The object turns up in the scene you already have open.

You do not install the add-on. LocalMesh does.

Nobody has to open Blender's preferences. LocalMesh finds the Blenders on the machine, copies the add-on into each of them and switches it on, and Blender remembers it at every launch after that.

1. 1
   Close Blender. A running Blender rewrites its preferences when it quits, which would wipe out the add-on that was just switched on beside it. LocalMesh refuses to install while it is open, and tells you why.
2. 2
   Click Install the bridge in Blender. It looks in the usual places for the official installer, for the Steam build, and for a blender on your PATH, and it does every version it finds.
3. 3
   Start Blender. The bridge wakes up with it, and it survives opening another .blend file. You do this once.

• Installed somewhere unusual? LocalMesh will save the add-on file wherever you want, and you install it the ordinary way: Edit, Preferences, Add-ons, Install from disk.
• It keeps itself current. When a newer bridge ships with LocalMesh, the bridges panel says so and updates it the same way.

Sending an object

1. 1
   Click the Blender logo on the card. Right next to the download button. The chevron beside it opens the Send to panel, if you would rather send it somewhere else.
2. 2
   Look at Blender. The mesh is in the open scene, brought in by Blender's own glTF importer.
3. 3
   It is already selected. The top object carries the name of the card, the new objects are selected and the first is made active, so you can move it straight away instead of hunting through the outliner.

What the add-on actually is

One Python file. It runs a small server on 127.0.0.1 that knows two things: whether it is there, and how to import one file. It executes no code you send it, it reads nothing on disk except the file it was asked for, and it only accepts the formats Blender imports natively.

The import runs on Blender's main thread through a timer, because that is the only safe way to touch a scene. If Blender is busy, the request waits its turn instead of corrupting anything.

Why it is worth the trouble

Because the useful part is not the import, it is not stopping. A reference photograph becomes an object in the scene you are already in, so you can judge it against your own lighting and next to what is already there. If it is wrong you delete it and make another, and none of that involved a browser, an upload, or a queue.

What it will not do

• Meshes only. The bridge carries .glb, .gltf and .obj. A gaussian splat is a .ply: that file is written to your disk and you open it yourself.
• Blender has to be running. With the bridge installed. If it is closed, LocalMesh can start it for you, and it picks the version that carries the bridge.
• It does not rearrange your scene. It adds objects. It does not move your camera, change your units, or touch your render settings.
• Windows, and Blender 4.2 or newer. LocalMesh is a Windows application, and it wants an NVIDIA card with at least 8 GB of video memory to build the mesh in the first place.