3D Printing has become a major deal among students, entrepreneurs, various hobby enthusiasts, and other massive factories. With the help of 3D printing & 3D printer files, one is now able to transform a digital design into a tangible object that can be used for many purposes. In the coming years, the use of 3D printing will become even more essential.
But when it comes to 3D printing, there are many types of file formats you can use to get 3D prints out, all of which work well but aren't equally yoked to perform well. Today, we will be talking about some common file formats, and they work individually and in comparison as well. The most common types of file formats are STL, OBJ, AMF and 3MF files. Here you'll be able to get to know about all of these file types.
Before all that, it's essential to find out what file formats are in the first place.
What exactly are 3D Printer file formats anyway?
In order to print a three-dimensional figure, any 3D printer needs a digital blueprint of an object of its choice. This digital blueprint is stored in a file that holds the basic geometric structure of the object. It stores information about the color, material, makes, and texture of the object to be 3D printed. As mentioned earlier, 3D printing file formats are of many formats, but only some of them can be used as emerging go-to formats for 3D printing.
What do these three-letter extensions mean, and how do they matter?
These extensions that end with three letters are actually different types of 3D printer file formats.
The reasons how the extensions, matter:
The type of 3D Printer File Format decides what kind of information goes to the 3D printer - As mentioned earlier, the printer file format carries all information required to make the print from the CAD model used to make the model. The type of information carried varies depending upon the format of the CAD used. Not all CAD models can carry all the same information for printing.
For example: If you wish to print a single material that uses a single color, STL is the best extension 3D printer file format to use. At the same time, if you are looking forward to printing a multicolor print, STL is not the best extension to use.
The 3D printer file formats and tools are yoked together - When you talk about 3D printing software and CAD models, not all file formats are compatible with all software or hardware.
For example: When it comes to the CAD software Blender, it doesn't support 3MF 3D printer file formats; however it works well with STL file formats. So if there's a need to use a 3MF 3D printer, then the best way forward is to move to another software platform for CAD.
The Most Common 3D Printer File Formats
STL - It is by far the simplest open-source 3D printing file formats that support both humanly readable ASCII and binary encodings. It has the capacity to encode the 3D model's geometry but will not be able to support storage of other interesting objects. It cannot store information about colors, texture, pattern, or material.
Why is it so popular?
The crystal clear way of putting it is - it's that the format is simple and also the oldest among the 3D printer file formats. It was first used back in the year 1987 and thus became a norm to be used by all who wanted to do 3D printing. As it was the most practical ration choice, most people used it and got used to its interface.
This right here is a brief summary of 3D printer files, which are the most popular extensions and formats.
