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How to get an STL out of a RAR file

A .rar file is a folder that has been packed into one file. There is no model to convert until it is unpacked — the STL you want is already inside, whole, waiting. Unpack it and you are done, and everything after that works here.

We cannot open a RAR in your browser. Its compression is licensed rather than published, so unlike ZIP there is no free implementation to use. Your computer can already unpack one, and then the files inside work here normally.

Unpacking a RAR, on any computer

Every operating system either does this out of the box or does it with one free program. Pick your own line below.

  1. Windows 11

    Right-click → Extract All

    Windows 11 has read RAR files since late 2023, with nothing to install. Right-click the file, choose Extract All, and pick where the folder should go.

    On Windows 10 this option is not there. Install 7-Zip, which is free, and use the same right-click menu.

  2. macOS

    Open with → The Unarchiver

    macOS opens ZIP files by itself but not RAR. The Unarchiver is free from the App Store; after installing it, double-clicking the .rar unpacks it into a folder beside itself.

    Keka is a good alternative and handles more formats.

  3. Linux

    unar file.rar

    Install `unar` or `unrar` from your package manager and run it on the file, or right-click and use Extract Here in your file manager once one of them is installed.

  4. A phone or a borrowed computer

    Any of the free archive apps will do it. If you would rather not install anything, ask whoever sent the file for a ZIP instead — every program that makes a RAR can make a ZIP.

  5. Then bring the model here

    Inside the folder you will find the actual model files. Drop the one you want onto any converter on this site, or drop a ZIP straight in without extracting it first.

Why ZIP works here and RAR does not

It is not that RAR is harder. It is that RAR is not free to implement. The compression is patented and its decoder is licensed by the company that owns the format, so there is no free implementation small enough or clearly enough licensed to ship in a web page. ZIP was published as an open specification decades ago, which is why a ZIP can be opened here in milliseconds with no download at all.

That is the same distinction that runs through this whole site. A format gets a real converter when reading it is allowed — 3MF, STEP, Rhino 3DM. It gets a page like this one when it is not.

The next time, ask for a ZIP

If you are receiving files from somebody regularly, it is worth saying. A ZIP opens on every computer made in the last twenty years with no software to install, and it can be dropped straight onto this site without being unpacked at all. A RAR compresses slightly better and costs everybody who receives one a detour.

For 3D models the compression difference is close to nothing anyway. An STL is mostly repeated floating-point numbers and both formats squeeze it by about the same amount.

What you will find inside

Usually several model files, a readme, a licence and a few photographs. Most downloads from model sites are packaged this way.

If the models inside are STL, OBJ, 3MF, STEP, PLY, GLB or any of the other formats listed on the home page, they convert here directly. If they are a SolidWorks part, a Fusion archive or a Blender file, no browser tool can read them and the guides for those formats explain what to do instead.

Where we can actually help

Once it is unpacked, drop the model straight in. A ZIP does not even need unpacking first — the ZIP to STL page opens it and lists every model inside.

Questions

Is there any online tool that converts RAR to STL directly?
Any tool claiming to is unpacking the RAR on a server, which means uploading your files to somebody else’s computer. If that is acceptable to you it works; if the files are commercial or personal, unpacking them yourself takes about ten seconds and keeps them on your own machine.
Can I just rename the .rar to .zip?
No. The extension is only a label; the compression inside is genuinely different, and renaming it produces a file that nothing can open. It is a common suggestion and it has never worked.
My RAR is split into several files — part1, part2 and so on.
Download all of them into the same folder and unpack the first one. The unpacker finds the rest by itself. Missing any one of them means the archive cannot be unpacked at all.
The RAR asks for a password.
Only whoever made it can give you that. There is no way round it, and there is nothing this site or any other can do about it.

Where to go next

Related guides

Tools that do part of this here

About these formats

Checked against current software versions on 2026-09-13