modly
lightningpixel
Local desktop app that turns images into 3D models on your own GPU, no cloud, with GLB/OBJ/STL export.
What is modly?
An Electron desktop app that turns images into 3D mesh models using open image-to-3D AI models running locally on your GPU, with no cloud or account. It does automatic background removal, has a built-in 3D viewer and collections, exports to GLB, OBJ, STL and PLY, and pulls models in via an extension system (the default being Hunyuan3D-2 Mini).
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Truly local and private: on-device GPU inference, no cloud, no account, no generation limits, standard export formats
- A maintained cross-platform codebase with prebuilt installers and a swappable-model extension system
- The app code itself is permissive (MIT-based)
Cons
- The default model (Hunyuan3D-2 Mini) is under Tencent's restrictive non-OSI community licence, so 'open source' cleanly covers the app, not the model weights you generate with
- Beta (v0.4.0) and GPU-dependent
- Output quality depends on third-party models the project does not control
License
MIT (OSI-open) - model license: Hunyuan3D-2 Mini: tencent-hunyuan-community (non-OSI, restricted)
The app code is an intact MIT grant (GitHub shows 'NOASSERTION' only because of an added attribution clause); but the default 3D model it downloads, Tencent's Hunyuan3D-2 Mini, is under the non-OSI 'tencent-hunyuan-community' licence with commercial and territorial restrictions, so the models you generate are not OSI-open.
When it is interesting
A hobbyist or indie 3D-asset maker who wants free, private, on-device image-to-3D without cloud credits.
When it is too early
If you lack a capable GPU, need production-grade meshes, or need to commercialise generated models at scale (model-licence limits).
Commercial alternative & related
- Commercial counterpart: Meshy
This repo featured in the 2026-07 edition of the Open-Source AI Radar.
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