RE: stl reader for Copyright application

From: Bathsheba Grossman (sheba@bathsheba.com)
Date: Sat May 03 2003 - 01:02:43 EEST


On Fri, 2 May 2003, Steven Adler ( A3DM ) wrote:
> If you are just trying to give a visualization tool, may I suggest that
> you use VRML as an output file type instead of STL. This will allow the
> user to use an ordinary browser and would also limit your exposure to
> the public domain.
>
> The STL format, from my perspective, reveals too much data that could in
> fact encourage abuse of your designs. If you are working in a
> collaborative effort with agreements in place, STL makes sense because
> it can be easily compressed and shared with tools like Materialise
> software COMMUNICATOR and STLZIP.
>
> Does this make sense...?

Not really, because a VRML file that looks like an STL file contains
exactly the same information as that STL file. VRML is a public ASCII
format that is not difficult to parse; indeed Rhinoceros (to name one)
can read it without preprocessing.

-Sheba

--
Bathsheba Grossman                 phone (831)429-8224, fax (831)460-1242
Sculpting geometry                                          bathsheba.com
Solidscape prototyping                                     protoshape.com


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