3d scanning

[juberafab]

3d scanning seems to be a common practice now of days. It has always been something that I have been interested in and would like to get into. The days of reverse engineering seems to be a thing of the past with modern technology. I will be building two similar truck in the near future and would love to design them completely in CAD. I would prefer to invest the money into a scanner rather than pay someone and not learn. I have other smaller project that I plan to test with first. Is anyone on here currently using a 3d scanner or have any advice i am all ears.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[Cleandezert]

my company does... but in way bigger scale than you need. lol But if you want to measure a building... let me know.

 

[NODNARB]

https://store.creality.com/collections/scanners

This one was recommended to me by a guy I’ve used for solid modeling help. He said it’s a really good bang for the buck. The raptor/raptor pro ones.
They’ve gotten so much cheaper in the last few years.

 

[the bodj]

I have the shining Einstar and it with well. It’s really helpful for designing plate to tubes that are off axis

 

[the bodj]

You’ll need a computer that’s really up to snuff. It takes. A lot of processing even for small files

 

[juberafab]

Thanks for the reply Brandon and Bodj. I have a workshop computer that I tun SW on so I should be good there. So what the process? Scanning, convert, scale, then convert to a solid model? Is there software for the scanners etc. Might be time for youtube university. lol

 

[juberafab]

my company does... but in way bigger scale than you need. lol But if you want to measure a building... let me know.

So when you going to come over and scan the wife and sons cab.

 

[the bodj]

Thanks for the reply Brandon and Bodj. I have a workshop computer that I tun SW on so I should be good there. So what the process? Scanning, convert, scale, then convert to a solid model? Is there software for the scanners etc. Might be time for youtube university. lol

Hopefully the shop computer is up for it. Modeling takes a ton of processing power.

For me it is: scan as many times as needed to get the features I need, then mesh it all together (converts the file from billions of dots in space to triangles that show the topography as an infinitely thin, hollow shell of what you scanned. From there I actually like Fusion360 for modeling. If you convert it to a solid then you get something with a ton of lumps and bumps and no reference data. So you need to create planes on features you want, then sketch a shape of what that feature is. Like if you scan an upright, you’ll need to create a plane on the end of the snout, sketch a circle, and then extrude the circle to make a perfect spindle. It’s pretty time consuming. You’ll do that for all of the features you want/need, and basically reverse engineer the part that way. When I get to my computer I’ll send you some YouTube videos I found really helpful.

Oh, no need to scale anything. That is done while you scan.

 

[juberafab]

Got ya. So i amno computer person but my buddy that built my computer said it was a good one. Has like 5 water coolers in it and 6 or 7 fans with 1 terabytes for storage and another ssd for the operating system. At least that is what I remember. Probably wrong on the terminology. It's strictly my designing computer

I do.have fuzion on a lap top buy it doubt that computer can do it. That makes sense. So are the better scanners more accurate or what sets a more expensive scanner apart.

 

[the bodj]

Got ya. So i amno computer person but my buddy that built my computer said it was a good one. Has like 5 water coolers in it and 6 or 7 fans with 1 terabytes for storage and another ssd for the operating system. At least that is what I remember. Probably wrong on the terminology. It's strictly my designing computer

I do.have fuzion on a lap top buy it doubt that computer can do it. That makes sense. So are the better scanners more accurate or what sets a more expensive scanner apart.

I’m not sure of the benefits of a better scanner. Probably the mesh software that comes with it and ability to get more data in each scan without losing tracking. I’ll sometimes have to do like 5 scans and then use the software to combine them to one scan. It’s pretty crazy how good it works.

I have the limited low budget version of SW so my mesh stuff is limited. If you have the full thing I’d imagine it would be better. I really like the ability to do a “mesh section sketch” in fusion, where you create a plane and it creates sketch data on the plane anywhere the mesh intersects. So if you have a bolt hole on a tab, create a plane on the tab, use mesh section sketch, and it will give you a rough shape of the bolt hole (real surfaces aren’t 100% flat so the whole circle may not intersect the plane), and then you can draw a circle of your known/defined diameter and place it over the hole more accurately.

I have tomorrow afternoon free if you want to call me I can FaceTime you and show you my setup

 

[mounty71]

We have the Einscan Shining Pro HD at work and I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I haven't had much success with it. I occasionally will try to get the hang of it, and then get frustrated and leave it for another 6 months. Last time I tried it the scan looked good, but it was way out of scale, and I had just calibrated it so I'm not sure why. I have to reacquaint myself with the software and try again.

Also a cordless scanner would be a lot nicer.

 

[bullnerd]

Check out Superfast Matt on youtoob.

He has a few scanner vids and is good at explaining shit.

I don’t think he was a fan of the wireless one.

 

[juberafab]

I’m not sure of the benefits of a better scanner. Probably the mesh software that comes with it and ability to get more data in each scan without losing tracking. I’ll sometimes have to do like 5 scans and then use the software to combine them to one scan. It’s pretty crazy how good it works.

I have the limited low budget version of SW so my mesh stuff is limited. If you have the full thing I’d imagine it would be better. I really like the ability to do a “mesh section sketch” in fusion, where you create a plane and it creates sketch data on the plane anywhere the mesh intersects. So if you have a bolt hole on a tab, create a plane on the tab, use mesh section sketch, and it will give you a rough shape of the bolt hole (real surfaces aren’t 100% flat so the whole circle may not intersect the plane), and then you can draw a circle of your known/defined diameter and place it over the hole more accurately.

I have tomorrow afternoon free if you want to call me I can FaceTime you and show you my setup

I'll have to take a rain check cuz we have stuff going on, but i appreciate it. We will have to set something up.

 

[juberafab]

We have the Einscan Shining Pro HD at work and I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I haven't had much success with it. I occasionally will try to get the hang of it, and then get frustrated and leave it for another 6 months. Last time I tried it the scan looked good, but it was way out of scale, and I had just calibrated it so I'm not sure why. I have to reacquaint myself with the software and try again.

Also a cordless scanner would be a lot nicer.

What problems are u having other than the scan not being scaled?

 

[juberafab]

Check out Superfast Matt on youtoob.

He has a few scanner vids and is good at explaining shit.

I don’t think he was a fan of the wireless one.

Thanks, i will check him out.

I see people using dots all over the place when scanning and then some that don't. What the purpose of the dots. Having a known size or dimension? Or is it just a pick up point for the scanner. I remember watching a video of a guy that had a special spray to make the surface not shinny cut they don't like reflective surfaces.

 

[the bodj]

Thanks, i will check him out.

I see people using dots all over the place when scanning and then some that don't. What the purpose of the dots. Having a known size or dimension? Or is it just a pick up point for the scanner. I remember watching a video of a guy that had a special spray to make the surface not shinny cut they don't like reflective surfaces.

They are just references for the scanner. Pieces that don’t have many features (like the hood of a truck) are hard to scan. Especially when they’re glossy. You can buy the spray or mix baby powder into isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle and it works just fine.

 

[mounty71]

I designed a new enclosure for Trent's roof AC unit after the plastic one broke and I spent hours trying to scan it, used tons of dots and it kept getting tripped up on the grid part and losing its location and jumping back to the grid intersection it previously scanned. I understand why it could easily get confused but no matter what I did it seemed to prioritize the grid over the dots. Thinking back on it now I should have tried covering the grid so it would just scan everything else. Still though it seemed to easily lose its location in other areas and when scanning other objects too.

And I wonder if other scanners are able to scan objects from a closer distance than the Einscan. Sometimes I've wanted to get closer in for more detail and it freaks out.

 

[the bodj]

With the Einstar you can zoom in with the + sign on the back of the unit. That part shouldn’t have been an issue to scan even without the dots. Sometimes it’s helpful to scan as much as you can until it starts wigging out, then start another scan from a different area, trying to overlap a little with your last scan. Then continue that and use the software to merge them all together. I did that when scanning my front suspension because it didn’t like making a turn around the beams while going over top or under bottom