3D Manufacturing Format
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Search complete. 8 mentions across 3 episodes found for "3D Manufacturing Format".
Sep 17, 2026
speaker_1HOST
The absolute gold standard.
speaker_0HOST
Then we have 3MF, which defines unit scale, color, materials, and even printer orientation natively within the file.
speaker_0HOST
And finally, we have STL, the legacy format from 1987.
speaker_1HOST
And STL is where the automation nightmares really begin.
speaker_0HOST
Just completely banned it.
speaker_1HOST
Banned it.
speaker_1HOST
Instead, scripts running build123rd will tessellate the BREP solid geometry directly into 3MF packages.
speaker_1HOST
And they do this while programmatically controlling the chordal deflection tolerances.
Wesley EssinkGUEST
So one of them is volumetric data.
Wesley EssinkGUEST
So that can be either a 3MF file or a VDB file.
Wesley EssinkGUEST
It could be mesh data using the adaptive meshing strategies that we have with different file formats.
Wesley EssinkGUEST
It could be in a B-REP itself.
Wesley EssinkGUEST
Or we can use the PolyNURBS tool in Inspire to wrap implicit bodies with B-REP or NURBS geometry.
Wesley EssinkGUEST
It could be beams.
Wesley EssinkGUEST
So if you've got a strut lattice and you just want to take the 1D elements out, you can do that through either the FEM and take it to a different solver or 3MF and go and print them.
Wesley EssinkGUEST
There's slight data as well.
Mary BakerGUEST
So you want to have some ability to do that from within the workflow too.
Mary BakerGUEST
And then finally, as just a last sort of a request, one of the things I've been doing is writing an importer and exporter for the 3MF format for Houdini, and I hope to follow on with Blender.
Mary BakerGUEST
And I think 3MF is one of the best formats for representing this kind of work, especially with the volumetric extension.
Mary BakerGUEST
And so if anybody is interested in helping to test that or to contribute to it in some way, I'd love to hear from you.
Mary BakerGUEST
So thank you.