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Specification

The 3D Manufacturing Format (3MF) is a 3D printing format that allows design applications to send full-fidelity 3D models to a mix of other applications, platforms, services and printers. The 3MF specification allows companies to focus on innovation, rather than on basic interoperability issues, and it is engineered to avoid the problems associated with other 3D file formats.

SpecificationGithubISO/IEC 25422ISO PDFRevisionDescriptionUpdated
3MF Core SpecificationGithubv1.3.0v1.3.0v1.4.0Core 3MF Mesh Specification02/12/2025
Beam Lattice ExtensionGithubv1.2.0v1.2.0Beam lattice structures as graph of nodes and beam diameter02/12/2025
Boolean Operations ExtensionGithubv1.1.0v1.1.0Boolean operations for shape modification02/12/2025
Displacement Extension Githubv1.0.0
3D Textured meshes by modifying mesh surface with displacement mapping02/12/2025
Materials and Properties ExtensionGithubv1.2.1v1.2.1Full color and multi-material definitions02/12/2025
Production ExtensionGithubv1.1.2v1.1.2Non-object resources & attributes to the build section for uniquely identifying parts within a particular 3MF package02/12/2025
Secure Content ExtensionGithubv1.0.2v1.0.2Encryption mechanism to protect the 3MF content files02/12/2025
Slice ExtensionGithubv1.0.2v1.0.22D sliced model data in a 3MF package02/12/2025
Volumetric ExtensionGithubv0.8.0Support for voxel and/or implicit data within 3mf files02/12/2025

The specification is currently under development to be recognised as an International Standard:
ISO/IEC DIS 25422 Information technology — 3D Manufacturing Format (3MF) specification suite.
Under Technical Committee : ISO/IEC JTC 1 – ICS : 25.030 35.240.50

For information on supported software, hardware and services support 3MF, see the 3MF Compatibility Matrix.

3MF members have agreed to make their necessary patent claims available for implementations of the 3MF Core Specification and all public 3MF extension specifications on a royalty-free basis.

The 3MF Consortium is a Joint Development Foundation Projects, LLC series. The Joint Development Foundation is a non-profit organization and affiliate of the Linux Foundation that provides the corporate and legal infrastructure to enable groups to establish and operate standards and source code development collaborations.

Libraries and Samples

Test Suites