|
Home >
Products >
STL Export for AutoCAD >
Help > Introduction
STL Export for AutoCAD - Stereolithography STL file export plug-in for AutoCAD
STL Export for AutoCAD
is a Stereolithography (.stl) file export plug-in for AutoCAD®. This
plug-in gives AutoCAD the ability to export geometric data from AutoCAD
to ASCII and Binary STL files.
AutoCAD already has a STLOUT command which exports a STL file. The
STLOUT command is limited to 3D Solids which lie in positive space only
(i.e. positive x, y and z). STL Export for AutoCAD extracts facet
data from 3D Solids as well as 3D Face, Polygon Mesh and PolyFace Mesh
objects in the active AutoCAD drawing and exports it to a STL file.
These objects can lie anywhere in space. Quad faces are broken down into
triangular faces and 3D Solids are tessellated into triangular faces.
The level of tessellation can be controlled by adjusting the resolution
slider in the STL Export for AutoCAD options dialog box. A lower
resolution will yield coarse meshes (lesser faces), whereas a higher
resolution will result in finer meshes (more faces).
STL
Export for AutoCAD is very easy to use. Once installed, it must be
loaded into the AutoCAD environment. There are simple instructions for
this in the ReadMe file. Once loaded it adds new commands to AutoCAD's
existing commands and a new submenu called "STLExport" to the AutoCAD
menu containing these newly added commands.
STL
Export for AutoCAD comes with detailed documentation as well as a
tutorial to get you started in
the shortest possible time.
If you
need any additional information please
contact SYCODE.
The STL
File Format
The STL
file format is the Rapid Prototyping industry's standard data
transmission format and is the format required to interact with
stereolithography machines. Stereolithography files contain solids which
are made up of 3 sided facets. STL files may be ASCII or binary data,
although binary is far more common due to the resulting size of the CAD
data when saved to the ASCII format. A STL file describes a raw
unstructured triangulated surface by the unit normal and vertices
(ordered by the right-hand rule) of the triangles using a
three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system. Many CAD systems are able
to output the STL file format among their other formats, but very few
have the ability to export STL files..
Please feel free to call or email us for more information about STL file
export plug-in for AutoCAD.
|
