Workflow and automation
Turning 3D back on in your browser
Everything here is drawn by your own graphics card — that is why a CAD file never has to be uploaded anywhere. It needs one browser feature, WebGL 2, and a handful of settings can switch it off. This is the fix for each browser, and how to find out which one applies to you.
What WebGL is, and why this site needs it
WebGL is the standard that lets a web page draw with the graphics card instead of the processor. It is what makes a ring rotate smoothly at sixty frames a second, and what makes ray-traced diamonds possible in a browser tab at all. Every current browser has had WebGL 2, the version used here, since 2021.
It matters more here than on most sites, because the rendering is the privacy model. Rendermio has no render server: the file is converted and photographed on your own machine, which is why an unreleased design stays unreleased. Without the GPU there is nothing to fall back to.
Chrome and Edge: graphics acceleration
By far the most common cause. Hardware acceleration gets switched off by IT policy, by a tweak someone applied to save battery, or by a past driver crash — and once it is off, WebGL goes with it.
- Open a new tab and go to chrome://settings/system — on Edge, edge://settings/system. You have to type or paste it: browsers will not let a web page open their own settings.
- Switch on “Use graphics acceleration when available”.
- Press Relaunch (Restart on Edge). The browser reopens with your tabs.
- If it was already on, open chrome://gpu (or edge://gpu). The Graphics Feature Status list at the top says what is disabled and why — “Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable” next to WebGL means the driver is being blocked.
- In that case, update the graphics driver from the GPU maker's site, then check chrome://gpu again.
- Corporate machines: this setting is often locked by policy — your IT team can unlock it
- Remote desktops and virtual machines frequently have no GPU to accelerate; a local browser will work where the remote one cannot
Firefox
Firefox exposes WebGL as a preference, and its anti-fingerprinting mode turns it off as a side effect.
- Open about:config in a new tab and accept the warning.
- Search for webgl.disabled. It should be false — double-click to flip it if it is not.
- If your graphics card is being blocked rather than disabled, search for webgl.force-enabled and set it to true.
- If you use Resist Fingerprinting (privacy.resistFingerprinting), it switches WebGL off deliberately; this site needs an exception for it to work.
- Reload the page.
Safari, and Lockdown Mode on iPhone and iPad
Safari on the Mac has WebGL on by default, but the Develop menu can disable it, and Lockdown Mode switches it off on every Apple device. On an iPhone or iPad, Lockdown Mode is almost always the answer — and note that every browser on iOS is Safari underneath, so switching to Chrome there changes nothing.
- On a Mac: Safari → Settings → Advanced → tick “Show features for web developers”, then in the Develop menu make sure “Disable WebGL” is unticked.
- On an iPhone or iPad: Settings → Privacy & Security → Lockdown Mode.
- Either turn Lockdown Mode off, or tap Configure Web Browsing and add this site to the excluded list.
- Reload the page.
Brave, and privacy extensions
Brave's fingerprinting shield blocks WebGL because the GPU's name and quirks can be used to identify a machine. That is a fair concern in general, and it is worth knowing that this site does not read any of it: the GPU is used to draw, and nothing about your file or your hardware is sent anywhere.
- Click the Shields icon — the lion — in the address bar.
- Set “Block fingerprinting” to Standard, or turn Shields off for this site only.
- Reload the page.
- Other privacy extensions — CanvasBlocker, Trace, and the strict modes of some ad blockers — do the same thing. Disable them for this site if the shield change alone does not help.
“Your browser supports WebGL 1 but not WebGL 2”
A different problem with a different fix. WebGL 1 is the 2011 version; the studio's renderer needs WebGL 2, which arrived in 2017 and became universal in 2021. If you see this, the browser or the device is old rather than misconfigured.
Update the browser first. If it is already current, the graphics driver is usually what is holding it at WebGL 1 — or, on an older phone or tablet, the hardware itself. A desktop or laptop from the last several years will run it.
How to check whether it worked
Come back to this site and reload. If the ring on the home page spins, you are set. Failing that, any WebGL test page will confirm whether the browser is now giving pages a WebGL 2 context, which separates a browser problem from a problem with this site.
The studio also needs a reasonable GPU to be pleasant — it runs on integrated graphics and is much happier on anything better. Everything here happens on your own machine: the file is converted and rendered in the browser through your GPU and is never uploaded, so an unreleased design stays unreleased.
Questions
How do I enable WebGL in Chrome?
Open chrome://settings/system in a new tab, switch on “Use graphics acceleration when available”, and press Relaunch. If it was already on, chrome://gpu will name what is blocking it — usually an out-of-date graphics driver.
Why does it say WebGL is off when I never turned it off?
It is rarely a WebGL setting as such. Hardware acceleration being off in the browser, a graphics driver on the browser's blocklist, a fingerprinting shield such as Brave's, or Lockdown Mode on an Apple device will each produce exactly this.
Does Rendermio work on a phone?
It runs on a current phone, but it is built for a desktop browser: the toolbar is tight on a small screen and renders are far slower. On an iPhone, Lockdown Mode blocks it entirely until the site is excluded.
Is there a version that does not need WebGL?
No. The rendering happens on your machine precisely so that files are never uploaded, and that requires the GPU. A server-rendered version would mean sending your CAD file to us, which is the one thing this product promises not to do.
Why does the site need my GPU at all?
To draw the picture. It reads no information about your graphics card beyond what is needed to render, and nothing about your hardware or your file leaves the machine.
Free · runs in your browser · your file is never uploaded