Page 11 - 3D Printing: The Revolution in Personalized Manufacturing

THE FILE FORMATS

3D PRINTING RELIES ON FOUR MAIN FILE FORMATS:

STL. Innovator Chuck Hull created the STL le format,
the oldest, most common 3D le type. It interfaces
between (talks to) 3D software and 3D printers. STL
was created to handle simple one-color, one-material
objects for prototypes, not nished products. STL
does not handle more complex print jobs that require
multiple colors or multiple materials.

OBJ. Object le is a common le format for 3D printing.
Many design software programs allow you to save les
in OBJ, and most printers accept OBJ as a printable le.

AMF. The additive manufacturing le format allows any
design software to describe the shape and composition
of any object to be printed on any 3D printer. The
international ASTM Committee F42 on Additive
Manufacturing Technologies developed the format,
hoping it will become the standard for 3D printing le
format.

3MF. 3D Manufacturing Format is a Microsoft Windows
format. It is becoming more common for 3D printing.
Microsoft wants 3MF to become the standard.

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