.FBX File Format

Introduction

ASCII FBX is the text form of Autodesk’s scene format. Exporters such as the FBX exporter in Maya and 3ds Max offer it as an option next to the default binary FBX. It holds the same nodes and properties, so it is handy for seeing what a file contains or comparing two exports, but it is larger and slower to load.

Some importers read only the binary form, so ASCII files do not open everywhere.

Structure

The file starts with comment lines, which begin with a semicolon, giving the FBX version. Each node is written as its name, a colon and its properties separated by commas; a node with children follows them with a block in braces. Strings are in double quotes. In version 7 files a large array is written as * and its length, then a block holding a: and the values.

The top-level nodes are the same as in the binary form: FBXHeaderExtension, GlobalSettings, Definitions, Objects and Connections.

; FBX 7.4.0 project file
; ----------------------------------------------------

FBXHeaderExtension:  {
	FBXHeaderVersion: 1003
	FBXVersion: 7400
}
Objects:  {
	Geometry: 1000, "Geometry::Triangle", "Mesh" {
		Vertices: *9 {
			a: 0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1,0
		}
		PolygonVertexIndex: *3 {
			a: 0,1,-3
		}
	}
}

Variants

• ASCII FBX – the text form of FBX: the same scene nodes written as names, values and braces
• Binary FBX – Autodesk’s scene exchange format as binary node records, the usual form of FBX

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