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ephtracy / ephtracy.github.io

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STL export? #7

Open mchogan opened 7 years ago

mchogan commented 7 years ago

MagicaVoxel has worked great as a way to introduce students in elementary school to CAD and 3D printing. The OBJ export can be 3D printed using Cura but other slicing engines still require STL as an input format. It would be great if you could add it!

ephtracy commented 7 years ago

hi, I'm searching about the STL format. any suggestion about what information I should include in the exported file?

mchogan commented 7 years ago

Hi, I will remember to check my GitHub notifications more often. I'm having trouble finding a recently published file format specification, but did find this 1989 version.

Here's a nice overview article on STL that claims that, "the technical specifications of the STL file format have remained virtually unchanged" since the initial release. So maybe 1989 is current?

The STL page on Wikipedia has links to software packages that handle STL. FreeCAD and Blender are open source software, so might offer examples for code that handles STL export.

It looks like the next generation format is intended to be the Additive Manufacturing Format, AMF. AMF has an ISO standard but I've not seen this format used in desktop class 3D printers.

mchogan commented 7 years ago

GrabCAD blog has a post on AMF and 3MF. These formats seem like a better fit for MagicaVoxel than STL since they support material and color information, allowing multiple materials and colors. Also, the technical specifications for these formats seems more complete / open.

I'm still researching Sli3er, Cura, Mattercontrol, and Simplify3D support. Here's what I've learned so far...

AMF

3MF