn off "Glowing parts as light blocks" to match them like any other color.
- Solid fills only a model that is closed all round. An open model, such as one with no bottom, stays hollow inside.
- The plan is seen from above with north at the top. Layer 1 is the bottom, and the build is pasted with its north-west bottom corner at your feet.
Bedrock Edition
The schematic is for Java Edition tools. For Bedrock Edition, press Download for Bedrock (.mcpack): the pack places the build with /function, no mods needed, as the schematics guide shows step by step. Or build from the layer plan and the block counts: save each layer as a picture and keep it open beside the game.
Questions
Which files work?
A .glb, a .gltf with its .bin and textures, or an .obj with its .mtl and textures. Other formats, such as .fbx, .stl or .blend, can be opened in Blender and exported as .glb.
A model compressed with Draco or meshopt cannot be read here: export it again with compression turned off.
Why is my build all one color?
The model's colors were not found. An .obj keeps its colors in a separate .mtl file and its textures in pictures: choose them all together with the .obj. A model from a 3D-printing site often has no colors at all.
Why is the build lying down or facing the wrong way?
Models are made with different ideas of which way is up. Switch Which way is up to Z up, and use Turn for the direction it faces.
Why are there holes in the build?
Usually because the model itself has gaps, or parts that are only one-sided surfaces. A bigger size can close small ones; fill the rest by hand in the game.
How big can a build be?
Up to 200 blocks along its longest side, from a model of up to 2,000,000 triangles and 150 MB. A big solid build takes a lot of blocks: the counts are above the plan.
To make a statue of a player skin, skin to statue builds it straight from the skin, pixel for pixel.