14. Exporting Models to a 3D Printer
Exporting your 3D CAD model to a 3D printer can be very simple, or it can be slightly less simple. There are two things we need to settle straight away.
The first thing to note is that at the time of writing this chapter the only way to get your CAD model to a 3D printer is by exporting it in a special file format. Nearly all 3D printers accept the same file format, which is known as an STL (STereoLithography) file.
The second thing to note is that Autodesk is strongly rumored to be working on direct support for 3D printers; Microsoft has already done this in Windows 8.1. Even if this is done, you might not be running the latest release of their software for a while, which means the comments in this chapter ...
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