PLY to STL Converter

Print 3D scans and photogrammetry: PLY to STL in your browser, with a fix for scans saved in metres and a check for holes before you slice.

  • Files stay on your device
  • Free, no sign-up
  • Units and up axis handled
  • Batch and .zip

Drop a PLY file to convert

One file, many, or a .zip

In: STL · STEP · IGES · OBJ · 3MF · GLB · glTF · PLY · FBX · DAE · 3DS · AMF · VRML · ZIP

Converted on your device. Nothing is uploaded.

    How to convert PLY to STL

    1. Drop your PLY files

      Drop .ply meshes or point clouds, ASCII or binary.

    2. Check the preview

      The model appears at the size and orientation it will have. Fix the file units, up axis or size under Size, units and orientation if needed.

    3. Choose STL options

      Binary STL by default (smallest, read everywhere). Tick ASCII only if an old tool asks for text STL.

    4. Convert and download

      One file downloads straight away. A batch gives a download per file and one .zip of all of them.

    What carries over from PLY to STL

    Worked out from what each format can store and what this converter writes. Nothing is changed silently: the preview shows the size and orientation before you download.

    Geometry Every face is kept; quads and n-gons are split into triangles.
    Color Dropped: STL cannot store color.
    Units PLY has bare numbers, so they pass through as millimetres: 1 unit becomes 1 millimetre. If the preview size is wrong, set the file units.
    Orientation Turned from Y up to Z up, so it stands on the plate in a slicer.
    Objects Merged into one surface: STL has no objects.

    PLY to STL: what actually happens

    Scanners and photogrammetry apps write PLY meshes with vertex colors. STL keeps the triangles and drops the colors. PLY has no units; the numbers pass through as millimetres, so a scan saved in metres comes out tiny, and the converter offers to read it as metres instead.

    Raw scans are rarely watertight: there is usually a hole where the object stood. Check the STL in the STL viewer, then close the holes in Mesh Repair. Point-cloud PLYs have no surface and must be meshed first.

    PLY at a glance

    Polygon File Format (Stanford Triangle Format) · .ply

    Stores
    Vertices with any properties, optional faces; ASCII or binary
    Color
    Per-vertex colors
    Units
    None; scanners usually write metres
    Up axis
    Varies with the scanner or app
    File size
    Binary is compact; ASCII is several times larger
    Opens in
    MeshLab, CloudCompare, Blender, scanning and photogrammetry software

    Greg Turk designed PLY at Stanford in the 1990s for 3D scan data, and it is still what scanners, photogrammetry tools and MeshLab write. It can hold a colored mesh or a bare point cloud, and Gaussian splat captures reuse it for splats.

    Open PLY files in the viewer

    STL at a glance

    Stereolithography (Standard Triangle Language) · .stl

    Stores
    Loose triangles: three corners and a normal each, binary or ASCII
    Color
    None in the standard
    Units
    None written; slicers assume millimetres
    Up axis
    Z, the slicer convention
    File size
    50 bytes per triangle in binary, about 5 times that as ASCII
    Opens in
    Every slicer, CAD tool and 3D app

    Created by 3D Systems in 1987 for the first stereolithography printers, STL is still the format every slicer and print service accepts. It describes a surface as a list of independent triangles, with no shared vertices, units, colors or scene structure.

    Open STL files in the viewer

    Tips for PLY to STL

    Point cloud?

    Mesh it with Poisson reconstruction in MeshLab or CloudCompare first.

    Heavy scans

    Millions of triangles slow slicers down. Decimate in MeshLab or Blender before printing.

    Keep the color

    Use PLY to OBJ to keep vertex colors.

    PLY to STL FAQ

    Why is my STL from PLY so small?
    PLY has no units and many scanners write metres. Set the file units to metres (the converter suggests it when the size looks wrong).

    Can I convert a PLY point cloud to STL?
    Not directly: a point cloud has no surface. Reconstruct a mesh first, then convert it.

    Are vertex colors kept?
    Not in STL, which has no color. OBJ, GLB and PLY keep them.

    Is the converter free? Are there limits?
    Free, with no sign-up, watermark or file count limit. Batches and files of a few hundred MB work on most laptops; the only limit is your device's memory.

    Are my files uploaded?
    No. Files are read and written by JavaScript and WebAssembly in your browser and never sent to PrintPal. The STEP and IGES reader is the only extra download, once, from a public CDN.