Previews for everything

LENS

Every file, visible. Wherever it lives.

Lens turns every black-box file into a browser preview: 3D models spin, camera RAW opens, EXR frames display, 5,000-page PDFs page through. No copies, no plugins, no specialist workstation.

What changes
01

Open the unopenable

Camera RAW, VFX frames, 3D models, formats that died years ago. Files that used to need a specialist workstation now open in your browser, in seconds.

02

Nothing moves first

Lens reads files where they already live: cloud, on-prem, network storage. No migration project, no proxy farm, no waiting on a copy before you can look.

03

Light on your network

A ~500 MB video previews from a ~10 MB read: ~50x lighter in our tests. Browsing a deep archive feels instant, not expensive.

04

Reuse beats re-make

A library only exists if you can see into it. When every file previews, your team finds what you already paid for before budgeting it again.

How it does it

~140 formats across six families

3D and CAD models, camera RAW from major systems, VFX and film frames such as EXR and DPX tone-mapped for the browser, broadcast video including MXF, 26 audio formats rendered as waveforms, and multi-page PDFs up to 5,000 pages. A small number of exotic sub-variants fall back to metadata-only handling.

3D turntables, rendered on GPUs

Point Lens at an obj, fbx or glb and get a GPU-rendered turntable with 0, 90, 180 and 270 degree views. GPU rendering runs 10-100x faster than CPU paths, and 3D parsing runs in a disposable sandbox that fails closed.

Byte-range reads, not full downloads

Lens reads just the bytes it needs. On S3 that means a ~500 MB video previews from a ~10 MB read, ~50x lighter in our tests on repeat views with cache. There is no pre-generation step: previews render on first request, then cache.

Wherever the file lives

Amazon S3 with byte-range reads, Box through its native API with thumbnail passthrough, Google Drive, NFS, SMB including Synology, and StorageDNA-managed LTO tape through its catalog index. Isilon and similar are reached over NFS or SMB export.

Built to be hammered

32 concurrent preview requests per node with a crash-isolated render pool, so a crash on one file is contained and the rest keep rendering. Previews stream, cache, and deliver by signed URL, and the URL's expiry never outlives the signing credential.

For your engineers

The technical depths.

Counts and limits below are verified against shipping code. The full capability datasheet is available on request.

Lens specifications
Format coverage
~140 formats (136 counted): 3D/CAD · camera RAW · VFX, film and pro image · video · 26 audio formats · multi-page PDF
3D & CAD
obj · fbx · gltf · glb · stl · ply · dae · 3ds · blend · ifc · dxf and more; 3D parsing runs in a disposable sandbox and fails closed
Camera RAW
cr2 · cr3 · nef · arw · dng · raf · orf · rw2 · 3fr · fff · iiq · k25 · kdc · mef · mos · mrw · nrw · pef · srw · x3f
VFX, film & pro image
exr · dpx · cin · hdr · tga · sgi · psd · svg · eps · ai · jp2 · j2k · avif · heic plus standard web and print formats; HDR sources tone-mapped and Cineon log converted for browser display
Video
mp4 · mov · mkv · mxf · avi · webm · wmv · m2ts · mts · ts · vob · f4v · 3gp · divx · flv · mpg · m4v · ogv · asf and more
Audio & documents
26 audio formats routed to preview, rendered as waveforms · multi-page PDF preview with page ranges, up to 5,000 pages
Preview outputs
On-the-fly thumbnails · GPU-rendered 3D turntables (0°/90°/180°/270° views) · video frame extraction · audio waveform renders · multi-page document previews; no pre-generation step, previews render on first request
Performance
~500 MB video previewed from a ~10 MB S3 byte-range read (~50x in our tests, repeat views with cache) · GPU 3D rendering 10-100x vs CPU paths · 32 concurrent preview requests per node, crash-isolated render pool
Storage & delivery
S3 (byte-range aware) · Box (native API, thumbnail passthrough) · Google Drive · NFS · SMB incl. Synology · StorageDNA-managed LTO via its catalog index; Isilon via NFS/SMB export. Streamed, cached, signed-URL delivery; expiry never outlives the signing credential
Questions
What file formats can Lens preview?

Lens previews about 140 formats directly in the browser: 3D models as GPU-rendered turntables, camera RAW files such as CR2, NEF and ARW, VFX frames such as EXR and DPX, broadcast video including MXF, 26 audio formats with waveform renders, and PDFs up to 5,000 pages. A small number of exotic sub-variants fall back to metadata-only handling.

Does Lens move or copy files to generate previews?

No. Lens reads files where they live and renders previews on first request, with no pre-generation step. On S3 it uses byte-range reads, so a roughly 500 MB video previews from a roughly 10 MB read: about 50x lighter in our tests. Previews are then cached and delivered by signed URL.

Where does Lens run, and how is it secured?

Lens runs in your AWS account or on-prem as part of Asset Foundry, and in production deployments content stays in your environment. The platform is SOC 2 Type II aligned and designed for MPA content-security best practices, with SSO, role-based access control and audit logging. Preview URLs are signed, and their expiry never outlives the signing credential.