🧊 BR3F — Blender → React Three Fiber

Export your Blender scene to a .glb plus a ready-to-use React Three Fiber component — in one click, from inside Blender.

Blender scene  ──►  public/myScene.glb  +  src/components/MyScene.tsx (or .jsx)

The add-on's logic is a single Python file: BR3F.py — no Node.js, no CLI, no dependencies. (A small blender_manifest.toml and a one-line __init__.py wrap it for the Blender 4.2+ Extensions platform.)

Why

Getting a Blender model into an R3F project normally takes two tools: export a GLB from Blender, then run gltfjsx (or paste the file into a web converter) to generate the component. When you're iterating on lots of models, that round trip adds up fast — every scene tweak means exporting and converting again, and the GLB and component quietly drift out of sync.

BR3F does both steps natively in Blender. Tweak your scene, click Export GLB + Component, refresh your app. You can even set per-mesh preferences for the output, like adding castShadow or receiveShadow to individual meshes.

Install

BR3F is the project name; in Blender the add-on installs as R3F JSX/TSX Exporter and adds a BR3F tab to the 3D viewport sidebar.

Blender 4.2+ (extension)

1. Download the latest br3f-x.y.z.zip from the Releases page (or build it yourself — see CONTRIBUTING.md).
2. Drag the .zip into Blender, or go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → ⌄ → Install from Disk… and pick it.
3. Enable R3F JSX/TSX Exporter in the add-on list.

Blender 3.6–4.1 (legacy single file)

1. Download BR3F.py.
2. In Blender: Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Install… and pick the file.
3. Enable R3F JSX/TSX Exporter in the add-on list.

Use

1. Press N in the 3D viewport and open the BR3F tab.
2. Set the Component Name (e.g. MyScene).
3. Point GLB Folder at your app's public/ directory and Component Folder at src/components/ (leave the component folder empty to write both files side by side).
4. Pick JSX or TSX.
5. In the Meshes list, tick which meshes to include and toggle their castShadow / receiveShadow props individually.
6. Click Export GLB + Component.

Then use it like any other component:

import { MyScene } from './components/MyScene'

<Canvas>
  <MyScene position={[0, 0, 0]} />
</Canvas>

The generated component loads the model with drei's useGLTF from /<name>.glb — which works out of the box with Vite, Next.js and CRA, since they all serve the public/ folder at the web root.

💡 Tip: hit Preview Code first to see exactly what BR3F will generate — no files written until you're happy.

Features

• Per-mesh control — the panel lists every mesh in the scene with checkboxes to include/exclude it from the export and to toggle its castShadow / receiveShadow props individually.
• JSX or TSX — TypeScript output includes a typed GLTFResult built from the exact nodes and materials the component references.
• Preview Code — opens the generated component in a new window before you write anything to your project.
• Faithful output — node keys match what three.js GLTFLoader produces at runtime (name sanitization and deduplication), rotations are converted from quaternions to Euler angles, identity transforms are omitted, and multi-material meshes expand into a group the same way the loader builds them.
• Settings stick — export options are stored in the .blend file; per-mesh flags are stored on the objects themselves.

Roadmap

Where BR3F might go next — ideas, not promises, and all open to contribution. Got a use case or want to pick one up? Open an issue.

v0.2 — closing the obvious gaps

• Export animations and wire up drei's useAnimations
• Scope the export to a chosen collection or the current selection
• Draco compression toggle for smaller .glb files

v0.3 — nice-to-haves

• Instancing / merging for repeated meshes (<Instances> / <Merged>)
• Emit cameras and lights instead of skipping them
• Copy-to-clipboard in the Preview window

v1.0 — platform & polish

• Blender 4.2+ extension manifest (blender_manifest.toml) for the Extensions platform
• Publish BR3F on extensions.blender.org
• Shape keys / morph target support

Project plumbing

• CI that runs _smoke_test.py on every pull request

Contributing

Bug reports, ideas and pull requests are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later (as required for Blender addons).

Generated components include a short attribution comment — please keep it intact.

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⭐ If BR3F saved you some clicks, please star the repo and share it!

It genuinely helps other Blender + R3F devs find the project.