The 3D Manufacturing Format (3MF) is a 3D printing format that allows design applications to send full-fidelity 3D models to a mix of other applications, platforms, services and printers. The 3MF specification allows companies to focus on innovation, rather than on basic interoperability issues, and it is engineered to avoid the problems associated with other 3D file formats.
The 3MF Consortium came into being to deliver to the additive manufacturing industry a file format that is:
- Complete: Containing all of the necessary model, material and property information in a single archive
- Human Readable: Using common structures such as OPC, ZIP, and XML to ease development
- Simple: A short, clear specification, making development easy and validation fast
- Extensible: Leveraging XML namespaces allow for both public and private extensions while maintaining compatibility
- Unambiguous: Clear language and conformance tests ensure a file is always consistent from digital to physical
- Free: Access to and implementation of the 3MF specification is and will always be free of royalties, patents and licensing
To find out what software, hardware and services support 3MF, see the 3MF Compatibility Matrix.
3MF members have agreed to make their necessary patent claims available for implementations of the 3MF Core Specification and all public 3MF extension specifications on a royalty-free basis.
The 3MF Consortium is a Joint Development Foundation Projects, LLC series. The Joint Development Foundation is a non-profit organization and affiliate of the Linux Foundation that provides the corporate and legal infrastructure to enable groups to establish and operate standards and source code development collaborations.
*Thank you to Associate Member Kabuku for translating the Japanese specification.
