Slicing STL files in POV-Ray

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories writes –

We have been using POV-Ray to create 3D models and render bitmap slices that can be printed with the CandyFab 4000, our home-built 3D sugar fabricator. One thing that we could do to extend the usefulness of this procedure is to be able to take STL files as input, because STL is the de facto standard file format for 3D fab shops and the machines that do the fabrication. So, here’s how to do it: STL files can be converted to POV-Ray format, and from there we can use our usual bag of tricks to render the set of bitmap slices.

In this article, we explain that process in more detail: We’ll take an STL file, import it into POV-Ray using the stl2pov utility, and then set it up to render a series of slices. Our example file is the sculpture Metatron by Bathsheba Grossman, who has released the STL file for it into the public domain (with some interesting results).

Slicing STL files in POV-Ray – Link.

On a related note, happy 1st birthday Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories!