STL Export for SketchUp is a Stereolithography STL file export plug-in for Google SketchUp®. This plug-in gives SketchUp the ability to export objects in SketchUp to ASCII and Binary STL files.
STL Export for SketchUp tessellates objects in a SketchUp document into a set of triangular meshes. These meshes are then exported to a STL file as mesh objects. The STL file can then be imported into a variety of CAD applications.
STL Export for SketchUp is very easy to use. It adds new commands to SketchUp. Once installed, it automatically loads itself into SketchUp and adds a new submenu called "STL Export for SketchUp" to the SketchUp Plugins menu containing the newly added commands.
The 'STL Export for SketchUp' menu consists of the following commands:
# Export - Export a STL file
# Help - Display the STL Export for SketchUp help file
# Register - Register your copy of STL Export for SketchUp
# About - Display the STL Export for SketchUp About box
STL Export for SketchUp comes with detailed documentation for each command as well as a tutorial to get you started in the shortest possible time.
The STL File Format
The STL file format is the Rapid Prototyping industry's standard data transmission format and is the format required to interact with stereolithography machines. Stereolithography files contain solids which are made up of 3 sided facets. STL files may be ASCII or binary data, although binary is far more common due to the resulting size of the CAD data when saved to the ASCII format. A STL file describes a raw unstructured triangulated surface by the unit normal and vertices (ordered by the right-hand rule) of the triangles using a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system.