Convert LEGO LDraw files to STL, for super-sizing and 3d printing!!

1. Locate the ldraw parts archive at getting started (note: the wget link below might go stale):
2. Install LeoCAD so you can find your parts (optional)
3. Make a note of the .dat file name in LeoCAD, and then run:

wget https://library.ldraw.org/library/updates/complete.zip
unzip complete.zip
bin/dat2stl --file ldraw/parts/3894.dat --ldrawdir ./ldraw > 3894.stl

Use the --scale argument to scale the part:

bin/dat2stl --file /usr/share/ldraw/parts/3894.dat --ldrawdir ./ldraw --scale 4 > 3894.stl

For a 4X scale one of those!

A user reported that they were able to get the tool to work on Windows using Strawberry Perl. However, they encountered an issue that Powershell redirection under Windows will by default create a unicode file. Apparently STL readers interpret this as a binary file (because STL has both binary and ascii specifications) and fail to read it. To force ascii redirection use:

perl bin/dat2stl --file [part file] --ldrawdir [ldraw library] | Out-File -Encoding Ascii [output.stl]