Development of Cross-sectional Information Conversion System from STL file for Stereolithography
H.T. Park, J.A. Kim, In-Hwan Paik · Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering · 1995
This paper deals with conversion from the STL file to the Slice to the Slice cross-sectional information for Stereolithography. The STL file is widely used for Stereolithography, but it is very difficult to convert STL file into Slice file directly. Because it consists of an ordered list of triangular net without any topological information other than the orientation of each facet. So, The system is accomplished by data flow through several intermediate stages such as Reference. SL1. .SL2L. .SL3. and .SLC file. The data processing is performed in 5 steps: 1) Create a Reference file including common information. 2) Modify STL file within the effective range of SL machine. 3) Calculate a point of intersection between plane equation and line equation. 4) Sort z values in ascending order using quick sort algorithm. 5) Search the adjacent points and formulate a closed loop usingsingly linked linear list. The system is developed by using Borland C++ 3.1 compiler in the environment of Pentium PC, and verified to be satisfactory by making some prototypes of electric household appliances.