File Format

What file format do we release our parts in?

This is a link to the table of the major file formats for the drawings we have, with links to the files themselves, or file organization pages. Even better, it is a "frame" around that table.

Official, RepRap-blessed files

We currently only release "blessed" Solid Edge files, Art Of Illusion files, and STL files.

Aside from that, we are officially file-format agnostic.

Community-distributed files

The RepRap user-developer community, uses every CAD and modeling program that exists. By definition. And it doesn't care what file formats we provide, as long as they can use it. Recommendations to users will be treated as noise by those very same users and are a utter waste of our time. But we need to keep track of the popular ones and start hosting user-submitted Mendel improvements and so on in useful formats.

Because if everyone wants .blend files, and contributes mendel parts molds done up in .blend, we should host them. And point out that they are now RepRap user-developers and they need to keep track of this.

PDFs are great, if we got them!

Because we don't put up barriers to RepRap user-developer input here. And it's also really good to have traditional drawings with labeled measurements as images inlaid in the wiki page itself, which means pdf->png or svg or suchlike. Lastly, people machining Mendel parts like PDFs.

Popular CAD and Modeling programs

Note: this should include brief numerical estimates of program popularity and links to program tutorials, links to internal RepRap forum communities, links to external community. "Boosterism" is noise and will be deleted unless accompanied by links to internal RepRap forum communities. --Sebastien Bailard 20:30, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

• Blender
• Autodesk inventor.
• etc.

The community takes up the slack?

Yup. Check in the forum. I think we've got CAD drawings for Mendel molds somewhere. Eventually a RepRap developer will manifest whose job it is to keep track of these things.

Really?

People love to argue about this. This is why we've got Library Administration, Announcements, and Policy, where we get very passionate about file formats, and other library matters, like "What goes up in the Library, anyway?" (Hint. Everything.)

Photographers say "The best camera is the one you've got." Likewise, the best file format is the one you upload, and the one you like to use. Telling other people with strong opinions that they should use your favorite file format is like telling other people they should like the kind of food you like. And it cuts into your time playing in the kitchen.