Free Online STL to XYZ Converter

The STL, or Standard Triangle Language, file format has been around since the '80s and is supported by most modern 3D modeling applications. In particular, the STL format has become something of a standard format within the area of 3D printing, despite the rise of more modern formats such as 3MF.

STL files come in two flavors: binary or text format. The text format is human-readable, making it easy to perform manual edits, but can lead to very large file sizes. As you can imagine, the binary format is much more compact and represents the majority of the STL files you are likely to encounter.

The format itself is very simple; the 3D model is represented by a sequential list of triangles, with each triangle defined with 3 points consisting of their X, Y, and Z positions, along with an additional vector that contains the face normal (the direction the face is pointing). There is an additional attribute block for each triangle; however, this is largely unused and thus unsupported.

STL Converter Capabilities

When converting 3D model or mesh files using our STL converter, we will attempt to convert color materials into a suitable format for use in the converted file.

An XYZ file, as its name suggests, is a simple 3D graphics file format capable of storing the 3D points that make up a 3D object. Only the points, or vertices, are stored in what is known as a point cloud format.

XYZ files are simple ASCII text files consisting of a vertex defined on each line of the text document. Only the vertex coordinates (X, Y, and Z) are stored; additional vertex data, such as normal and texture coordinates, are not recorded.

The format can be loaded into several 3D modeling programs and can also be converted to other point cloud formats, such as PTX, using our own XYZ converter.

XYZ Converter Capabilities

When converting your STL to XYZ, our tool will attempt to accurately convert any color or material information.