Steve Scargall

Reflections and What's Next: Lessons from Building lib3mf-rs

Series: Building lib3mf-rs

This post is part of a 5-part series on building a comprehensive 3MF library in Rust:

On February 4th, 2026, lib3mf-rs is a published open-source project with complete specification coverage, available for anyone to use.

Design for Developers: Features, Flags, and the CLI

Series: Building lib3mf-rs

This post is part of a 5-part series on building a comprehensive 3MF library in Rust:

Understanding the specifications was one thing. Designing a library that developers would actually want to use? That was another challenge entirely. I’ve worked on many libraries over the years, and I’ve learned a lot about what makes a good library, for example the Persistent Memory Development Kit . The difference is understanding how Rust does things.

Into the 3MF Specification Wilderness: Reading 1000+ Pages of Specifications

Series: Building lib3mf-rs

This post is part of a 5-part series on building a comprehensive 3MF library in Rust:

“How hard can it be? It’s just a file format.”

That’s what I thought before I started reading the 3MF specifications. After reading, re-reading, and getting AI to help summarize and dig deeper into the interpretations and understandings, I was ready to begin.

The Library Landscape: Why Build Another One?

Series: Building lib3mf-rs

This post is part of a 5-part series on building a comprehensive 3MF library in Rust:

“Why not just use the existing library?”

It’s a fair question. One I asked myself many times during the early days of this project. The 3MF Consortium maintains lib3MF , a comprehensive C++ implementation used by major companies in additive manufacturing. Why build another one?

My Journey Building a 3MF Native Rust Library from Scratch

For the past few years, I’ve been getting more and more into 3D printing as a hobbyist. Like everyone, I started with one, a Bambu Lab X1 Carbon, which has now grown to three printers. I find the hobby fascinating as it entangles software, firmware, hardware, physics, and materials science.

As a software engineer, I’m naturally drawn to the software side of things (Slicer and Firmware). But what interests me most, is how the software interacts with the hardware and the materials. How the slicer translates the 3D model into instructions for the printer (G-Code). How the printer executes those instructions. How the materials behave under the printer’s control.