Stratasys Objet260 Connex - Source Files; STL Files; SLC Files

Introducing the Objet1000 Plus 3D Printing System
3–4 DOC-06810 Rev. A
Source Files
Objet3Dprintingsystemsproducethree‐dimensionalmodelsdesigned
withmost3DCADtoolsandwithotherjob‐specific3Dapplications.Objet
systemsaccept:
• STLFiles
• SLCFiles
Objetsystemsfeaturethecapabilityofproducingdifferenttypesofmodel
filessimultaneously.
STL Files
STLisshortforStandardTriangulationLanguage.Thislanguageviewsany
objectasacollectionofsurfaces,anddescribeseachsurfaceoftheobjectas
acollectionoftriangles.
Forexample,asquar ecanbedescribedastwotriangles;acube(six
squares)as12triangles.Curvedsurfacesneedmore
trianglestodescribe
them.Thehigherthetolerance(forsmoothsurfaces),themoretrianglesare
needed.Theresultisthathigh‐qualityobjectdescriptionsmeanveryheavy
files.
MostCADsoftwarecanexportSTLfiles.TheObjetsystemutilizesthese
filesforbuildingmodels(rapidprototyping),andalsofordirectlymaking

moldsformass‐producingitems.
STLfilescanbeASCII(text)filesorbinaryfiles.ThecontentoftheASCII
filebeginswith“solid”andendswith“end‐solid”(bothlowercase).
Betweenthesekeywordsisalistofthetrianglesthatdescribesthefacesof
thesolidmodel.Eachtriangle
definesasinglenormalvectordirectedaway
fromthesolid’ssurface,followedbyitsX‐Y‐Zcoordinates.Theseare
expressedasCartesiancoordinatesandarefloating‐pointvalues.The
coordinatesofalltrianglesshouldbepositiveandshouldfallwithinthe
volumeofthemodel.
SLC Files
SLCisshortforStereo‐LithographyContour.SLCfilesdescribetwo‐
dimensionalcontoursofthethree‐dimensionalmodels.Thesecontourlines
arepolylines.
SLCfilesareASCII(text)filesthatsavemodelsasaseriesofslices.This
meansthatmodelsbasedonSLCfilescannotbeorientated;onlytheir
scale
(size)andpositiononthebuildtraycanbecontrolled.Forthisreason,the 
model’sorientationmustbesuitableforproductionbeforeitissavedasan
SLCfile.BecauseofthenatureofSLCfiles,theappearanceofmodelsin
ObjetStudiomaybedifferentthanthesolid‐object
imagesdisplayedfrom
STLfiles.