.stl file format of 3D Systems Stereolithography: Perl parsing library

STL files are used to represent simple 3D models, defined using triangular 3D faces.

Initially it was introduced as native format for 3D Systems Stereolithography CAD system, but due to its extreme simplicity, it was adopted by a wide range of 3D modelling, CAD, rapid prototyping and 3D printing applications as the simplest 3D model exchange format.

STL is extremely bare-bones format: there are no complex headers, no texture / color support, no units specifications, no distinct vertex arrays. Whole model is specified as a collection of triangular faces.

There are two versions of the format (text and binary), this spec describes binary version.

Application

3D Systems Stereolithography

File extension

stl

KS implementation details

License: CC0-1.0

References

This page hosts a formal specification of .stl file format of 3D Systems Stereolithography using Kaitai Struct. This specification can be automatically translated into a variety of programming languages to get a parsing library.

Perl source code to parse .stl file format of 3D Systems Stereolithography

Stl.pm

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# This is a generated file! Please edit source .ksy file and use kaitai-struct-compiler to rebuild

use strict;
use warnings;
use IO::KaitaiStruct 0.009_000;

########################################################################
package Stl;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{header} = $self->{_io}->read_bytes(80);
    $self->{num_triangles} = $self->{_io}->read_u4le();
    $self->{triangles} = ();
    my $n_triangles = $self->num_triangles();
    for (my $i = 0; $i < $n_triangles; $i++) {
        push @{$self->{triangles}}, Stl::Triangle->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    }
}

sub header {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{header};
}

sub num_triangles {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{num_triangles};
}

sub triangles {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{triangles};
}

########################################################################
package Stl::Triangle;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{normal} = Stl::Vec3d->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    $self->{vertices} = ();
    my $n_vertices = 3;
    for (my $i = 0; $i < $n_vertices; $i++) {
        push @{$self->{vertices}}, Stl::Vec3d->new($self->{_io}, $self, $self->{_root});
    }
    $self->{abr} = $self->{_io}->read_u2le();
}

sub normal {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{normal};
}

sub vertices {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{vertices};
}

sub abr {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{abr};
}

########################################################################
package Stl::Vec3d;

our @ISA = 'IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct';

sub from_file {
    my ($class, $filename) = @_;
    my $fd;

    open($fd, '<', $filename) or return undef;
    binmode($fd);
    return new($class, IO::KaitaiStruct::Stream->new($fd));
}

sub new {
    my ($class, $_io, $_parent, $_root) = @_;
    my $self = IO::KaitaiStruct::Struct->new($_io);

    bless $self, $class;
    $self->{_parent} = $_parent;
    $self->{_root} = $_root || $self;;

    $self->_read();

    return $self;
}

sub _read {
    my ($self) = @_;

    $self->{x} = $self->{_io}->read_f4le();
    $self->{y} = $self->{_io}->read_f4le();
    $self->{z} = $self->{_io}->read_f4le();
}

sub x {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{x};
}

sub y {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{y};
}

sub z {
    my ($self) = @_;
    return $self->{z};
}

1;