SIF -- Solids Interchange Format

SIF stands for Solids Interchange Format. SIF is a language which represents real solids unambiguously and compactly. SIF is designed for transferring 3D part descriptions across the Web from designer to manufacturer to enable the rapid prototyping of mechanical parts.

SIF has a family of dialects. These dialects each have special language constructs which are specially suited their manufacturing process type.

• SIF SFF is a pure boundary representation which should be accepted by all manufacturers. SIF SFF is well suited to SFF (Solid Free-Form Fabrication) processes.
• SIF DSG is a dialect which supports Destructive Solid Geometry processes, like CyberCut.
• SIF 2D is a dialect which supports 2D CNC milling and laser cutting.
• STL is a boundary representation which is the defacto standard.
• Applications
• Information on the SIF source code

Here is a comparison of the different SIF dialects, using a square torus ring as the example part.