How to Show a Client a 3D Model in AR From a Link — No App, No Install

A 3D model a client can walk around in their own living room lands differently than a render on a screen. The obstacle has always been delivery: viewer apps, logins, file formats nobody can open. This is how to do it with a link.

Step 1: Get a model

Two routes. Generate one: upload one to four photos of the building to 3D Studio (400 credits; extra angles cost nothing and noticeably improve the far side of the model) and get back a textured mesh you can download as GLB, OBJ, USDZ, or STL. Or import one: drop a .glb, .obj, or .stl exported from any 3D application — up to 50 MB, free — and it lands in your History with the same viewer and the same sharing.

If the model is right but the material story isn't, restyle it in the 3D Workshop (150 credits) rather than regenerating from scratch.

Step 2: Create the link

One click on a finished model creates a private, unlisted share link. The model is saved to Archify, so the link keeps working — it doesn't depend on a provider's temporary file, and it isn't indexed by search engines. Client share links are a Studio-tier feature; the in-app AR viewer is available on every plan.

Step 3: What the client does

1. Opens the link in their phone's browser. Nothing to install, no account.
2. Spins, zooms, and pans the model in the page. On a desktop that's the whole experience.
3. On a phone, taps View in AR. iPhone opens it in Apple's AR viewer; Android opens it in Google's. The model is placed on a detected floor or table at real scale and can be pinched larger or smaller.
4. Optionally switches between Solid — the real textured model — and Hologram, a translucent, self-lit version that lets the real room show through it.

Tips that make the difference

• Send the link in advance over Wi-Fi. The first AR load pulls the model onto the phone; on cellular that's a wait you don't want in the meeting.
• Aim at an open patch of floor. A whole-house model placed on top of a sofa will intersect it.
• For a full house at true scale, go outside or into a large room. For a desk-side conversation, pinch it down to tabletop size — it reads as a physical model.

The physics you can't change

On recent iPhones, the phone's depth sensor lets real objects hide the parts of a virtual model behind them. If the model overlaps the client's actual furniture, the furniture wins — the model looks like it's merging with the sofa. That is Apple's AR viewer doing its job, and nothing a web link can switch off; the fix is placement, not settings. Hologram mode makes the overlap read as deliberate rather than broken, which is exactly why it exists.

One more honest note: a model generated from photographs is a single fused mesh. It's excellent for massing, materials, and the conversation in the room. It is not something you can measure or edit wall-by-wall — for that, model the building in Design Studio and export the GLB from there.