Tools for 3D and scientific visualization: meshes, volumes, point clouds and simulation output, from the Visualization Toolkit (VTK) ecosystem to GPU-accelerated Python libraries.

By GitHub stars, the most popular 3D and scientific visualization tools here are 3d-force-graph (6.4K stars), Potree (5.6K stars), and Matplot++ (4.9K stars). 19 of 25 had commits in the last 90 days.

3D & scientific visualization, ranked by GitHub stars
1 3d-force-graph

3D force-directed graph component using Three.js/WebGL.

JS graphs & networks 6.4K 9 MIT
2 Potree

WebGL point cloud viewer for large datasets such as LiDAR scans.

JS maps 5.6K 1 Other
3 Matplot++

C++ graphics library for data visualization with a MATLAB-like API.

C++ 4.9K 3 MIT
4 F3D

Cross-platform, fast, and minimalist 3D viewer with scientific visualization tools.

C++ 4.7K 696 BSD-3-Clause
5 maptalks.js

Pluggable JavaScript library for integrated 2D/3D maps.

JS maps 4.5K 293 BSD-3-Clause
6 PyQtGraph

Interactive and realtime 2D/3D/Image plotting and science/engineering widgets.

Python 4.4K 355 MIT
7 L7

Large-scale WebGL-powered Geospatial Data Visualization analysis framework, maintained by Alibaba

JS maps 4.1K 112 MIT
8 PyVista

3D plotting and mesh analysis through a streamlined interface for the Visualization Toolkit (VTK)

Python 3.8K 884 MIT
9 VisPy

High-performance scientific visualization based on OpenGL.

Python 3.6K 62 BSD-3-Clause
10 VTK

Open-source library for 3d Graphics, image processing and visualization.

C++ 3.2K 5,558 BSD
11 vedo

Library for scientific analysis and visualization of 3D objects based on VTK.

Python 2.3K 263 MIT
12 Polyscope

Viewer and user interface for 3D geometry processing.

C++ 2.2K 61 MIT
13 rayshader

2D and 3D mapping and data visualization in R, including 3D renders of ggplot2 plots.

R 2.2K 33 GPL-3.0
14 vtk.js

JavaScript implementation of the Visualization Toolkit (VTK) for scientific visualization on the web.

More JavaScript 1.5K 361 BSD-3-Clause
15 Mayavi

Interactive scientific data visualization and 3D plotting in Python.

Python 1.4K 43 BSD-3-Clause
16 glumpy Inactive

OpenGL scientific visualizations library.

Python 1.3K 0 BSD-3-Clause
17 pptk Inactive

Visualize and work with 2D/3D pointclouds

Python 635 0 MIT
18 yt

Toolkit for analysis and visualization of volumetric data.

Python 559 400 BSD-3-Clause
19 VisIt

Visualization and analysis tool for large mesh-based scientific data, developed at LLNL.

C++ 532 353 BSD-3-Clause
20 LabPlot

KDE application for interactive scientific plotting, data analysis and visualization.

Apps & tools 486 1,428 –
21 TTK

Topological data analysis and visualization.

C++ 481 480 BSD-3-Clause
22 PGFPlots

TeX package for drawing 2D and 3D plots directly in LaTeX documents.

Diagrams as code 257 13 –
23 three.py Inactive

Easy to use 3D library based on PyOpenGL. Inspired by Three.js.

Python 121 0 MIT
24 rgl

3D Visualization Using OpenGL

R 103 36 GPL-2.0
25 gnuplot

Command-line driven program for 2D and 3D plots, with many output formats.

Apps & tools – – – –

Head-to-head comparisons

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Frequently asked questions

What is the most popular 3D and scientific visualization tool?

By GitHub stars, 3d-force-graph is the most popular, with 6.4K stars, followed by Potree (5.6K) and Matplot++ (4.9K).

Which 3D and scientific visualization tools are actively maintained?

21 of the 25 tools listed had commits in the last 12 months, including 3d-force-graph, Potree, Matplot++, F3D, and maptalks.js. Each tool page shows monthly commit activity.

Are these 3D and scientific visualization tools free and open source?

21 of the 25 tools listed use an OSI-approved open-source license; the others are source-available, free to use, or use a custom license, so check each tool page. The most common license here is MIT.

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