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• The STL (STereoLithography) file is used as

the de facto standard in almost all of RP
systems.
• The STL file was conceived by 3D Systems,
USA, is created from the CAD database via an
interface on the CAD systems.
• The file consists of an unordered list of
triangular facets representing the outside
skin of an object.
• There are two formats of STL file namely
ASCII format and Binary format. The size of
STL file in ASCII is larger than Binary, but is
human readable.
• In 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 the facet
is an object.

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ADVANTAGES
• It provides a simple method of representing 3D CAD data
• It can provide small and accurate files for data transfer for certain
shapes.
• It is already the de facto standard and used in almost all of RP
systems.

DISADVANTAGES
• STL file is larger than original CAD data file for given accuracy
parameter.
• The STL file carries many redundant information like duplicate
vertices and edges.
• Geometry flaws exist in STL file because many tessellation
algorithms used by vendors are not robust, giving rise to “repair
software” which slows production cycle.
• Subsequent slicing of large STL file can take many hours which is
undesirable

VALID MODEL
• A tessellated model is said to be valid if there are no missing facets,
degenerate facets, overlapping facets or any other defect.
• When a valid tessellated model is used as an input, it will be sliced
into 2D layers.
• Each layer would be converted into 1D scan lines for the laser or
other RP techniques to commence building the model.
• The scan lines would act as on/off points for the laser beam
controller so that the part can be built accordingly without any
problem.

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INVALID MODEL
• If a situation may develop as shown in
figure, the tessellated model is invalid.
• A solid model is tessellated non robustly
and results in a gap as shown in figure.
• If this error is not corrected and the model
is sliced in preparation for it to be built
layer by layer, the missing facet in the
geometrical model would cause the
system to have no predefined stopping
boundary on the particular slice.
• Therefore 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 Problems

• Several problems are observed in STL files, as they contain no
topological information.

• Most tessellation algorithms tend to create polygonal

approximation models which exhibit following types of errors

Gaps (cracks, holes, punctures) i.e. Missing facets

Degenerate facets (where all the surfaces are collinear)

Overlapping facets

Non manifold topology conditions

• The above mentioned problems are due to the difficulties

encountered in tessellating trimmed surfaces, surface intersections
and controlling numerical errors.

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Missing Facets or Gaps

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

Degenerate Facets
• A geometrical degeneracy of the facet occurs when all of the
facets edges are collinear even though their vertices are distinct.
• This is caused by the stitching algorithms that attempt to avoid
shell punctures.

• The resulting facet generated eliminate the shell punctures.

However, this is done at the expense of adding degenerate facet.
• Degenerate facet does not contain valid surface normal, but they
do represent implicit topological information on how the surfaces
have mated.
• This important information is stored prior to discarding
degenerate facet.

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Overlapping Facets
• Overlapping facets are generated due to the 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 non manifold conditions which are
generated because tessellation of fine features are susceptible to
round-off errors:

A non manifold edge

A non manifold point

A non manifold face

• A non manifold edge is shared

by four different facets. A valid
model is one whose facets
have only one adjacent facet
i.e. one edge is shared by two
facets only.

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