Software Sales Representatives

NEST Technologies, Inc. Sales representatives for DeskArtes Software, located in Studio City, CA USA.

Data Representations in Solid Freeform Fabrication Authors Chandrajit Bajaj and Ariel Shamir provide a slide presentation and overview of RP software issues. Dated 8/8/99.

Ennex STL format described.

Introduction to the STL format Authored by Wai Hon Wah in June, 1999, this description from Hong Kong Polytechnic University is based on Ennex's and other sources.

OpenRP A non-profit initiative spearheaded by Floating Point Solutions which aims at offering the RP industry an alternative mode of data exchange while maintaining compatibility with the industry standard STL file format. The idea is to provide a file format with expandable properties and backward compatibility. OpenRP offers free software to read and write RP files, plug-ins for widely used CAD applications, STL to RP converters, and more.

University of California, San Diego - Supercomputer Center STL format described.

TNO STL Painter^TM Available from TNO in the Netherlands. Adds color information to triangle based formats such as STL files, to produce color versions of STL, PLY or VRML for color RP. The only commercially available 3-D color printer at present is from Z-Corp.

Materialise. The company's Magics RP software can handle color. A zipped MS Word document is available by FTP with specifications and descriptions of the format.

Wikipedia This rather thorough article discusses STL and related file formats and provides additional references.

Z Corporation The company offers the currently unique capability of full color output from its 3D printers. As a consequence, their ZEdit(TM) software has some interesting capabilities. It combines solid modeling with graphics features for producing, for example, a label on a 3D printed bottle. The company also has a file format, dubbed .zpr, that accommodates properties such as color and texture.

3dcgi.com This a general news and information site covering all things 3D, with emphasis on displays, scanners, motion picture and computer graphics technology.

Okino 3D Graphics WEB Links

Simple 3D A directory page largely aimed at three-dimensional scanning and its applications. A little out of date, but still provides a lot of useful background information.

STL Tools This is a useful link page maintained by R.J. Smeenk at the University of Twente (Netherlands).

Ultimate 3D Links This is an extensive directory site which also covers tutorially all aspects of 3D applications. Also has a file archive.