STL

Reference

Category:

Import-Export

Menu:

File ‣ Import/Export ‣ Stl (.stl)

This format is useful if you intend to import/export the files for CAD software. It is also commonly used for loading into 3D printing software.

Warning

Currently the script does not handle importing or exporting of normals and does not handle endian-ness, there is nothing in the STL specification about it.

Importing

Note

The STL importer Add-on is deprecated and being replaced with the much faster Integrated STL Importer.

Properties

Transform

Scale

Value by which to scale the imported objects in relation to the world’s origin.

Scene Unit

Apply current scene’s unit (as defined by unit scale) to imported data.

Forward / Up Axis

Since many applications use a different axis for pointing upwards, these are axis conversion for these settings, Forward and up axes – By mapping these to different axes you can convert rotations between applications default up and forward axes.

Blender uses Y forward, Z up (since the front view looks along the +Y direction). For example, it is common for applications to use Y as the up axis, in that case -Z forward, Y up is needed.

Geometry

Facet Normals

Use (import) facet normals (note that this will still give flat shading).

Exporting

Properties

ASCII

TODO.

Batch Mode

TODO.

Include

Selection Only

When checked, only selected objects are exported. Instanced objects, for example collections that are instanced in the scene, are considered ‘selected’ when their instancer is selected.

Transform

Scale

Value by which to scale the exported objects in relation to the world’s origin.

Scene Unit

Apply current scene’s unit (as defined by unit scale) to exported data.

Forward / Up Axis

Since many applications use a different axis for ‘Up’, these are axis conversion for these settings, Forward and Up axes – By mapping these to different axes you can convert rotations between applications default up and forward axes.

Blender uses Y Forward, Z Up (since the front view looks along the +Y direction). For example, it’s common for applications to use Y as the up axis, in that case -Z Forward, Y Up is needed.

Geometry

Apply Modifiers

Export objects using the evaluated mesh, meaning the resulting mesh after all Modifiers have been calculated.

Usage

Use the operator to import ASCII or binary STL-files, you can select multiple files at once. For exporting you can select multiple objects and they will be exported as a single STL-file. You can select between ASCII/binary file format (binary is more compact). You can also choose to enable or disable the modifiers during the export.