- [Instructor] With the rise of rapid prototyping
and 3D printing, the STL file format is becoming
more and more critical to 3D design.
When you create a 3D design, you will often
have to export it as an STL file or import STL files
when you want to send it to a 3D printer
or a rapid prototyper.
Let's look at the definition on Wikipedia.
When you convert a file in SOLIDWORKS to an STL file,
essentially what you do is similar
to the graphic on the right.
You can see here how the original shape was a sphere.
That's outlined in red.
But then the STL file actually creates triangular nodes,
making an approximation of the same shape.
You can adjust the coarse or fineness of these triangles,
making them bigger or smaller to get
a better approximation of your shape.
Once you've created this file,
you'll then send it out to a 3D printing machine
or export it to a rapid prototyper for manufacturing.