STL

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Scope
  • Assemblies
• Parameters
  • Exporter Parameters

Overview

ModelData_ModelReader reads and ModelData_ModelWriter writes STL (Stereolithography) files.
Both text and binary formats are supported.

STL describes models only as triangles. It cannot store exact geometry, product structure, metadata, or connectivity.

Scope

Import	Export
mesh names	mesh

Assemblies

STL does not support product structure.
Some systems export assemblies as a flat list of triangles, which on import produces a single part. Others export as concatenated per-part files, which on import produce an assembly.

ModelData_ModelWriter always writes a flat set of triangles. To keep assemblies, export per-part (one file per part).

Parameters

Exporter Parameters

The STL export parameters are controlled by ModelData_ModelWriterParameters . The following table contains a list of parameters for STL export:

Parameter	Default value	Description
STLEnableMultiPartMode()	false	If true, an assembly is written as concatenated STL files. Otherwise, all parts are merged into a single triangle set. Available only for text format, binary STL does not support it.
PreferTextFormat()	false	If true, the file is written in text format. Otherwise, binary format is used.