Pull STL (or PLY, if your lab wants color) from MyiTero, 3Shape Unite, Medit Link, DS Core/Connect, or Romexis. Always include upper, lower, and bite — an unarticulated case is a phone call waiting to happen.
Load the meshes in any free STL viewer. Confirm the prep margin is clean, the bite looks like the mouth you scanned, and no arch is missing. Thirty seconds here saves a remake.
Zip the exports and photos, upload to send.intake.dental, and text or email your lab the link. It's free, end-to-end encrypted, and your lab needs no account — they click and download.
Medit and Planmeca are genuinely open. Medit Link exports STL, PLY, and OBJ with zero fees, and Planmeca Romexis exports STL out of the box. 3Shape TRIOS is open in practice — Unite exports STL and PLY natively, though its richest data lives in 3Shape's own DCM format. iTero sits in the middle: STL export works through the MyiTero portal, but on some configurations it has to be switched on first — ask your rep to enable open export if the option isn't there. Dentsply Sirona is the most closed. CEREC's native formats are proprietary, and classic Connect software required a paid open-STL license; newer DS Core workflows have loosened this. The dollars here are real. A locked ecosystem means every case routes through the manufacturer's portal, on their terms, to their partner labs. An open one means the scan is yours — send it to any lab, any aligner workflow, any design software you like.
iTero: log in to MyiTero.com, open the order, choose Export, pick STL (separate upper, lower, and bite files), and download the zip. TRIOS: in 3Shape Unite (or Dental Desktop), open the case, hit Export, and choose STL or PLY — PLY keeps the color texture. Medit: in Medit Link, open the case, click Export, and select STL, PLY, or OBJ; done. Primescan/CEREC: in Connect SW or DS Core, export requires the open-license path — once enabled, export the case as STL from the case detail view. Planmeca Emerald: in Romexis, select the scan, choose Export, output STL. Two habits worth keeping: export both arches plus the bite scan every time, because labs cannot articulate what you didn't send, and open the files in a free viewer before sending. Thirty seconds of checking beats a two-day remake cycle.
STL is geometry only — a mesh of triangles, no color. It's the universal currency for crowns, night guards, models, and most aligner workflows. PLY (and OBJ) carry color and texture on top of the geometry, which matters for shade communication and anything a technician designs by eye. If your lab accepts PLY, send PLY; they can always throw the color away. Now the sizes. A single-arch STL runs roughly 10–50 MB. Add the opposing arch, the bite, PLY color data, and a few clinical photos, and a routine case clears 100 MB without trying. Email caps out around 25 MB, so the classic workarounds appear: consumer file-sharing accounts nobody set up a BAA for, or a thumb drive in a padded envelope. Both are slow, and the first one is a HIPAA problem wearing a convenience costume. Scan files tied to a patient are PHI. Treat them like it.
Log in to MyiTero.com, open the patient's order, choose Export, and select STL. You'll get a zip with separate upper, lower, and bite files. If the Export option isn't visible, open STL export may not be enabled on your account — ask your rep to turn it on.
Yes. In 3Shape Unite (or the older Dental Desktop), open the case and use Export to save STL or PLY. PLY preserves the color texture from the scan, which many labs prefer for shade and soft-tissue reference.
It can, but Dentsply Sirona is the most locked of the major ecosystems. Classic Connect software required a paid open-STL license, while newer DS Core workflows support export more readily. Check which license your practice has before promising a lab open files.
A single arch typically runs 10–50 MB as STL. A full case — both arches, bite, PLY color data, and clinical photos — commonly exceeds 100 MB. That's well past email's ~25 MB attachment cap, which is why cases need a real transfer tool.
STL contains geometry only — the 3D mesh, no color. PLY carries the same mesh plus color and texture data. STL is the universal standard nearly every lab and aligner workflow accepts; PLY is better when shade or soft-tissue detail matters and your lab supports it.
Export the case from your scanner, zip the files, and use an encrypted transfer service rather than email — scan files linked to a patient are PHI, and most cases are too big for attachments anyway. Send (send.intake.dental) is free, end-to-end encrypted, and your lab downloads with no account.
Send is free, end-to-end encrypted file transfer for dental teams. STL, PLY, DICOM zips, photos — sizes email can't touch. The key stays in the link, never on our servers, and your lab needs no account. Upload, send the link, get back to the chair.
This is the step where good scans go to die, so make it boring and repeatable. We built Send (send.intake.dental) because our own cases kept hitting the email wall — it's free, and it handles STL, PLY, OBJ, DICOM/CBCT zips, photos, and PDFs at sizes far beyond email's ~25 MB cap. Files are end-to-end encrypted, and the decryption key travels in the link itself — it never touches our servers, so nobody in the middle can open your case, including us. Your lab clicks the link and downloads; no account, no software install, no IT ticket on their end. Drop the export zip in, send the link, done — the whole handoff takes about a minute. If the case needs a conversation — margin questions, a shade photo, an opposing-arch retake — Bridge, our free office-to-office chat, handles case discussion with STL and x-ray attachments in the same thread.
Standard email is a poor fit: attachments cap around 25 MB, and unencrypted email exposes PHI in transit. Consumer file-sharing accounts without a BAA carry the same problem. Use an encrypted transfer built for healthcare files, and keep the patient identifiers out of the filename while you're at it.
Every scanner can capture a beautiful arch. Not every scanner makes it easy to walk away with the file. Here's how to export STL and PLY from the five most common systems, which ecosystems are open versus locked, and how to move 100 MB cases to your lab without a thumb drive or a bounced email.
