3MF 3D Printer File Format - 13 Jul 2015

Benefits of 3MF for Additive Manufacturing

The 3MF format is designed to be an additive manufacturing format, with the complete model information contained within a single archive: mesh, textures, materials, colours and print ticket. 3MF provides a clear definition of manifoldness — open source code available for rapid validation and there is no ambiguity for models with self-intersections.

Transforms and object references are supported, with multiple objects contained within the single archive. Single objects can be referenced or moved without changing the mesh, and multiple identical objects can be placed referencing the same mesh.

3D printing has many failure points

some of which arise from a tangle of different and inadequate file formats. 3MF is being developed to address this problem. The 3MF consortium came into being to deliver to the 3D printing industry a file format that is:

• Rich enough to fully describe a model, retaining internal information, colour, and other characteristics
• Extensible so that it supports new innovations in 3D printing
• Interoperable
• Useful and broadly adopted
• Free of the issues besetting other widely used file formats

Given the significant interest in solving the file format problem as soon as possible, Microsoft determined that it could best help deliver an open solution through collaboration with the industry, thus benefiting all parties involved. Accordingly, Microsoft contributed to the consortium its existing specification under development known as 3MF (for 3D Manufacturing Format). The 3MF Consortium now manages the further development and distribution of the 3MF specification.

Founding Members of the 3MF Consortium are:

3d Systems
autodesk
dassault
HP
Materialise
Microsoft
netfabb
Shapeway
Siemens

Stratasys & Objet