StlOut

Exports 3D solids and watertight meshes in a format that can be used for stereolithography (3D printing).

Accessing the Command

command bar: stlout

: stlout

Prompts you in the command bar:

Select 3d solids or meshes to export: (Select solids and/or meshes. Right click to stop selecting.)

Create binary STL file? <Yes>/No: (Select Yes or No.)

Displays a Save File dialog

(Type a name for the file and click the Save button.)

Command Options

Option

Description

Create binary STL file?

Yes: Creates an STL file.

No: Creates an ASCII text file.

System Variables and User Preferences

When exporting 3d solids to STL, curved faces will indeed become faceted.

The default way to control the facet resolution ( = the smoothness) is to use the FACETRES system variable: default value is 0.5, minimum = 0.01 (coarse) - maximum = 10 (very fine)

Using MODELERPROPERTIES it is possible to override Facetres and control the smoothness by using different parameters, but in general it is recommended to use facetres because it is simpler.

Related Commands

Export - Exports drawings in a variety of vector and raster formats.

-ModelerProperties - controls the various settings of the Acis modeler through the command bar.

ModelerProperties - controls the various settings of the Acis modeler through the Settings dialog box.