Polygon File Format

Latest revision as of 18:12, 15 February 2010

Title(s): Polygon File Format or Stanford Triangle Format

Version ID: 1.0 - Currently used version

Date released: 1994

Date: 1994

Creator(s): Stanford University

Contributor(s): Stanford University

Relationships:

Example(s):

ply
format ascii 1.0           { ascii/binary, format version number }
comment made by Greg Turk  { comments keyword specified, like all lines }
comment this file is a cube
element vertex 8           { define "vertex" element, 8 of them in file }
property float x           { vertex contains float "x" coordinate }
property float y           { y coordinate is also a vertex property }
property float z           { z coordinate, too }
element face 6             { there are 6 "face" elements in the file }
property list uchar int vertex_index { "vertex_indices" is a list of ints }
end_header                 { delimits the end of the header }
0 0 0                      { start of vertex list }
0 0 1
0 1 1
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 0 1
1 1 1
1 1 0
4 0 1 2 3                  { start of face list }
4 7 6 5 4
4 0 4 5 1
4 1 5 6 2
4 2 6 7 3
4 3 7 4 0

• Sample ascii ply file [[1]]
• ply.h [[2]]
• plytest.c [[3]]
• plyfile.c [[4]]
• plydocs.txt [[5]]

Identifier: The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository [[6]]

Documentation:

• Structure of a typical PLY file
  • Header
  • Vertex List
  • Face List
  • lists of other elements)
• Scalar data types

name        type        number of bytes
---------------------------------------
char       character                 1
uchar      unsigned character        1
short      short integer             2
ushort     unsigned short integer    2
int        integer                   4
uint       unsigned integer          4
float      single-precision float    4
double     double-precision float    8

Identifier: The Stanford 3D Scanning Repository [[7]]

File Extensions: .PLY

Applications: - Applications that the engineering format uses.

Magic numbers: ply - Typically starts with "ply" as the header followed by either "format ascii 1.0", "format binary_little_endian 1.0", or "format binary_big_endian 1.0" as the next line.

Format(s): application/octet-stream

Typical use:CAD/CAM

File classification:

• Type {Binary, Text}: Both
• Raster data:
  • Raster data 2D:
    • Is Supported: No
    • Description: N/A
  • Raster data 3D:
    • Is Supported: No
    • Description: N/A
• Geometric representation:
  • Implicit representation:
    • Implicit surfaces:
      • Is Supported: No
      • Description: N/A
    • Implicit curves:
      • Is Supported: No
      • Description: None
    • Point set:
      • Is Supported: Yes
      • Description: The typical information in a PLY file contains just two elements, the (x,y,z) triples for vertices and the vertex indices for each face.
  • Mesh:
    • Manifold surface meshes:
      • Is Supported: No
      • Description: N/A
    • Manifold volume meshes:
      • Is Supported: No
      • Description: N/A
    • Non-manifold meshes:
      • Is Supported: No
      • Description: N/A
  • Parametric representation:
    • Parametric surfaces:
      • Is Supported: No
      • Description: It does not include parametric patches, quadric surfaces, constructive solid geometry operations, triangle strips, polygons with holes, or texture descriptions.
    • Parametric curves:
      • Is Supported: No
      • Description: It does not include parametric patches, quadric surfaces, constructive solid geometry operations, triangle strips, polygons with holes, or texture descriptions.
  • Contour sets:
    • Is Supported: No
    • Description: It does not include parametric patches, quadric surfaces, constructive solid geometry operations, triangle strips, polygons with holes, or texture descriptions.
  • NURBS:
    • Is Supported: No
    • Description: N/A
• Multi-resolution models:
  • Is Supported: No
  • Description: M/A
• Dynamics:
  • Kinematics:
    • Is Supported: No
    • Description: N/A
  • Assembly:
    • Is Supported: No
    • Description: N/A
  • Force(s):
    • Is Supported: No
    • Description: N/A
• Boundary representation
  • Manifold surface boundary representations:
    • Is Supported: No
    • Description: N/A
  • Manifold volume boundary representations:
    • Is Supported: No
    • Description: N/A
  • Non-manifold boundary representations:
    • Is Supported: No
    • Description: N/A
• Material transparency:
  • Is Supported: Yes
  • Description: N/A

References: Paul Bourke, "The University of Western Australia", ["http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/dataformats/ply/", December 2010]