Bundled 3MF support
As 3D printing has become more, and more mainstream. So has the requirement for a file format that supports, mesh, normals, manifoldness, materials etc.
3mf.io/ 3MF is this standard.
There is an external plugin, which I spent all last week trying to get it to work, however I do not have enough coding skill to fix.
My request is to have 3MF as natively supported from Blender 2.80+
I, myself have no association with the consortium, just a general 3D printing hobbyist
10 Comments
"Microsoft 3d builder" is a good work around if you need to convert 3mf files to obj for example or glb and more microsoft.com/en-gb/p/3d-builder/9wzdncrfj3t6
Seems like adoption of this format is a no brainer, no clue why it still is not yet supported?
What, exactly is your definition of "native" support? The only file format that Blender truly supports natively is the .blend format. Just about everything else is handled with importers and exporters. What does native support provide that can't be achieved with decent import and export support?
@Jason van Gumster: By native I mean, as one of the extensions such as OBJ, PLY etc that already comes bundled with Blender
* @grogyan * 10 months later nothing in this direction for a 3MF Exporter and Importer. Blender is the last of the popular modellers used in 3D Printing yet to incorporate 3MF
* @grogyan * Here's the thing. Blender developers have a long list of priorities coming from all fields that use 3D. Complaining that a feature hasn't been implemented in X amount of time doesn't help anyone. Things get done because people do them. So, aside from making your request, what are you going to do ?
* @Jason van Gumster * I am well aware of the Blender Devs work load. As for what I can do? Are you suggesting that I can code this? Not likely, it is beyond my ability.
What I can do is promote that 3MF is a better format than STL and OBJ. It could be a better standard format all 3D assets from one application to another. As it uses the XML format, additional information could be attributed withing the same file.
* @Jason van Gumster * The request for such a tool has been around for over 3 years blender.stackexchange.com/questions/56822/blender-export-support-for-3mf-or-amf-file-format
* @grogyan * Again, the amount of time between a request and its implementation is kind of irrelevant. There are plenty of things folks have asked for from even farther back. There are plenty of things a non-coder can do. You're promoting the format and you've linked to the format's spec. That's a good start.
You mention another add-on that offers support for the format, but isn't currently working. Can you share a link to that? This doesn't have to be developed by a core Blender dev; in fact, it's probably better that it isn't. The more you can provide to a potential developer, the better chance there is that an import add-on will be developed/fixed.
* @Jason van Gumster * The problem isn't that Blender dev's have more important things to do, it's a question of priorities. The problem with priorities is that frequently people may think that something isn't important, when the people asking for it say that it is.
With regard to 3MF, the critical thing is that without it, it's impossible for full color professional manufacturing to be supported.
STL doesn't allow full color printing (bit map textures/materials). I realize most 'at home' systems don't support this, but until Blender has some stable 3MF exporter, it's only a toy for the 3D printing crowd.
Regarding DOING something, I guess the choice I have is pay a developer to write an extension, or just pay for Max. The latter is cheaper, so "it's just business".