A 3D scan, ready to print.
Turn a PLY mesh, such as a 3D scan, into an STL in your browser, nothing uploaded: standing on Z for a slicer, checked before you download it.
By Suraj Kumar3 min read
Scanning apps write PLY; printers want STL. KeepSimp turns a scanned mesh into an STL in your browser.
Drop the PLY and download the STL.
Open PLY to STL and drop the .ply on it. A PLY has no unit; scanning apps usually write metres, so check the size and choose another unit if it looks wrong. Press Download STL.
Before the file is offered, KeepSimp opens it again with its own reader and counts its triangles and measures its size; a file that does not match the model is not offered, and the page says what was wrong.
Only a mesh can be an STL.
A PLY with faces becomes an STL. A PLY that is only a cloud of points has no faces, so it cannot be an STL; the page says so and keeps PLY and GLB on offer. Turning points into a surface is not something KeepSimp does.
A scan's colours are left out, since STL holds none.
Closed or not.
Scans often have holes. The viewer says whether the shape is closed, and counts the holes if not, before you send it to a slicer.
Further reading
Topics: ply to stl · convert ply to stl · 3d scan to stl · ply to stl converter · point cloud to stl
A little less theory. A little more doing.
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