welcome to materialise magics tutorial, what is an stl file. an stl file shows the triangled base mesh of a 3d design. each triangle consists of
best file format for 3d printing, tree vertices and one normal the normal determines the orientation of the triangle and also determines which side of the triangle is inside and outside.
material is deposited on the opposite side of the normal. a cad file divers from an stl file in several ways a cad file is defined by its parameters, whereas an stl file is defined by triangles made of vertices and normals. the cad file is therefore more precise, while in stl file is more or less a close approximation of the original design.
since cad files are focused on designing for traditional manufacturing, it does not include any information about the inside or outside of your part. an stl file does contain this crucial information. this is why stl files have become the standard file format for 3d printing.
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