3D Manufacturing Format or 3MF is an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

file format A file format is a Computer standard, standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. It specifies how bits are used to encode information in a digital storage medium. File formats may be either proprietary format, pr ...

standard developed and published by the 3MF Consortium. 3MF is an

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

-based data format designed specifically for

additive manufacturing 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

. It includes information about materials, colors, and other information that cannot be represented in the STL format. 3MF is part of the Linux open standards project and is not intended to compete in the traditional CAD space. It is designed to be much simpler to implement than the full CAD formats. Today,

CAD software Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

related companies such as

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquarte ...

Dassault Systèmes Dassault Systèmes SE () (abbreviated 3DS) is a French Multinational corporation, multinational software corporation which develops software for 3D product design, simulation, manufacturing and other 3D related products. Founded in 1981, it is ...

, PTC, and Netfabb are part of the 3MF Consortium. Other firms in the 3MF Consortium are

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

(for

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

and

3D modeling In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based Computer representation of surfaces, representation of a surface of an object (inanimate or living) in Three-dimensional space, three dimensions vi ...

support), SLM and HP, whilst Shapeways are also included to give insight from a

3D printing 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

background. Other key players in the 3D printing and additive manufacturing business, such as Materialise, 3D Systems,

Siemens Digital Industries Software Siemens Digital Industries Software (formerly UGS and then Siemens PLM Software) is an American computer software company specializing in 3D & 2D Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software. The company is a business unit of Siemens, operates un ...

and

Stratasys Stratasys, Ltd. is an American-Israeli manufacturer of 3D printers, software, and materials for polymer additive manufacturing as well as 3D-printed parts on-demand. The company is incorporated in Israel. Engineers use Stratasys systems to mod ...

have recently joined the consortium. To facilitate the adoption, 3MF Consortium has brought on new associate members and Executive Director to increase awareness and adoption while also published a C++ implementation of the 3MF file format.

Features

Below are a list of some of the advantages of the 3MF format, supplied by the consortium. * Full color and texture support in a single file * Support structures attached to part data * Full tray support for direct machine preparation *

Thumbnail Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures or videos, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words. In the age of digital images, visual search engines and image-o ...

s, viewing, and printing in

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

* Multiple material support * Beam extension for complex lattice structures * Slice extension for machine data * Secure end to end encryption * Volumetric communication of data at voxel level * Designed for industrial manufacturing * Native integration in

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, MS Office, or simply Office, is an office suite and family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. The first version of the Office suite, announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at CO ...

and

Paint 3D Paint 3D is a retired raster graphics and 3D computer graphics application which is a refresh of Microsoft Paint. It is one of several 3D modeling and printing applications (formatted under 3MF) introduced or improved with the Windows 10 Crea ...

3MF consortium members

* Autodesk * HP * 3D Systems * Dassault Systèmes * EOS * Hexagon * Materialise * Microsoft * nTopology * PTC * Siemens * Altair * SLM * Stratasys * Ultimaker * Viaccess.Orca * Prusa Source:

References

{{CAD software Computer-related introductions in 2015 Open formats XML-based standards 3D graphics file formats CAD file formats

Features

3MF consortium members

See also

References