/threejs-geometry

name: threejs-geometry
description: "Creating and shaping three.js geometry: built-in shapes, 3D text, vertex buffers and attributes, merging, instancing, batching, point clouds and lines, on WebGL or with WebGPU and TSL. Use when building 3D shapes or text, custom vertex data, custom meshes, instanced meshes, or point clouds."

Three.js Geometry

Targets three.js r186. Examples use WebGLRenderer; the WebGPU and TSL section uses WebGPURenderer.

Quick Start

import * as THREE from "three";

const renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer({ antialias: true });
renderer.setPixelRatio(window.devicePixelRatio);
renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight);
document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement);

const scene = new THREE.Scene();

const camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(75, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 0.1, 100);
camera.position.set(0, 0, 5);

// A geometry is the shape; many meshes can share one geometry instance
const mesh = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.BoxGeometry(1, 1, 1), new THREE.MeshNormalMaterial());
scene.add(mesh);

renderer.setAnimationLoop(animate);

function animate() {
  mesh.rotation.y += 0.01;
  renderer.render(scene, camera);
}

Built-in Geometries

Basic Shapes

new THREE.BoxGeometry(1, 1, 1); // width, height, depth, widthSegments, heightSegments, depthSegments
new THREE.SphereGeometry(1, 32, 16); // radius, widthSegments, heightSegments, phiStart, phiLength, thetaStart, thetaLength
new THREE.SphereGeometry(1, 32, 16, 0, Math.PI); // half sphere (phi sweep, cut through the poles)
new THREE.SphereGeometry(1, 32, 16, 0, Math.PI * 2, 0, Math.PI / 2); // dome (cut at the equator)
new THREE.PlaneGeometry(10, 10, 1, 1); // width, height, widthSegments, heightSegments
new THREE.CircleGeometry(1, 32); // radius, segments, thetaStart, thetaLength
new THREE.CylinderGeometry(1, 1, 2, 32); // radiusTop, radiusBottom, height, radialSegments, heightSegments, openEnded, thetaStart, thetaLength
new THREE.CylinderGeometry(1, 1, 2, 6); // hexagonal prism
new THREE.ConeGeometry(1, 2, 32); // radius, height, radialSegments, heightSegments, openEnded, thetaStart, thetaLength
new THREE.TorusGeometry(1, 0.4, 16, 100); // radius, tube, radialSegments, tubularSegments, arc, thetaStart, thetaLength
new THREE.TorusGeometry(1, 0.4, 16, 100, Math.PI); // half arc
new THREE.TorusKnotGeometry(1, 0.4, 100, 16, 2, 3); // radius, tube, tubularSegments, radialSegments, p, q
new THREE.RingGeometry(0.5, 1, 32, 1); // innerRadius, outerRadius, thetaSegments, phiSegments, thetaStart, thetaLength

Advanced Shapes

new THREE.CapsuleGeometry(0.5, 1, 4, 8, 1); // radius, height (the middle section only), capSegments, radialSegments, heightSegments

// radius, detail - each detail level subdivides every face
new THREE.IcosahedronGeometry(1, 0); // 20 faces at detail 0
new THREE.DodecahedronGeometry(1, 0);
new THREE.OctahedronGeometry(1, 0);
new THREE.TetrahedronGeometry(1, 0);

// Polyhedron - flat vertices array, indices, radius, detail
const vertices = [1, 1, 1, -1, -1, 1, -1, 1, -1, 1, -1, -1];
const indices = [2, 1, 0, 0, 3, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 3, 1];
new THREE.PolyhedronGeometry(vertices, indices, 1, 0);

Path-Based Shapes

// Lathe - a Vector2 profile rotated around the Y axis: points, segments, phiStart, phiLength
const profile = [
  new THREE.Vector2(0, 0), new THREE.Vector2(0.5, 0), new THREE.Vector2(0.5, 1), new THREE.Vector2(0, 1),
];
new THREE.LatheGeometry(profile, 32);

// Extrude - a 2D Shape pushed along Z
const shape = new THREE.Shape();
shape.moveTo(0, 0);
shape.lineTo(1, 0);
shape.lineTo(1, 1);
shape.lineTo(0, 1);
new THREE.ExtrudeGeometry(shape, {
  steps: 1, depth: 1, bevelEnabled: true,
  bevelThickness: 0.1, bevelSize: 0.1, bevelSegments: 3,
});

// Tube - a circular sweep along a curve: path, tubularSegments, radius, radialSegments, closed
const curve = new THREE.CatmullRomCurve3([
  new THREE.Vector3(-1, 0, 0), new THREE.Vector3(0, 1, 0), new THREE.Vector3(1, 0, 0),
]);
new THREE.TubeGeometry(curve, 64, 0.2, 8, false);

Text Geometry

import { FontLoader } from "three/addons/loaders/FontLoader.js";
import { TextGeometry } from "three/addons/geometries/TextGeometry.js";

// A .typeface.json font, from examples/fonts in the three.js repository
const font = await new FontLoader().loadAsync("fonts/helvetiker_regular.typeface.json");
const geometry = new TextGeometry("Hello", {
  font: font,
  size: 1, // text size in world units
  depth: 0.2, // extrusion depth
  curveSegments: 12,
  bevelEnabled: true,
  bevelThickness: 0.03,
  bevelSize: 0.02,
  direction: "ltr", // 'ltr', 'rtl' (right to left) or 'tb' (top to bottom)
});

geometry.center(); // recentre the glyphs on the origin
scene.add(new THREE.Mesh(geometry, new THREE.MeshNormalMaterial()));

BufferGeometry

The base class of every geometry: typed arrays of vertex data plus an optional index. Attributes are named buffers of `itemSize` values per vertex; `position`, `normal` and `uv` are the ones materials read by default.

Custom BufferGeometry

const geometry = new THREE.BufferGeometry();

// Four vertices, three floats each (x, y, z)
const vertices = new Float32Array([-1, -1, 0, 1, -1, 0, 1, 1, 0, -1, 1, 0]);
geometry.setAttribute("position", new THREE.BufferAttribute(vertices, 3));

// Indices reuse vertices across the two triangles
const indices = new Uint16Array([0, 1, 2, 0, 2, 3]);
geometry.setIndex(new THREE.BufferAttribute(indices, 1));

// Normals drive the lighting, UVs address textures
const normals = new Float32Array([0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1]);
geometry.setAttribute("normal", new THREE.BufferAttribute(normals, 3));
const uvs = new Float32Array([0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1]);
geometry.setAttribute("uv", new THREE.BufferAttribute(uvs, 2));
// Optional per-vertex colors, rendered with material.vertexColors = true
const colors = new Float32Array([1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0