File formats
3MF
Also known as: 3mf · .3mf · archivo 3mf · 3d manufacturing format
Short definition
3MF is a modern file format that, on top of geometry, stores colour, materials, units, object hierarchy and sometimes the slicer's full settings.
Full definition
3MF was created to fix everything STL does not store. It is a compressed container with XML inside, able to carry several objects, their relative positions, colours, material assignments and declared units, so a part always opens at the right size. In daily practice there are two different things with the same extension: a plain 3MF, which any slicer opens, and a Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer 'project', which additionally contains the full print profile with temperatures, speeds and supports already defined. That is why downloading a model's project 3MF usually gives better results than the STL: it arrives with the settings its author already tested.
Related terms
- STLSTL is a file format that describes a 3D object's surface as a mesh of triangles, with no colour, no units and no printing information.
- G-codeG-code is the instruction file the printer executes line by line: where to move each axis, how much filament to extrude and what temperature to hold at each moment.
- SlicerA slicer is the program that cuts a 3D model into horizontal layers and generates the G-code with the paths, temperatures and speeds the printer will execute.
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