Lots of people post STLs because you can feed them directly to the slicer for printing. But it only represents the surface mesh of an object, and only as polygons. A STEP file basically captures how the part is designed in CAD, so it's much better if you need to modify the part. It also gives you the original form of things like curves, where the STL would be quantized into a fixed number of polygons.
Comment on Host 3D parts?
Spider89@lemmy.world 1 year agoI’ll include the software (FreeCAD 0.20.2) for compatibility.
Although, my files work fine on 0.21, I’ll add that just in case.
Sorry. What is the diffrence between STEP and STL? I thought STL was preffered.
monotremata@kbin.social 1 year ago
Spider89@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I’ll go with STEP.
Thanks.
monotremata@kbin.social 1 year ago
Sure. You can always include both as well. Folks who don't have CAD software may not be able to use the STEP files.
Spider89@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Ok
TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 1 year ago
I’m not an expert but I looked it up. STL is just a simple mesh for the exterior surface of a CAD model. While STEP saves the entire geometry in its pure form, so you can edit it later. STL is fine for printing but you want to make the actual models available too in case someone wants to edit them.
Spider89@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Alright, STEP it is.