Latest revision as of 01:16, 17 April 2017

STL (Stereo Litography) files are intended to represent three-dimensional shapes using information about the surface of a shape. STL files do not store any volumetric information. Surfaces are triangulated, and the triangles that compose a shape are described using Cartesian points.

Note that STL files do not know anything about scale - all measurements and distances are relative and may be scaled.

Viewing STL Files

ParaView

ParaView: http://www.paraview.org/download/

FreeCAD

Main article: FreeCAD

FreeCAD binary files: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases

When you first open FreeCAD, you'll see this:

If you do a File > Open, you'll see lots of available file formats:

Note: shapefiles are not on the list, because shapefiles are a geographic information system (GIS) format for mapping. But with the shp2stl utility, you can turn your shapefiles into stl files and open them in FreeCAD.

Converting

Converting Shapefiles to STL Files

Main article: Shapefiles

To convert Shapefiles (GIS-friendly format) to STL files (CAD-friendly format), see Shapefiles

Flags

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+STL (Stereo Litography) files are intended to represent three-dimensional shapes using information about the surface of a shape. STL files do not store any volumetric information. Surfaces are triangulated, and the triangles that compose a shape are described using Cartesian points.
+Note that STL files do not know anything about scale - all measurements and distances are relative and may be scaled.
 =Viewing STL Files=
@@ Line 6: / Line 10: @@
 ==FreeCAD==
+{{Main|FreeCAD}}
 FreeCAD binary files: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/releases
-===Visualizing Map Shapefiles===
+When you first open FreeCAD, you'll see this:
+[[Image:FreeCAD1.png|500px]]
+If you do a File > Open, you'll see lots of available file formats:
-I downloaded contour elevation data for the Seattle area, which was contained in a zip file called <code>Elev_322166_Seattle_E_1X1.zip</code>.
+[[Image:FreeCAD2.png|200px]]
-Unzipping results in a pile of files of various formats:
+Note: shapefiles are not on the list, because shapefiles are a geographic information system (GIS) format for mapping. But with the shp2stl utility, you can turn your shapefiles into stl files and open them in FreeCAD.
-[[Image:NationalMapViewerFiles.png|200px]]
+=Converting=
-When you first open FreeCAD, you'll see this:
+==Converting Shapefiles to STL Files==
+{{Main|Shapefiles}}
-[[Image:FreeCAD1.png|500px]]
+To convert Shapefiles (GIS-friendly format) to STL files (CAD-friendly format), see [[Shapefiles]]
 =Flags=

STL Files: Difference between revisions

From charlesreid1