files and media

Anything you bring in is a node that other nodes can read: wire an image into a model, a video into the video editor, a PDF into a pixie's chat. This page covers how files get in and what you can do to them once they are there.

bring a file in

• Drop one or more files from your computer onto the canvas. Several files land one below the other.
• Paste with <kbd>⌘</kbd> <kbd>V</kbd>: a copied image, a PDF file, or text.
• Add an empty node from the dock's + (Image, Video, Audio) and use its Upload button.
• Record: an empty Audio node has a Record microphone button next to Upload File.

you drop	you get
an image, including HEIC	an image node
a video	a video node
audio	an audio node with a player
a PDF	a document node, see below
a 3D file: glb, gltf, stl, obj, fbx, ply, dae, 3mf, usdz, usd and others	a 3D model node with a View 3D button
a Gaussian splat: sog, spz, splat, ksplat, or a ply capture	a splat node, see below
a .json file	a data node that outputs its contents as text
a KiCad board or project zip	a PCB model that imports it

A file is refused with a message if it is over 95 MB, or if its type is not on this list.

Large images are resized for display on the canvas; the original is kept and is what models receive. Transparency is kept.

images

Right-click an image node for Crop / Rotate, Edit in composer (opens it as a layer in the image composer) and Set as cover, which makes it the canvas's cover on the dashboard. The canvas menu (three dots) also has Set cover image… for a file from your computer.

use an image from another canvas

An empty image node shows or pick from a project…. Click it to open Pick an image from a project:

1. Choose one of your organization's projects. Search projects… filters the list.
2. Pick an image. The grid shows the files on that canvas and the pictures its models generated; Search images… filters it.

The picture is referenced, not copied: it appears at once and costs no extra storage. Projects at the top returns to the project list.

video

A video node plays in place. Right-click it for Trim video, Extract frame, First frame and Last frame; the last three turn a frame into an image node.

trim in the browser

Trim video opens the Trim Video window with a filmstrip Timeline.

• Split cuts the clip at the playhead (<kbd>S</kbd>). Delete removes the selected piece (<kbd>Backspace</kbd>). <kbd>Space</kbd> plays the sequence.
• Drag a piece to slide or resize it; reorder pieces on the lower lane to change the output order.
• Each piece has a speed: 0.25×, 0.5×, 1×, 1.5×, 2× or 4×. Changing speed shifts audio pitch.
• Reset returns to the whole clip.
• Save trim overwrites the video; its caret offers Save as new to keep the original.

The trim is made in your browser and a progress toast shows bottom left while it works; you can keep editing the canvas. It needs a browser with a video encoder: Chrome, Edge, or Safari 17 or later.

For anything bigger than a trim, use the video editor.

PDFs

A PDF node shows page 1 as its card, with the page count and the document title. Its buttons:

• Read opens a paged reader. Page with the arrow buttons or <kbd>←</kbd> and <kbd>→</kbd>, Open original, Download, close with <kbd>Esc</kbd>.
• Add to chat appears while a pixie chat is open. It hands the document to that pixie, which can then read and look at its pages.
• Download.

A PDF can have up to 2,000 pages. A PDF's port is a document, not a picture, so it wires only into a file input.

Gaussian splats

A splat is a 3D capture drawn as points of light rather than triangles. Drop a .sog, .spz, .splat or .ksplat file, or a .ply that is a splat capture, and the node draws it with a View 3D button to orbit it.

• A raw .ply capture is huge, so ixi compresses it to .spz in your browser first (about ten times smaller, visually the same). A status line shows Compressing … splats… while it works.
• Paste a SuperSplat link (a superspl.at scene page or viewer link) and ixi imports the scene as a splat node, with the author, title and licence shown on the card. A scene over 45 MB is refused.

Splats go into 3D models as scene objects; see 3D overview.

from the browser

To save an image from any web page straight to a canvas, use the Chrome extension.

limits & good to know

• 95 MB per file; 45 MB per imported SuperSplat scene.
• The reader and the pixies read PDFs up to 2,000 pages.
• Pictures from other canvases come only from projects in your active organization.
• Results of model runs are not files until you pull them out of a tray with Add to canvas; see generations.

related

• nodes and wires
• model nodes
• nested canvases and the library