Stereolithography Rapid Prototyping Data
Use
You can view Stereolithography Rapid Prototyping Data ..stl) files. You can also save files to this format. The STL export plug-in writes out the scene to an ASCII-formatted or binary-formatted Stereoithography .stl file.
The .stl file format is an intermediate data file that allows stereolithography devices to deal with solids made by triangles. It is typically generated as a by-product of geometry rich CAD data. For example, NURBS. While still a means to move around unstructured meshes made by triangles, this file format is growing in popularity due to its simplicity: .stl files are composed of a set of many unsorted triangular facets. An .stl file has two formats: ASCII and binary. When the binary format is used to describe an STL file, the data size is much smaller than the ASCII format. For this reason, most .stl files available now use the binary format.
Supported
-
ASCII and binary versions
Features
This format contains export options. You can use them to customize the way in which your file is saved.
Export Interface
|
Field |
Functional Description |
|---|---|
|
ASCII Mode |
Sets the way in which the file is saved. Yes saves the file in ASCII format, and No saves the file as a binary file. |
Example
The following example shows the ASCII format of an .stl file:
solid sample.stlfacet normal -1.000000 0.000000 0.000000outer loopvertex 140.502634 233.993075 -38.310362vertex 140.502634 229.424780 -38.359042vertex 140.502634 242.525774 -27.097848endloopendfacetfacet normal 0.903689 0.004563 0.428166outerloopvertex 134.521310 273.427873 30.342009vertex 134.521310 308.505852 30.715799vertex 140.502634 334.576026 18.369396endloopendfacetfacet normal -0.903689 0.004563 0.428166outer loopvertex 140.502634 334.576026 18.369396vertex 140.502634 294.929752 17.946926vertex 134.521310 273.427873 30.342009endloopendfacet... ...endsolid sample.stl