[3D Printing] New 3D Printing Consortium to Work Towards Unified File Format

[3D Printing] New 3D Printing Consortium to Work Towards Unified File Format

Michael Sweet msweet at apple.com
Sat May 2 13:40:07 UTC 2015


and FWIW this is a repackaging of Microsoft's Windows 8.1 3DMF format (a 3D version of OpenXPS) and job ticket...

Some issues with this format and specification (in no particular order):

1. The use of OPC (ZIP container) is problematic, as it makes streaming production and consumption of content nearly impossible and the necessary decompression of the intermediate files (even if they are not needed for processing) adds a serious space and CPU overhead.

2. The job ticket is embedded in the document data.

3. The material support is only slightly better than AMF; basically you can specify mixing of multiple named materials (vs. a single material), and the only material attribute is sRGB color.

4. Colors and textures can only use 8-bit per component sRGB colors.  Even current filament colors cannot be represented accurately by sRGB.  At a minimum we need to be able to choose/specify different RGB color spaces and use 16-bit per component values, but ideally there should be support for CIE and/or ICC-based Device N (e.g. CMYK) color spaces, depending on the technology used - CIE for things like filament, Device N for a pigment/dye-based printing technology.

5. There is still no way to specify interior fill material or support material.

So I don't think this is the droid we are looking for...


> On May 1, 2015, at 10:57 AM, Ira McDonald <blueroofmusic at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> And this morning there's a link to download the two specifications
> (Core and Materials):
> 
>   http://www.3mf.io/what-is-3mf/3mf-specification/
> 
> Note that the Core spec includes (with no detail at all) a section on
> "Print Ticket".  Probably a good time for PWG organization and
> members to engage with the new 3MF Consortium:
> 
>   http://www.3mf.io/
> 
> Cheers,
> - Ira
> 
> Ira McDonald (Musician / Software Architect)
> Co-Chair - TCG Trusted Mobility Solutions WG
> Chair - Linux Foundation Open Printing WG
> Secretary - IEEE-ISTO Printer Working Group
> Co-Chair - IEEE-ISTO PWG Internet Printing Protocol WG
> IETF Designated Expert - IPP & Printer MIB
> Blue Roof Music / High North Inc
> http://sites.google.com/site/blueroofmusic
> http://sites.google.com/site/highnorthinc
> mailto: blueroofmusic at gmail.com
> Winter  579 Park Place  Saline, MI  48176  734-944-0094
> Summer  PO Box 221  Grand Marais, MI 49839  906-494-2434
> 
> 
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 4:44 PM, Kennedy, Smith (Wireless Architect) <smith.kennedy at hp.com> wrote:
> Just saw this in my inbox and thought I'd share.  Not sure if it is publicly viewable.
> > http://www.pddnet.com/news/2015/04/new-3d-printing-consortium-work-towards-unified-file-format?et_cid=4545965&et_rid=210445323&type=headline
> 
> 
> Smith
> 
> /**
>     Smith Kennedy
>     Hewlett-Packard Co.
> */
> 
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_________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Senior Printing System Engineer, PWG Chair



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