savestl.m

function savestl(node, elem, fname, solidname)
%
% savestl(node,elem,fname,solidname)
%
% save a tetrahedral mesh to an STL (Standard Tessellation Language) file
%
% author: Qianqian Fang, <q.fang at neu.edu>
% date: 2012/02/14
%
% input:
%      node: input, surface node list, dimension Nx3
%      elem: input, tetrahedral element list; if size(elem,2)==3, it is a surface
%      fname: output file name
%      solidname: an optional string for the name of the object
%
% -- this function is part of iso2mesh toolbox (http://iso2mesh.sf.net)
%

fid = fopen(fname, 'wt');
if (fid == -1)
    error('You do not have permission to save mesh files.');
end

if (nargin < 4)
    solidname = '';
end
fprintf(fid, 'solid %s\n', solidname);

if (nargin < 3)
    error('incomplete input');
end
if (isempty(node) || size(node, 2) < 3)
    error('invalid node input');
end
if (~isempty(elem))
    if (size(elem, 2) >= 5)
        elem(:, 5:end) = [];
    end
    if (size(elem, 2) == 4)
        elem = meshreorient(node, elem);
        elem = volface(elem);
    end
    ev = surfplane(node, elem);
    ev = ev(:, 1:3) ./ repmat(sqrt(sum(ev(:, 1:3) .* ev(:, 1:3), 2)), 1, 3);
    len = size(elem, 1);
    for i = 1:len
        fprintf(fid, ['facet normal %e %e %e\n' ...
                      ' outer loop\n' ...
                      '  vertex %e %e %e\n' ...
                      '  vertex %e %e %e\n' ...
                      '  vertex %e %e %e\n' ...
                      ' endloop\n' ...
                      'endfacet\n'], [ev(i, :)', node(elem(i, :), 1:3)']);
    end
end

fprintf(fid, 'endsolid %s\n', solidname);

fclose(fid);