Format Guide
The ISO 52900 additive manufacturing format — curved triangles, color gradients, and multi-material in one XML file.
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| Extension | .amf |
|---|---|
| Full name | Additive Manufacturing Format |
| Standard | ISO 52900:2015 |
| Encoding | XML (gzip-compressed optional) |
| Open standard | Yes |
| Supports color | Yes — per-vertex and per-volume |
| Supports materials | Yes — multiple materials with gradients |
| Supports curved triangles | Yes — edge normals for curved elements |
AMF (Additive Manufacturing Format) is an ISO 52900:2015 open standard designed to address the limitations of STL for modern additive manufacturing. Unlike STL's flat triangles with no metadata, AMF uses XML to store: curved triangular elements (reducing tessellation error), per-vertex color, multiple materials with volumetric composition, textures, assemblies, and measurement units. AMF was intended to replace STL as the 3D printing standard, but 3MF (which arrived shortly after) has seen stronger industry adoption due to support from major printer manufacturers. AMF is supported by Cura, Slic3r, PrusaSlicer, and several industrial systems.
AMF can specify different materials for different regions of a print, including gradients — useful for multi-material printers and multi-component assembly prints.
Unlike STL, AMF stores per-vertex RGB color, enabling full-color print files for systems like the 3D Systems ProJet and Stratasys J750.
AMF's curved triangle elements (defined by edge normals) reduce the need for ultra-fine tessellation to achieve smooth curved surfaces, resulting in smaller, more accurate files.
Cura, Slic3r, PrusaSlicer, Simplify3D, MakerBot Print, SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor, and 3D CAD Converter.
Commonly converted from STEP or STL for color printing workflows, to 3MF (the more widely-adopted modern alternative), or to STL for legacy slicer compatibility.