Slicing Lidar Capture

[ToddM 0]

I'm trying to slice a complex object that I scanned on Iphone14 Pro using 3D Scanner app that uses lidar. This is a rock outcropping I'm trying to 3d print. The app scans and creates a 3d object that I loaded into lightwave 3d for some editing. I then export as stl file but Cura will not slice it because it's seeing a 2d object. I can see the ghosted image of rocks and it will print the supports for everything, but won't slice actual surface. I tried to extrude "lidared" surface into the 3 dimension but it wont work. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[GregValiant 1,318]

This is all about prepping the file as a true STL object.

I go back a few years on this and things probably have changed...

Scanning creates a "point cloud" and each point is on a surface of whatever you scanned.  Your Lightwave 3D should be connecting the dots to make triangles whose edges all connect to enclose a volume.  That would represent a true 3D object for export as an STL.

 

I would go back to Lightwave and give it another shot.  Play with the options.  If the edges don't connect then Cura won't be able to slice it as it won't represent a true solid (mesh).  It sounds like that might be what is going on.

[ToddM 0]

Thanks for the reply. The problem is the lidar scanner leaves a lot of little holes over complex scans. Even one little hole creates a very complex enclosed 2d shape. I have literally spent two weeks trying to plug little holes in a scan that has 400000 polys. Here is a small portion of rock outcropping.

[GregValiant 1,318]

I used a laser scanner to shoot cars that had been in accidents.  Big files.  I had to snail-mail the scan data over to another guy who was in our Chicago office and I believe he used Rhino to post process them into something I could deal with in Inventor.  Our system worked for what we were doing (recreating accident scenes for lawsuits).  We weren't going to FDM print anything though and we didn't try to create model files.

(I tried to open one of the point cloud files in Inventor.  My computer thought it was a pretty good joke.)