Plugins

farman supports external plugins that add viewers and archive formats after the fact. In addition to official plugins, third-party plugins are supported too.

External plugins are native code and run with the same privileges as farman. For safety, loading external plugins is off by default. Only enable plugins from sources you trust.

Available plugins

3D model viewer (FBX / OBJ / glTF / Blender)

Display .fbx, .obj, .gltf, .glb and .blend 3D models inside farman. Supports textures (external and embedded), skeletal animation, multiple materials, a floor grid, wireframe, bone (skeleton) display, back-face culling, and a node hierarchy info panel. Rotate, pan, and zoom with the mouse or keyboard (the keys are configurable under Settings → Keybindings).

Opening a 3D model from farman's file list, switching animation clips, and selecting nodes in the info panel hierarchy to highlight them in the 3D view

* Model in the demo: Mage from KayKit Adventurers and animations from KayKit Character Animations, by Kay Lousberg (CC0). For the demo, Mage and the animations were combined into a single file.

  • Type: viewer
  • Formats: FBX (.fbx), glTF (.gltf, .glb), OBJ (.obj), Blender (.blend, meshes and materials only)
  • Platforms: macOS / Windows / Linux
  • Compatible farman: 0.9.9 or later

Download Repository

What's new in the latest version 1.1.0 · 2026-10-20

Switch between animation clips
  • For files that contain several animations (glTF / FBX), you can now choose which clip to play. Use the selector in the toolbar, or the [ / ] keys. The selector is hidden for files with one clip or fewer.
  • The animation length in the model info at the top left now follows the selected clip.
  • The help panel (H) shows "[ / ] : clip switch" only when the file has several clips.

Notes for earlier versions are on the releases page, in Japanese and English.

LZH (LHA) archive

Browse and extract .lzh / .lha archives, just like zip / tar. Japanese Shift-JIS file names are handled (read-only). The macOS build is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized.

  • Type: archive
  • Platforms: macOS / Windows / Linux
  • Compatible farman: 0.9.8 or later

Download Repository

What's new in the latest version 1.0.0 · 2026-07-22

  • First public release. Browse and extract .lzh / .lha archives (read-only), with Shift-JIS file names handled.

Release notes are also on the releases page.

More plugins will be added over time. Want to build one? See "Plugin development" below.

How to install

External plugins can be installed, updated and uninstalled inside farman, under Settings → Plugins (also reachable from Help → Plugins...). You no longer have to copy files by hand. The steps are the same for any plugin.

  1. Open Settings → Plugins and turn on Allow loading external plugins (off by default).
  2. Official plugins that are not installed yet are listed under "External Plugins". Click Install on the one you want and farman fetches and installs the latest version.
  3. For a file you already have (a third-party plugin, for example), download the file for your OS (macOS: .dylib / Windows: .dll / Linux: .so), then drag and drop it onto the box at the bottom of the page or choose it with Install from File.... farman works out whether it is a viewer or an archive plugin.
  4. The change takes effect the next time farman starts. Use the Restart farman button on the page to restart right away. If the plugin shows as loaded in the list afterwards, it is installed.
Under Settings → Plugins, allow loading external plugins, then drop a file or use Install from File...
Settings → Plugins (top: turn on "Allow loading external plugins" / bottom: drop a file or use "Install from File...")

To update, use "Check for Updates" in the list and click "Update" on any plugin that has one. Uninstalling is done from the same list with "Uninstall...". You can still place files directly into the viewers / archives subfolders of the plugins directory ("Open" at the bottom of the page).

macOS: official plugins are signed + notarized and load as-is. Unsigned third-party plugins may be blocked on first load by download quarantine (follow the provider's instructions). Windows: unsigned plugins may trigger a SmartScreen warning.

Plugin development

farman plugins are written in C++ / Qt. Implement the IViewerPlugin (viewers) or IArchivePlugin (archives) interface and build a dynamic library. The guide covers ABI (Qt version) matching, priority ranges, runtime linking on macOS, a CI template, and more.

Plugin development guide Reference (farman-plugin-lzh)