Geometry
1:1
every triangle copied
Convert / STL → PLY
STL to PLY
STL in, PLY out, in this tab. PLY keeps a proper vertex list and a face list, so it can carry per-vertex data that STL has no room for.
→binary STL, ASCII STL in · ASCII vertex + face lists out
Source
Result
.
PLY file · ASCII vertex + face lists
Same triangles, STL-style geometry rewritten as PLY. Convert, then download the . file.
—
- Triangles
- —
- Vertices
- —
- Time
- —
- Size
- —
Materials
none → none
geometry only
Units
none
STL stores no unit field
Engine
in-page JS
STL reader · PLY writer
First load
0 KB
no external script
Status
live
runs in this tab
STL → PLY · mesh to meshoutput ASCII vertex + face lists
What actually changes in the file
PLY keeps a proper vertex list and a face list, so it can carry per-vertex data that STL has no room for. This converter reads either STL encoding and writes an ASCII PLY with shared vertices and triangle faces.
| Field | STL (source) | PLY (target) | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Triangles | stored | stored | copied 1:1, never remeshed |
| Vertices | repeated per facet | shared list | coincident points merged on write |
| Normals | per facet | not written | your importer recomputes them from the faces |
| UVs | none | not written | nothing in STL to carry over |
| Objects | one shell | one element | every shell lands in the same object |
| Units | none | none | no scaling is applied |
| Materials | none | none | geometry only, no sidecar file |
What this converter does, and what it does not
- Reads
- binary STL, ASCII STLdetected from the file contents, not the extension
- Writes
- ASCII vertex + face listsPLY output carries geometry only
- Merges vertices
- yescoincident points collapse before writing
- Scales units
- nocoordinates are copied as they are
- Repairs meshes
- noholes and non-manifold edges pass through unchanged
- Size limit
- memorybounded by the tab, not by a server quota
Convert, or convert to something else
STL → PLY is the right move when the next tool wants PLY. It is the wrong move when it does not.
Convert to PLY when
- You are feeding a scanner or point-cloud tool that speaks PLY
- You want a format with a real vertex list to attach colour or confidence to later
- You want a text file you can inspect without a hex editor
Do not convert to PLY when
- Your target tool reads STL and you do not need per-vertex data
- You need materials, textures or a scene graph
- You want binary PLY for size; this writer emits ASCII
Waiting for a file
Frequently asked
Does the PLY carry colour?
Not from STL, because STL has no colour to carry. The writer emits x/y/z properties and a face list; adding red/green/blue per vertex is a later feature.
ASCII or binary PLY?
The reader accepts both. The writer emits ASCII so the output is readable, which costs size compared with binary PLY.
Will my scanner tool read it?
MeshLab, CloudCompare and most scanner pipelines read ASCII PLY with float x/y/z and a uchar-int face list, which is exactly what this writes.
Are the triangles preserved?
Yes, one to one. The face list keeps the same triangle count as the source; only the vertex indexing changes.
Can I convert back?
Yes. PLY to STL is implemented on the same engine, so a round trip returns the same geometry.
Related pairs
- STL to OBJsame family
- OBJ to STLreverse
- PLY to STLreverse
- OBJ to PLYsame family
- PLY to OBJsame family
- All 132 pairsmatrix