STANDARD

TRIANGULATION
LANGUAGE (STL) FILE
By
D.M.SANTHOSHSARANG
13MECD13

STL FILES
The STL file has become the Rapid
prototyping industrys defacto
standard data transmission format
and is the format required to interact
with quick parts
This format approximates the surface
of a solid model triangles.
For simple model such as cube, its
surface can be approximated in to 12
triangle.

Representations simple
models
Simple model

STL model

STL Model of curved shape

Polygons Divide into

Triangles

4 sides 2

5 sides 3

8 sides 6

An n sided polygon is represented

as n-2 triangles

STL FILE FORMAT

There are two formats to the STL file.
ASCII format
2. Binary format
1.

The size of the ASCII STL file is larger than that

of the binary format but is human readable.
In a STL file, triangular facets are described by
a set of X, Y and Z coordinates for each of the
three vertices and a unit normal vector with X,
Y and Z to indicate which side of facet is an
object.

stl File Format

Create file in any text editor
Write a start line, an end line,
and a group of 7 lines for each
triangle.
Triangles can be listed in any
order.
solid <name>
<triangle 1 (7 lines)>
<triangle 2 (7 lines)>
<triangle 3 (7 lines)>

stl File Format

For each triangle give 7 lines:
facet normal 0 0 0
outer loop
vertex X Y Z
vertex X Y Z
vertex X Y Z
endloop
endfacet

Only the X Y Z parts need to

change for each triangle
(Some programs need the
normal)
Easy to copy and paste in

A sample STL file

Procedure to create STL file

File
save as
.stl
STL export dialog box will appear

STL file problems

Several problems plague in STL files
and they are due to the nature of STL
files as they contain no topological
data.
1. Gaps (cracks, holes, punctures) that is,
missing facets.
2. Degenerate facets (where all its edges are
collinear).
3. Overlapping facets.
4. Non-manifold topology conditions.

STL file problems

The above stated problems are due to the
difficulties encountered in tessellating trimmed
surfaces, surface intersections and controlling
numerical errors.
This inability of the commercial tessellation
algorithm to generate valid facet model
tessellations makes,
it necessary to perform model validity checks
before the tessellated model is sent to the
Rapid Prototyping equipment for
manufacturing.

Missing Facets or Gaps

Tessellation of
surfaces with large
curvature can result
in errors at the
intersections
between such
surfaces, leaving
gaps or holes along
edges of the part
model.

Degenerate Facets
Shell punctures
created by
unequal
tessellation of
two adjacent
surface patches
along their
common mating
curve

Overlapping Facets
Overlapping facets may
be generated due to
numerical round-off errors
occurring during
tessellation.
The vertices are
represented in 3D space
as floating point numbers
instead of integers.
Thus the numerical
round-off can cause facets
to overlap if tolerances
are set too liberally.

Non-manifold Conditions
There are three types of nonmanifold conditions, namely:
1. A non-manifold edge.
2. A non-manifold point.
3. A non-manifold face.

A non-manifold edge
A valid model would be
one whose facets have
only an adjacent facet
each, that is one edge is
shared by two facets only.
A non-manifold edge

whereby four facets

share a common edge
after tessellation.

Non-manifold Conditions
A non-manifold
point

A non-manifold
face

STL file problems

All problems that have been mentioned previously
are difficult for most slicing algorithms to handle
and they do cause fabrication problems for RP
processes which essentially require valid
tessellated solids as input.
Moreover, these problems arise because
tessellation is a first-order approximation of more
complex geometric entities.
Thus such problems have become almost inevitable
as long as the representation of the solid model is
done using the STL format which inherently has
these limitations.

A Valid Model
A tessellated model is said to be valid if
there are no missing facets, degenerate
facets, overlapping facets or any other
abnormalities.
When a valid tessellated model is used as
an input, it will first be sliced into 2D layers.
Each layer would then be converted into
unidirectional (or 1D) scan lines for the laser
or other RP techniques to commence
building the model.

An Invalid Model
A solid model is tessellated non-robustly and results
in a gap.
If this error is not corrected and the model is
subsequently sliced.
In preparation for it to the missing facet in the
geometrical model would cause the system to have
no predefined stopping boundary on the particular
slice.
Thus the building process would continue right to
the physical limit of the RP machine, creating a
stray physical solid line and ruining the part being
produced.

STL FILE REPAIR

In existing RP-system when a punctured
shell is encountered, it requires skilled
person to manually repair the error.
Hence it would negating the advantages of
rapid prototyping as the cost and the time
taken might be increases.
The main problem of repairing the invalid
tessellated model is that some necessary
designers intended datum may have been
lost in the overall process.

STL FILE REPAIR

Generic algorithm can be said to have the
ability to make an inference from the
information contained in the STL file so that the
following two conditions can be ensured:
(1) The orientation of the generated facet is
correct and compatible with the rest of the
model.
(2) The basis for the working of the algorithm is
due to the fact that in a valid tessellated
model, there must only be two facets sharing
single edge.

ANY
QUERIES
?