Software for Rapid Prototyping



The File Format

  1. STL
  2. CLI: Common Layer Interface, Version 2.0
  3. RPI: (Acrobat .pdf: 112 Kb) (Macintosh PostScript: 1.2 Mb)
  4. SLC: layer contours (FDM version) by Jan Holge Bohn
  5. SLI
  6. BIN

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The File Format

1. The .STL File Format

The .STL (stereolithography) file is the de-facto standard CAD representation for RP. It was established by 3D Systems in the late 80s. The .STL format of a CAD model is a faceted surface representation,i.e. a list of the triangular surfaces with no adjacency information. This is the standard input for most RP systems. There are two format for .STL files: binary and ASCII which differs as follow:


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4. The .SLC file format

.SLC files are used in the fused deposition modeling (FDM) process fromStratasys, Inc. They describe the contours on, and the thickness of, each build layer.

In the case of the FDM 1600 rapid prototyping system:

Example:

The bold characters should be typed as is. The italic characters should be substituted with their corresponding values.

Slice V0             #  0 = zero
FILE(filename)       #  filename may include full path
SLICES()             #
Z z dz               #  z = absolute z of layer, dz = layer thickness
x y                  #  Provide the coordinates of the corner points
x y                  #  along each contour.  Do not duplicate the
x y                  #  first point.  The is no upper limit on the
x y                  #  number of points in a contour.
x y                  #
C                    #  Terminate the contour with a "C".
x y                  #  Begin the second contour on this level...
x y                  #
x y                  #
x y                  #
x y                  #
C                    #  Terminate the second contour.
Z z dz               #  Begin a new layer (z = z.old + dz)
x y                  #  Begin a new contour on a new level...
x y                  #
x y                  #
x y                  #
x y                  #
C                    #  Terminate the contour.
END                  #  All following lines are ignored.


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The Commercial Software

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The Shareware

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The CAD Software with .STL Interface


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