LulzBot TAZ 4, User Manual

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Slic3r
Working with Models
Yet another step lies between now and the first print - a model has to found
and then sliced.
Model Formats
Slic3r accepts the following file types.
• STereoLithography (STL) files can come from a wide variety of
sources and are now a de facto standard in 3D printing. The files
simply describe the surface geometry of a 3D object without any
additional information (such as color or material), and it is this
simplicity that has probably made the format ubiquitous.
• Wavefront OBJ files are an open format originally used in an ani-
mation application from Wavefront Technologies, but has since been
adopted by the wider 3D modelling community. It is similar to the
STL format.
• Additive Manufacturing File Format (AMF) was developed in re-
sponse to the limited nature of the STL format. In addition to
describing the geometry of the 3D model it can also describe colors
and materials, as well as more complex attributes, such as gradient
mixes and multiple object arrangements (constellations). Whilst the
format is deemed a standard it has yet to be widely adopted in the
3D maker community.
Finding Models
The 3D model files may come from an online repository, such as Thin-
giverse
2
or GrabCAD
3
, or be created from a CAD program, such as
FreeCAD
4
, Sketchup
5
, or OpenSCAD
6
, or an online CAD tool such as
Shapesmith
7
.
2
http://www.thingiverse.com
3
http://grabcad.com
4
http://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad
5
http://www.sketchup.com
6
http://www.openscad.org
7
http://shapesmith.net
38
PROOF