Critical Formatting Details
MorphoSource supports the following file formats:
Video | .avi, .m4v, .mov, .mp4, .mpg, .mpeg, .wmv |
Mesh | .glb, .gltf, .obj, .ply, .stl, .wrl, .x3d, .zip |
| Mesh ZIP Companion Files*,** | .bin, .bmp, .gif, .jp2, .jpeg, .jpg, .mtl, .png, .svg, .tif, .tiff |
Image | .bmp, .dcm, .dicom, .gif, .jp2, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .svg, .tif, .tiff |
Photogrammetry Image Series** | .zip or .tar containing .jp2, .tif, .dng, .nef, .crw, .cr2, .cr3, .iiq, .arw, .raw, .rw2** |
CT/MRI Image Series** | .zip or .tar containing .tif, .jpeg, .bmp, or .dcm** |
* These are files that can be included along with a mesh file in a ZIP archive to communicate texture, color, or other information related to the mesh.
A .zip file for CT/MRI and Photogrammetry Image Series needs to only contain the stack of scan or photo images with an optional .txt or .doc file containing metadata. Any extra files zipped with the images will prevent the rendering of the volume on the site.
A mesh file can be uploaded to the site directly. If the mesh includes texture, the .obj, .mtl, and texture need to be zipped together and uploaded as a .zip file.
Important: formats for colorized meshes - In general, there are two alternate approaches: meshes with vertex color and meshes with a separate texture mapped via vertex-associated UV coordinates. For .ply files, only vertex color is supported. Texture mapping can be used with files of type .glb, .gltf, and/or .obj (with a corresponding .mtl file). For .obj or .glb meshes with a separate texture image, place all of the relevant files - either both the .glb and the texture file or all three of the .obj file, .mtl file, and the associated texture image - within a ZIP file archive. A zip containing a .ply and texture file will never successfully produce a colorized mesh preview in MorphoSource. As a best practice, we recommend using texture maps rather than vertex color whenever possible because the resolution of the color information will be preserved even when the mesh is downsample or smoothed, etc.
MorphoSource zip formats: Currently only .zip and .tar formatted zip files are supported. If you try to use any other format, the system will not accept it. Further, some software applications used to create ZIP files can create invalid ZIP archive files without warning when the ZIP archive file in question is large (> 4GB file size). Unfortunately, this includes Windows and Mac default operating system tools for creating ZIP archive files. Instead use an acceptable alternative application such as 7Zip (.zip file format only) or Keka. Please review this page to make sure you have zipped files correctly.
**MorphoSource zip contents: Zip files can contain any of the formats listed in the table above. In addition, zip files may also include .txt, .doc, and other files for including additional info. Subfolders and zip hierarchies can be uploaded but are discouraged. 3D tiff files are not compatible with the site, only 2D tiff stacks. Furthermore, after review of zip contents, zip files containing data on more than one scan or more than 1 specimen will be rejected, as described in more detail here.