html download attribute for .obj file

Question

I've an obj file placed in a p5.js WEBGL canvas. I'd like to make the 3D model downloadable through a html download attribute link.

I tried:

<a href="SnowstormAloe.obj" download="Snowstorm Aloe .obj">Download OBJ</a>

which of course doesn't work because the html download attribute doesn't include this type of file. Any idea on how to make an .obj downloadable?

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you generate the model in the client, you can create a download link by converting the file content into a Blob and then create a link using URL.createObjectURL.

Like this

const objFileContent = `#  Viewpoint Datalabs International, Inc.  Copyright 1996


mtllib ./vp.mtl

g
v 2.712726 -2.398764 -2.492640
v 2.712726 -1.954302 -2.665440
v -5.975275 -1.954302 -2.665440
v -5.975275 -2.398764 -2.492640
v -6.113514 -1.885536 -2.803680
v 2.712726 -1.885536 -2.803680
v -5.975275 -1.372307 -2.803680
v -5.975275 -1.816770 -2.700000
v 2.712726 -1.816770 -2.700000
v 2.712726 -1.372307 -2.803680
v 4.766168 -2.256987 -2.354400
v 4.766168 -1.372307 -2.665439
v 4.766168 -1.769892 -2.561759
v 4.766168 -1.827445 -2.665439
v 4.766168 -1.884998 -2.527199
v 6.335766 -1.688939 -2.354399
v 6.335766 -1.732171 -2.458079
v 6.335766 -1.775403 -2.319839
v 6.335766 -2.054828 -2.147039
v 6.335766 -1.372307 -2.458079
v 8.078169 -1.372308 -2.043359
v 7.641026 -1.604039 -1.939679
v 7.711631 -1.639892 -2.043359
v 7.505756 -1.675745 -1.905119
v 7.068614 -1.907476 -1.732319
....`

document.querySelector('button').addEventListener('click', () => {
  var link = document.createElement('a');
  link.download = 'SnowstormAloe.obj';
  var blob = new Blob([objFileContent], {
    type: 'application/object'
  });
  link.href = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
  document.body.appendChild(link);
  link.click();
});

<button>Download .obj file</button>

Working example: https://output.jsbin.com/nugunit.