The Case for 3MF
One format that carries everything your part needs
3MF is a versatile, open format adopted by designers, engineers, and manufacturers as the preferred way to communicate 3D-printable parts. The full specification and developer implementation details live on the 3MF GitHub repository.
Rich data model
Color, materials, and texture in a single file — plus beam lattice, voxel-level volumetric data, slice, security information and more.
Open & interoperable
Supported across a wide range of design, engineering, and 3D printing software and hardware — easier to share than proprietary formats.
Compact & efficient
Files are typically far smaller than STL, so they transfer and process faster — critical for large or complex models.
Extensible by design
Extensions like Beam Lattice and Volumetric describe the resolution and complexity of advanced manufacturing that .STL, .OBJ, and .VRML never could.
Efficiency
Smaller files than STL and other 3D formats
A 3MF file can be orders of magnitude smaller than an STL. The format was designed to make 3D printing more efficient than .OBJ, .STL, or .VRML, none of which were built for the resolution and complexity of modern additive manufacturing.
In the Brake Pedal example below, the Beam Lattice extension describes the lattice structure to cut file size for both storage and transfer saving hours of load and visualization time in receiving software.
Geometry
Communicating complexity
You often hear that “complexity is free” in 3D printing. But while complex geometries may be efficient to produce, storing and communicating that complexity can still be expensive.
The 3MF Beam Lattice extension is built for exactly this. Exporting lattice structures from nTopology, the size difference between a low-resolution STL mesh and a high-resolution 3MF with beams makes communicating complexity efficient — if not free.
Provenance
Save copyright information natively
3MF lets you embed authorship and license information directly in the file. At export you can define the title, designer, copyright, and license terms — protecting your intellectual property across the 3MF file, any derivative files, and the physical parts printed from them.
How-To & Guides
