| Extension | ZIP |
| Full Name | ZIP Archive |
| Type | Archive |
| Mime Type | application/zip |
| Format | Binary |
A ZIP file is a compressed file container format that has been around for many years and has become a universal standard for compressing multiple files into a single package. Along with compressing individual files, ZIP files can also compress entire directory structures.
The compression algorithm of the ZIP format enables highly efficient compression of most file types, whether they be text, music, or images. ZIP files are a great way to group together and compress multiple files for easy storage and distribution.
As ZIP files have become a standard format for file compression, most operating systems and platforms are capable of creating and opening ZIP files without any additional software.
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.
