Digital printing is one of the highest advanced technologies that have led humans to conquer on various platforms by using 3d printed files. It has created enormous ways of getting realistic through the power of imagination. Doctors, engineers, designers, entrepreneurs, students and many other people all over the globe are using computer-aided guide (CAD) programs for business and economy growth. It is just a matter of a few MB file to create an everlasting impact in the world.
Most commonly used 3d print files
The most widely used 3d print files are STL, OBJ, AMF and 3MF files. These files serve as the information centres for the object to be printed. The information regarding texture, size, colour, material and geometry are well stored in one place in the form of these files. Every file has its own specific format which helps in transferring data to the 3D printer. And the final model details are based on the type of data provided.
To choose the best 3D file, it is of immense value to understand the design and technology of the digital printer to be used. Because it’s the printer that will be encoding the file and transforming an object out of it. Any file that the printer software does not support will be useless in determining any model out of it. Therefore, the data should be easily accessible and downloadable to appropriately transform. The information it contains should be humanly readable along with
software encodings to manually judge the expected outcome.
STL file is considered to be one of the most convenient file formats for digital printing. STL stands for Stereolithography, and it is believed as the leading standard of 3D printing in many factories worldwide. The reason for its popularity lies in the fact of its invention. It was invented right after digital printing was introduced, and now almost every digital printer is capable of supporting STL file format. It has a drawback of being outdated and slow and at the same time is a limited information holder for the internal geometry of the object. But despite its limitations, it is one of the most widely used because of its assistance with every aspect of hardware and software of digital printers.
The future of the 3D print files
Although spectacular advancements are made in the field of digital printing with ample amounts of files introduced, the demand for specific file formats is high because of the compatibility with the 3D printers. Therefore the manufacturers are bound to produce the same repeated hardware and software because of the high demand and community needs. The near future seems to move on the same line as it is for now. Because up till now there is no such file format introduced which is easily accessible with surpassing the limitations of previously used formats. We can figure STL files to remain popular for at least the next five years.
