Microsoft gives a lot more information about the 3D printing support that's been built into Windows 8.1



From Neowin:

Microsoft has been promoting the fact that it has included built in support for 3D printing hardware in Windows 8.1 since late June, but today the company offered up a lot more information on the actual format that will be used to give its latest OS those kinds of features.

In a blog post, Microsoft said that while there are app data formats that support 3D graphics and models, they lack many of the features needed for 3D printing, such as color and material support. In the end, Microsoft decided to support STL as an input format but also created the new 3D Manufacturing Format (3MF) to handle features specific for 3D printers.

  Microsoft offers more info on 3D printing support in Windows 8.1