STL File Reader

STLREAD imports geometry from a binary stereolithography (STL) file into MATLAB.

Description

In addition to the STLREAD import function, this submission also includes a small demo that loads an STL model of a human femur bone.

FV = STLREAD(FILENAME) imports triangular faces from the binary STL file
indicated by FILENAME, and returns the patch struct FV, with fields 'faces'
and 'vertices'.

[F,V] = STLREAD(FILENAME) returns the faces F and vertices V separately.

[F,V,N] = STLREAD(FILENAME) also returns the face normal vectors.

The faces and vertices are arranged in the format used by the PATCH plot
object.

Acknowledgements

This file inspired Binary Stl File Reader.

• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.7 (R2008b)

[Christian Kotz]

Great! fast and easy to use.

[Héctor Corte]

Wonderful submision. I used it to make some geek gif in my blog.
http://thebrickinthesky.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/my-own-death-star/

[Patrick]

Very helpful

[Santosh ARS]

i think this gives wrong faces? Please confirm.

[Robert]

Thanks for your submittal. What units is the model in once I've read the stl file with Matlab. I am using NextEngine's 3D scanner and they are telling me that the units are defined by the reader utility.

[Morteza Shahpari]

 

[Morteza Shahpari]

Very nice and useful.
Thanks

[Francis Esmonde-White]

I have re-written this function to be much faster.

See:
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/29906-binary-stl-file-reader

[By ?]

very good

[Luigi Giaccari]

Very useful for binary filesl but do not support ascii format

[Jveer]

very useful!

can the vertices and faces be arranged such that they can be used with surf??

textures cannot be applied to patch objects. surf is more useful.

[alain boyer]