numpy-stl 2.14.1

Links

• The source: https://github.com/WoLpH/numpy-stl

• Project page: https://pypi-hypernode.com/pypi/numpy-stl

• Reporting bugs: https://github.com/WoLpH/numpy-stl/issues

• Documentation: http://numpy-stl.readthedocs.org/en/latest/

• My blog: https://wol.ph/

Requirements for installing:

• numpy any recent version

• python-utils version 1.6 or greater

Installation:

pip install numpy-stl

Initial usage:

• stl2bin your_ascii_stl_file.stl new_binary_stl_file.stl

• stl2ascii your_binary_stl_file.stl new_ascii_stl_file.stl

• stl your_ascii_stl_file.stl new_binary_stl_file.stl

Contributing:

Contributions are always welcome. Please view the guidelines to get started: https://github.com/WoLpH/numpy-stl/blob/develop/CONTRIBUTING.rst

Quickstart

import numpy
from stl import mesh

# Using an existing stl file:
your_mesh = mesh.Mesh.from_file('some_file.stl')

# Or creating a new mesh (make sure not to overwrite the `mesh` import by
# naming it `mesh`):
VERTICE_COUNT = 100
data = numpy.zeros(VERTICE_COUNT, dtype=mesh.Mesh.dtype)
your_mesh = mesh.Mesh(data, remove_empty_areas=False)

# The mesh normals (calculated automatically)
your_mesh.normals
# The mesh vectors
your_mesh.v0, your_mesh.v1, your_mesh.v2
# Accessing individual points (concatenation of v0, v1 and v2 in triplets)
assert (your_mesh.points[0][0:3] == your_mesh.v0[0]).all()
assert (your_mesh.points[0][3:6] == your_mesh.v1[0]).all()
assert (your_mesh.points[0][6:9] == your_mesh.v2[0]).all()
assert (your_mesh.points[1][0:3] == your_mesh.v0[1]).all()

your_mesh.save('new_stl_file.stl')

Plotting using matplotlib is equally easy:

from stl import mesh
from mpl_toolkits import mplot3d
from matplotlib import pyplot

# Create a new plot
figure = pyplot.figure()
axes = mplot3d.Axes3D(figure)

# Load the STL files and add the vectors to the plot
your_mesh = mesh.Mesh.from_file('tests/stl_binary/HalfDonut.stl')
axes.add_collection3d(mplot3d.art3d.Poly3DCollection(your_mesh.vectors))

# Auto scale to the mesh size
scale = your_mesh.points.flatten()
axes.auto_scale_xyz(scale, scale, scale)

# Show the plot to the screen
pyplot.show()

Modifying Mesh objects

from stl import mesh
import math
import numpy

# Create 3 faces of a cube
data = numpy.zeros(6, dtype=mesh.Mesh.dtype)

# Top of the cube
data['vectors'][0] = numpy.array([[0, 1, 1],
                                  [1, 0, 1],
                                  [0, 0, 1]])
data['vectors'][1] = numpy.array([[1, 0, 1],
                                  [0, 1, 1],
                                  [1, 1, 1]])
# Front face
data['vectors'][2] = numpy.array([[1, 0, 0],
                                  [1, 0, 1],
                                  [1, 1, 0]])
data['vectors'][3] = numpy.array([[1, 1, 1],
                                  [1, 0, 1],
                                  [1, 1, 0]])
# Left face
data['vectors'][4] = numpy.array([[0, 0, 0],
                                  [1, 0, 0],
                                  [1, 0, 1]])
data['vectors'][5] = numpy.array([[0, 0, 0],
                                  [0, 0, 1],
                                  [1, 0, 1]])

# Since the cube faces are from 0 to 1 we can move it to the middle by
# substracting .5
data['vectors'] -= .5

# Generate 4 different meshes so we can rotate them later
meshes = [mesh.Mesh(data.copy()) for _ in range(4)]

# Rotate 90 degrees over the Y axis
meshes[0].rotate([0.0, 0.5, 0.0], math.radians(90))

# Translate 2 points over the X axis
meshes[1].x += 2

# Rotate 90 degrees over the X axis
meshes[2].rotate([0.5, 0.0, 0.0], math.radians(90))
# Translate 2 points over the X and Y points
meshes[2].x += 2
meshes[2].y += 2

# Rotate 90 degrees over the X and Y axis
meshes[3].rotate([0.5, 0.0, 0.0], math.radians(90))
meshes[3].rotate([0.0, 0.5, 0.0], math.radians(90))
# Translate 2 points over the Y axis
meshes[3].y += 2


# Optionally render the rotated cube faces
from matplotlib import pyplot
from mpl_toolkits import mplot3d

# Create a new plot
figure = pyplot.figure()
axes = mplot3d.Axes3D(figure)

# Render the cube faces
for m in meshes:
    axes.add_collection3d(mplot3d.art3d.Poly3DCollection(m.vectors))

# Auto scale to the mesh size
scale = numpy.concatenate([m.points for m in meshes]).flatten()
axes.auto_scale_xyz(scale, scale, scale)

# Show the plot to the screen
pyplot.show()

Extending Mesh objects

from stl import mesh
import math
import numpy

# Create 3 faces of a cube
data = numpy.zeros(6, dtype=mesh.Mesh.dtype)

# Top of the cube
data['vectors'][0] = numpy.array([[0, 1, 1],
                                  [1, 0, 1],
                                  [0, 0, 1]])
data['vectors'][1] = numpy.array([[1, 0, 1],
                                  [0, 1, 1],
                                  [1, 1, 1]])
# Front face
data['vectors'][2] = numpy.array([[1, 0, 0],
                                  [1, 0, 1],
                                  [1, 1, 0]])
data['vectors'][3] = numpy.array([[1, 1, 1],
                                  [1, 0, 1],
                                  [1, 1, 0]])
# Left face
data['vectors'][4] = numpy.array([[0, 0, 0],
                                  [1, 0, 0],
                                  [1, 0, 1]])
data['vectors'][5] = numpy.array([[0, 0, 0],
                                  [0, 0, 1],
                                  [1, 0, 1]])

# Since the cube faces are from 0 to 1 we can move it to the middle by
# substracting .5
data['vectors'] -= .5

cube_back = mesh.Mesh(data.copy())
cube_front = mesh.Mesh(data.copy())

# Rotate 90 degrees over the X axis followed by the Y axis followed by the
# X axis
cube_back.rotate([0.5, 0.0, 0.0], math.radians(90))
cube_back.rotate([0.0, 0.5, 0.0], math.radians(90))
cube_back.rotate([0.5, 0.0, 0.0], math.radians(90))

cube = mesh.Mesh(numpy.concatenate([
    cube_back.data.copy(),
    cube_front.data.copy(),
]))

# Optionally render the rotated cube faces
from matplotlib import pyplot
from mpl_toolkits import mplot3d

# Create a new plot
figure = pyplot.figure()
axes = mplot3d.Axes3D(figure)

# Render the cube
axes.add_collection3d(mplot3d.art3d.Poly3DCollection(cube.vectors))

# Auto scale to the mesh size
scale = cube_back.points.flatten()
axes.auto_scale_xyz(scale, scale, scale)

# Show the plot to the screen
pyplot.show()

Creating Mesh objects from a list of vertices and faces

import numpy as np
from stl import mesh

# Define the 8 vertices of the cube
vertices = np.array([\
    [-1, -1, -1],
    [+1, -1, -1],
    [+1, +1, -1],
    [-1, +1, -1],
    [-1, -1, +1],
    [+1, -1, +1],
    [+1, +1, +1],
    [-1, +1, +1]])
# Define the 12 triangles composing the cube
faces = np.array([\
    [0,3,1],
    [1,3,2],
    [0,4,7],
    [0,7,3],
    [4,5,6],
    [4,6,7],
    [5,1,2],
    [5,2,6],
    [2,3,6],
    [3,7,6],
    [0,1,5],
    [0,5,4]])

# Create the mesh
cube = mesh.Mesh(np.zeros(faces.shape[0], dtype=mesh.Mesh.dtype))
for i, f in enumerate(faces):
    for j in range(3):
        cube.vectors[i][j] = vertices[f[j],:]

# Write the mesh to file "cube.stl"
cube.save('cube.stl')

Evaluating Mesh properties (Volume, Center of gravity, Inertia)

import numpy as np
from stl import mesh

# Using an existing closed stl file:
your_mesh = mesh.Mesh.from_file('some_file.stl')

volume, cog, inertia = your_mesh.get_mass_properties()
print("Volume                                  = {0}".format(volume))
print("Position of the center of gravity (COG) = {0}".format(cog))
print("Inertia matrix at expressed at the COG  = {0}".format(inertia[0,:]))
print("                                          {0}".format(inertia[1,:]))
print("                                          {0}".format(inertia[2,:]))

Combining multiple STL files

import math
import stl
from stl import mesh
import numpy


# find the max dimensions, so we can know the bounding box, getting the height,
# width, length (because these are the step size)...
def find_mins_maxs(obj):
    minx = obj.x.min()
    maxx = obj.x.max()
    miny = obj.y.min()
    maxy = obj.y.max()
    minz = obj.z.min()
    maxz = obj.z.max()
    return minx, maxx, miny, maxy, minz, maxz


def translate(_solid, step, padding, multiplier, axis):
    if 'x' == axis:
        items = 0, 3, 6
    elif 'y' == axis:
        items = 1, 4, 7
    elif 'z' == axis:
        items = 2, 5, 8
    else:
        raise RuntimeError('Unknown axis %r, expected x, y or z' % axis)

    # _solid.points.shape == [:, ((x, y, z), (x, y, z), (x, y, z))]
    _solid.points[:, items] += (step * multiplier) + (padding * multiplier)


def copy_obj(obj, dims, num_rows, num_cols, num_layers):
    w, l, h = dims
    copies = []
    for layer in range(num_layers):
        for row in range(num_rows):
            for col in range(num_cols):
                # skip the position where original being copied is
                if row == 0 and col == 0 and layer == 0:
                    continue
                _copy = mesh.Mesh(obj.data.copy())
                # pad the space between objects by 10% of the dimension being
                # translated
                if col != 0:
                    translate(_copy, w, w / 10., col, 'x')
                if row != 0:
                    translate(_copy, l, l / 10., row, 'y')
                if layer != 0:
                    translate(_copy, h, h / 10., layer, 'z')
                copies.append(_copy)
    return copies

# Using an existing stl file:
main_body = mesh.Mesh.from_file('ball_and_socket_simplified_-_main_body.stl')

# rotate along Y
main_body.rotate([0.0, 0.5, 0.0], math.radians(90))

minx, maxx, miny, maxy, minz, maxz = find_mins_maxs(main_body)
w1 = maxx - minx
l1 = maxy - miny
h1 = maxz - minz
copies = copy_obj(main_body, (w1, l1, h1), 2, 2, 1)

# I wanted to add another related STL to the final STL
twist_lock = mesh.Mesh.from_file('ball_and_socket_simplified_-_twist_lock.stl')
minx, maxx, miny, maxy, minz, maxz = find_mins_maxs(twist_lock)
w2 = maxx - minx
l2 = maxy - miny
h2 = maxz - minz
translate(twist_lock, w1, w1 / 10., 3, 'x')
copies2 = copy_obj(twist_lock, (w2, l2, h2), 2, 2, 1)
combined = mesh.Mesh(numpy.concatenate([main_body.data, twist_lock.data] +
                                    [copy.data for copy in copies] +
                                    [copy.data for copy in copies2]))

combined.save('combined.stl', mode=stl.Mode.ASCII)  # save as ASCII

Known limitations

• When speedups are enabled the STL name is automatically converted to lowercase.