Remember AMF, the 3D printing file formatdeveloped as an alternative to STL and OBJ formats?  Avante Technology, a company that develops and licenses standards-based, software and technology for Additive Manufacturing applications, has announced the release of a royalty-free AMF file format 3D mesh viewer.

This AMF file converter with sample source code would convert STL format files to ISO standard AMF format and validate compliance. The AMFsample™ source code would provide easy integration of the AMF file format with CAD and other software applications for AM.

Avante has worked on the development of this AMF File Converter with Mind in a Box Inc., a software company which provides key solutions for hybrid analytics and AI. Avante has developed and maintained the AMF v1.2 online viewer while Mind in a Box hosted it online via the AMFtools.org public portal. AMFtools.org serves as a clearing house for information relating to the ISO/ASTM AMF format and standard.

The AMFsample™ application inputs conventional STL format files, automatically converts to AMF format and validates to the ISO 52915:20 standard additive manufacturing format. The mesh file is displayed in 3D, can be rotated to view at any angle and zoomed in for closeup viewing of the file mesh. Files can be saved as AMF for converted back to STL.

“This sample code minimizes the cost and risk in adding support for AMF,” said Robert Zollo, president of Avante Technology. “Using this ISO standard format enables higher quality and work flow effciency through the use of AMF’s advanced capabilities. Some government agencies have ISO standard preference policies, so using AMF may provide a competitive edge to vendors too.”

As a reminder, AMF can support multiple materials, composite materials, multiple colors, blended colors, multi-part assemblies, lattice structures, compressed AMF files with attached non-AMF files, and integration of a wide range of meta-data.

Specified meta-data fields include: unique file ID number, unit of measure, name, description, version number, author, company, .url, material, color, tolerance, and customer specified fields. The AMF format also provides options for protecting file IP. Users can add copyright and patent information, licensing and security related data to the user defined meta-data field located in the file. The .url meta-data field provides a means to reference the owner’s copyright information that cannot be altered by third parties, a press release reads.

The AMFcore™ source code is written in C++ optimized for easy integration with Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems. It should now be available for royalty-free licensing and download via the AMFtools.org public portal.

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