What Meshory indexes (and how to change it)

Updated Sep 6, 2026 · 3 min read

A curated list of supported formats, plus four ways to shape it: exclude patterns, hidden names, folder exclusions, and index-only names.

Rhino .3dm (3DM) files are also indexed, including models inside ZIP, RAR and 7Z archives. Previews use saved render meshes locally, with partial preview warnings when surfaces have no saved mesh. Duplicate detection is content-only; Rhino files do not receive geometry fingerprints.

Meshory indexes the file types it can actually do something with, and deliberately nothing else. A model library shouldn't fill up with logs, installers, and program files that happen to live near your models. The supported set is: STL, OBJ, 3MF, FBX and STEP/STP (full thumbnails, duplicate detection, and 3D viewing), Rhino 3DM (thumbnails and 3D viewing), GLB, GLTF and PLY (indexed, searchable and tagged like any model, with no thumbnail or 3D preview yet), JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, WEBP, BMP and SVG images and xTool laser projects (XCS and XS) (all of which get a rendered thumbnail), ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR, TAR.GZ and TGZ archives (browsed inside, with models in them treated as first-class entries), and PDF and TXT for the manuals, readmes and instructions that ride along with models, which open in the app. The TAR family means .tar, .tar.gz and .tgz; standalone .gz files are not indexed or browsed.

Everything outside that list is simply invisible to scans. Sliced output (G-code), resin slicer scenes, Markdown notes, and office documents aren't indexed even though they're common next to models. If a format you care about is missing, tell us on Discord and it'll be considered for real support rather than half-support.

Excluded names

Settings → Scanning takes a list of excluded name patterns: one per line, * matches anything, case-insensitive. Files and folders matching them are left out of scans entirely. Sensible junk is excluded out of the box (installer files, partial downloads, Thumbs.db and friends). Exclusions apply everywhere a file can appear, including inside ZIP, RAR, 7Z and TAR/TGZ archives. Excluding *.png keeps preview renders out of your library whether they're loose or archived.

Names starting with a period

Meshory skips files and folders whose name starts with a period. On macOS and Linux that prefix means hidden, and what sits behind it is app state and system metadata rather than models. Windows has no such convention, and some people use a leading period there to sort a folder to the top of Explorer. If that's you, turn on Scan dot names in Settings → Scanning. Your sources rescan straight away, because an ordinary sweep only re-reads folders that changed on disk. A setting change alters nothing on disk, so the folders it had been skipping would otherwise stay invisible.

Excluding whole folders

Right-click any folder, in the library grid or in the sidebar tree, and choose Exclude from library to drop that subtree from the index. That's handy when a watched folder like Downloads contains trees that aren't 3D content at all. Excluded folders are listed in Settings → Scanning, where removing an entry re-indexes the folder on the next sweep. Nothing on disk is touched either way.

Index-only names

Below the exclusions sits the opposite lever: index-only name patterns. Files matching them are indexed past the supported-format list (they show up in your library and in search) but get no processing at all: no thumbnails, no duplicate detection, no content reads. Use it to keep sight of project files like *.blend alongside your prints without pretending Meshory can render them.

Sources can't overlap

A folder can only belong to one source. If you add a folder that already sits inside a watched source, or one that contains a source you've already added, Meshory refuses it and tells you which source it clashed with. That's deliberate: an overlapping source would scan, match every file against the copy already indexed, and store nothing, leaving you with a source that stays permanently empty for no visible reason. To narrow an existing source, exclude the subtree you don't want rather than adding a second source inside it.