File Formats of 3D Printing Technology

3D printing is one type of rapid prototyping technology, which is based on the digital models to build modeling and fabricate objects by adding layer-upon-layer of material. Different file formats have great influence on the process and the processing quality. The general processing flow of 3D printing and data source were introduced in this study. The file formats were illustrated on the basis of 3D file formats, slice file formats and new types of file formats, which contain the content of file formats and its advantages and disadvantages. The development of file formats in the future was discussed based on the present situation of 3D printing.