Free Online CityGML Viewer (No Signup)
Also opens DWG, DXF, STEP, IGES, IFC, SKP, STL, OBJ, GLB, FBX, 3DM and other 3D/CAD files. Drop any file on the viewer.
Works directly in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge
Also from Innerscene: Circadian Lab, a free lighting calculator for room illuminance, melanopic EML, and glare.
What Is a CityGML File?
CityGML is the Open Geospatial Consortium’s exchange format for virtual 3D cities. A file holds city objects: buildings with their parts, installations and rooms, the terrain as a triangulated surface, roads, railways and squares, rivers and lakes, trees and plant cover, bridges, tunnels and street furniture. Each object can be stored at several levels of detail, from a footprint (LOD0) and a block model (LOD1) to buildings with their roof shapes (LOD2), with windows and doors (LOD3) and with their interiors. Surfaces carry their meaning (roof, wall, ground, window, door, water surface, traffic area), objects carry attributes such as function, year of construction and measured height, and appearances add colours and photo textures. The geometry is GML, in a real-world coordinate system.
National and city mapping agencies publish their 3D building models in CityGML: the LoD2 buildings of the German states, Japan’s PLATEAU, and the open models of cities such as Vienna, Lyon, Berlin and New York. The files are usually .gml or .xml, often zipped with a folder of texture images, and can reach hundreds of megabytes.
This viewer reads the XML as a stream in your browser and draws each object at its highest level of detail, with roofs, walls, ground, windows, doors, water and roads in their own colours. The coordinates are recentred so a city-scale model draws without jitter, and the model exports to OBJ, GLB, DXF or STL. The same model in JSON opens in the CityJSON viewer.
Who Uses CityGML Files?
Surveying and mapping agencies that publish 3D building data, urban planners and municipal GIS teams, architects who need the buildings around a site as context, engineers running solar, shadow, noise or flood studies, and digital twin and smart city projects. Anyone who downloads an open city model and wants to see what is in it before loading it into FME, QGIS, ArcGIS or a 3D city database.
Common Use Cases
- Look at a downloaded CityGML tile without installing GIS software
- Check which buildings, levels of detail and surfaces a file holds
- Hide object types (terrain, vegetation, roads) from the Layers panel
- Measure building heights and distances in metres
- Bring the buildings around a site into SketchUp, Rhino or Blender as OBJ, DXF or GLB
- 3D print a city block by exporting it as STL or 3MF
Features
CityGML 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0
City models as .gml or .xml, a renamed file or a ZIP of tiles, recognised by their namespaces.
Highest Level of Detail
Each object is drawn at its most detailed level, from LOD0 footprints to LOD3 and LOD4 buildings.
Roofs, Walls and Ground in Colour
Semantic surfaces, windows, doors, water and traffic areas each have their own colour.
Buildings, Terrain, Roads and More
Buildings and their parts, TIN terrain, roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, water, trees and street furniture.
Grouped by Object Type
One layer per object type, with building parts under their buildings in the object tree.
Textures and Materials
X3D material colours, and photo textures when their images are opened with the model.
City-Scale Coordinates
Georeferenced coordinates are recentred, so a whole district draws without jitter, in metres.
Large Files Stream In
The XML is read as a stream, so models of several hundred megabytes open.
Export Back to the Grid
DXF, DWG, OBJ and PLY exports carry the original coordinates; GLB, STL and 3MF use local metres.
Nothing Is Uploaded
The file is read and drawn entirely in your browser. No account, no upload, no copy of your model on a server.
Compatibility & Format Notes
Versions: CityGML 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, recognised by their namespaces, so a .gml, a .xml, a renamed file or a ZIP of tiles opens; plain GML files and Gerber board outlines that share the .gml extension keep their own handling. Geometry is read from GML polygons, triangles and surface patches with their holes, as posList, pos or GML 2 coordinates, in 2D or 3D. Shared polygons referenced by xlink are resolved, and implicit geometry (a tree or a street lamp placed many times) is placed from its template.
Drawing: each object is drawn at the highest level of detail it has. Semantic surfaces and object types have their own colours, X3D materials keep their colour and transparency, and photo textures are drawn when their images are opened with the file or dropped on the viewer afterwards. Objects are grouped by type, one layer each, with building parts under their buildings, and attributes are kept with each object. Projected coordinates are read in metres, latitude and longitude are projected to metres around the model, and DXF, DWG, OBJ and PLY exports put the model back on its original coordinates.
Not drawn: georeferenced textures, texture coordinates generated from a matrix, terrain stored only as a raster or as mass points, and the appearance themes after the first one.
Embed on Your Website
Add this viewer to your own site with a single line of HTML. Click Embed in the toolbar to generate an embed code, or use the snippet below with your own file URL.
Your Files Stay on Your Computer
Your CityGML files are parsed entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, stored, or shared unless you explicitly click the Share button. Shared files are hosted for 90 days then deleted.
Frequently Asked Questions
▶How do I open a CityGML file without GIS software?
Drop the .gml or .xml file (or the ZIP it came in) on the viewer on this page. It reads the city model in your browser, on Windows, a Mac, a Chromebook, Linux or a phone, and shows it in 3D. Nothing needs to be installed.
▶Which level of detail is shown?
The highest level each object has. A building stored as an LOD1 block and as an LOD2 model with its roof is drawn as the LOD2 model, and a building whose parts are modelled in more detail than the building itself is drawn by its parts.
▶Why are my textures missing?
CityGML keeps texture photos as separate image files, usually in a folder beside the model. Open the model together with its images, open the ZIP that holds both, or drop the images on the viewer after the model has opened, and the facades are drawn with their photos.
▶Can I open a large city model?
Yes. The file is read as a stream, so models of several hundred megabytes open on a desktop computer. Models with many thousands of objects are drawn per object type, which keeps the view responsive.
▶Will the exported model line up with my other data?
DXF, DWG, OBJ and PLY exports carry the model’s original coordinates, so they line up with drawings and GIS layers in the same coordinate system. GLB, STL and the other model formats use local metres centred on the model, which is what game engines, slicers and most 3D tools expect.
▶Is this CityGML viewer really free?
Yes, completely free. No signup, no watermarks, no file size limits on the viewer (the optional share-link feature has a 100 MB upload cap). Built by Innerscene as a tool for architects, engineers, and designers.
▶Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. All parsing, rendering, and conversion runs in your browser: nothing is uploaded, stored, or transmitted by default. The Share button is the only feature that uploads a file, and only when you explicitly click it.
▶Can I convert to another format?
Yes. Click Export in the toolbar to save as STL (3D printing), OBJ (Wavefront), GLB (glTF binary), or PDF (snapshot of the current view).
▶Can I embed this viewer on my own site?
Yes. Click Embed in the toolbar to generate a one-line <iframe> snippet you can paste into any HTML page. You can choose whether the embed shows the viewer’s toolbar.
CityGML is a standard of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Innerscene is not affiliated with the OGC.