STL (Standard Triangle/Tessellation Language) Reader/Writer

FME can access data in the STL format.

STL is a file format created by 3D Systems, commonly used with 3D printers. STL files may be either text or binary. In either case, the file contains a sequence of triangular facets, which make up a 3D geometry.

STL (Standard Triangle/Tessellation Language) Product and System Requirements

Format

FME Platform

Operating System

Reader/Writer

FME Form

FME Flow

FME Flow Hosted

Windows 64-bit

Linux

Mac

Reader

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Writer

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Reader Overview

The STL reader will read both text and binary STL files. It will automatically detect whether a file contains text or binary data. The contents of a file will be read as a single feature with an IFMEMesh geometry.

Writer Overview

The STL writer can produce both text and binary STL files. This is configurable via a writer parameter.

The writer will produce a single STL file for each feature type. All geometries will be converted into triangulated mesh geometries before being written out. Features whose geometries cannot be converted into a triangulated mesh will be ignored.

The writer will offset geometries so that all coordinates are non-negative and non-zero. The minimum coordinate produced by the writer will be (1,1,1). Aside from this, this the writer will not do any validation to ensure that the geometry is valid for 3D printing, or within printer tolerances. The GeometryValidator transformer can be used to do some of this work.