PLY File Utilities

Goal: Provide basic functionality for ASCII PLY files as an alternative to the ubiquitous STL file format. PLY files utilize face-vertex connectivity to ensure water-tightness, which is critical in additive manufacturing. Advanced formats such as the Additive Manufacturing File (AMF: https://amf.wikispaces.com/) or the 3D Manufacturing File (3MF: http://www.3mf.io/) also use face-vertex connectivity, but these formats are XML based and so are a bit messy and overly complicated for the average researcher to use. The PLY file is a compact format that is also easy to read & write, thus provides a good platform for additive manufacturing researchers to utilize as they develop their algorithms.
Note: I apologize for the "messiness" of the code, this code was developed at work and undergoes a lengthy approval process for release. I am working on cleaning up the code and adding functionality (e.g. plySlicer is only a script at the moment, no error-checking, sparse comments etc.), but am releasing now to make available ASAP.

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