Open MVR files in your browser

What an MVR file is

MVR, short for My Virtual Rig, is the open exchange format the live-event industry uses to move a show between tools. One .mvr file is a zip archive containing a scene description in XML plus the GDTF fixture definitions it references. The scene carries the whole rig: layers, fixtures with their universe and address, trusses, scenic objects, groups, symbols and positions. Each referenced GDTF carries that fixture's own 3D geometry, so an MVR is a complete, self-contained picture of the rig rather than a drawing that depends on your local library being in sync.

That makes it the natural handover format between design, programming and production. It also makes it awkward to open. Reading one normally means owning a console tool or a previsualiser. This viewer exists to close that gap.

What this viewer does

• Parses the full MVR data model: layers, fixtures, trusses, scene objects, groups, symbols, classes, positions and patch data, straight from the archive.
• Renders real fixture geometry: the embedded GDTF models are extracted and drawn rather than approximated, with instancing so a thousand-fixture rig stays smooth.
• Layer tree with visibility toggles: isolate a truss, a position or a single layer to read a busy plot.
• Full patch list: every fixture with its type, universe and address, sortable and searchable, click-to-select and frame in 3D.
• Orbit, orthographic plan and section views, with clipping planes and a print-scale badge for reading distances off a plot.
• PDF plot export: save the views you have set up as a paper plot (sign-in required).

Paperwork when you are on the move

The export wizard turns the view on screen into a printable plot: pick camera presets or your own saved views, drop them on A4, A3 or A2 paper, size the fixture ID and patch bubbles, add a key to symbols, and export a PDF. The page layout is drag-and-drop, so a plate can be moved, resized or cropped before it prints.

These tools are deliberately limited. They are not a replacement for the paperwork you would produce in Vectorworks. There is no schedule templating, no title-block editor and no drawing tools. What they are for is the situation every touring tech knows: you are away from your workstation, someone needs a plot, and all you have is the MVR. In a couple of minutes you can hand over something accurate and readable.

Your file stays in your browser

Everything happens client-side. The zip is unpacked in the page, the XML is parsed there too and the geometry is handed straight to WebGL. There is no upload step and no server that could hold your file, because there is no backend behind this viewer at all. You can open a confidential show file on a client's laptop without it going anywhere.

Formats and limitations

Reads .mvr archives and the GDTF files inside them, including .glb and legacy .3ds meshes as well as GDTF primitive shapes. Missing or unresolvable assets fall back to a correctly sized placeholder plus a warning rather than a failed load, because exporters vary and real files are messy.

It is deliberately a geometry and patch viewer. There is no beam visualisation, no photometric data, no DMX playback and no editing. You cannot move a fixture and save the file back. If you need previsualisation, use a previsualiser; if you need to read, check or share what is inside an MVR, this is faster than opening the software that made it.