Workflow & governance
What is stl file?
An STL file describes a 3D model's surface as a mesh of triangles, and is the most widely used interchange format for submitting geometry to a 3D printer.
Also known as: STL, stereolithography file, mesh file
What STL carries, and what it does not
An STL contains only geometry, represented as a surface of triangles. It carries no units, colour, material, or metadata about who made it or what it is for.
That absence is precisely why unstructured print submission fails. A folder of STL files is a folder of anonymous geometry: the file itself cannot tell an operator who submitted it, what material it needs, or why it exists. All of that context has to be captured at intake and stored alongside the file, or it is simply lost.
Common intake validation
- Manifold check: the mesh is closed, with no holes or inverted normals
- Size against build volume: the part physically fits an available machine
- Unit sanity: a part that arrives 25.4× too large or small usually means a millimetre/inch mismatch