3D scanners

[chrisr 18]

Recently found myself looking at 3D scanners suitable for small (inanimate) objects < 0.25 meters square max. Looking for good resolution of ~ 0.1mm or better?

I've no idea of the pros and cons of the various scanning techniques... but two seem quite interesting so far -

Has anyone any practical experience of either of these ?

The David SL-2 scanner:

https://ssl.david-vision-systems.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p129_DAVID-Structured-Light-Scanner-SLS-2.html/XTCsid/j6i0cfcfc2guet93uaceh7sia4

or the Next Engine system:

http://www.nextengine.com/

If so, how did you get along with them? Any thoughts, opinions most welcome! :-)

 

 

[DidierKlein 729]

I have no experience with these two scanners. NextEngine looks pretty cool if it's no fake advertising.

I have a 3D Sense scanner and it's no good for small objects, i like how you can compare scans from different scanners on the website. It's not that expensive

 

[peggyb 170]

I have access to a David scanner. It is a pity that the comparison did not include the David, because they would be similar to each other I guess. All the other scanner are in a different class, in price and quality.

It looks like the Next uses a laser line, and the David uses a beamer pattern to gain the objects surface.

The size is the scanned object for the David goes up to something like 75 cm per scan, could be a bit more. This is limited by the power of the beamer pattern for a bigger distance.

The rotating platform of the Next looks good.

Quality looks the same, I scanned a key and printed it. After a little adjusting, it worked!

 

[nallath 1,120]

I wasn't that impressed with the nextengine scanner. It has the main disadvantage of being a laser scanner, which are quite slow. It does have the advantage of a moving platform, which makes merging clouds a lot easier.

Personally, I like the david scanner best, mostly because of speed & quality.

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

I ordered one of these ....

http://www.fuel-3d.com/

 

[chrisr 18]

I have access to a David scanner. It is a pity that the comparison did not include the David, because they would be similar to each other I guess. All the other scanner are in a different class, in price and quality.

It looks like the Next uses a laser line, and the David uses a beamer pattern to gain the objects surface.

The size is the scanned object for the David goes up to something like 75 cm per scan, could be a bit more. This is limited by the power of the beamer pattern for a bigger distance.

The rotating platform of the Next looks good.

Quality looks the same, I scanned a key and printed it. After a little adjusting, it worked!

 

 

 

 

 

That's pretty impressive, thanks for posting the photos up PeggyB. :smile: From what you say I'm guessing you're pretty happy with the David system? Are you using the 1 version or the 2 ?

I'm getting the impression the support for the David system is quite good.

 

[foehnsturm 969]

@UltiArjan,

that's what I intended to do as well, so I will be interested in your pratical experience...

But I postponed the order because their software only supports Windows right now, Mac support is announced for the first quarter 2015.

[peggyb 170]

i'm happy...

It was not that difficult to learn.

The scanner is at http://ifabrica.nl, where I give courses in 3d scanning and printing.

So if you want to use one, its possible here...

 

[chrisr 18]

I ordered one of these ....

http://www.fuel-3d.com/

 

I'm interested to hear what you think of it.

 

[chrisr 18]

i'm happy...

It was not that difficult to learn.

The scanner is at iFabrica, where I give courses in 3d scanning and printing.

So if you want to use one, its possible here...

 

Thanks! :-)

 

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Eta on my fuel3d is at best somewhere in november... but ill share my results when i get it.

[ultibrain 5]

I have a structure scanner. It's a Kinect without wire, and some cool i-pad apps like ItSeez3D... I'm quite impressed with the results. Although I hope in a year or two a scanner will be there with higher resolution.

 

[yellowshark 153]

Two weeks ago I went to the offices of Fuel 3D (in UK) to look at their “scanner” and take some test “scans” away for further analysis. Having failed miserably with a Kinect type scan system, I found the F3D very easy to use. I got a perfect “scan” on my 2^nd try which no doubt would have been the 1^st try if I had put the “scanner” on a tripod.

The resolution looks very high, raw resolution is circa 500,000 to 700,000 facets.

The software, which includes automatic stitching of multiple meshes, still has some way to go but seemed useable to me. It lets you change the resolution before creating a mesh file, which I did for my tests, reducing the resolution to 80,000 facets. You can also crop the “scan” photograph before creating the file.

I use the term “scan” because F3D is not a scanner, it is a stereographic camera backed up by sophisticated software. So for many things it is OK but if you, say, want a scan of a head then you will need to take at least 5 “scans” and then stitch the meshes together, which with their automated stitching function should be very easy. I have tried this in Meshlab but singularly failed.

An important test for me was of a foot print made in casting material; in effect instead of taking a scan of the exterior of something, you are scanning the interior. On first look this looks very good, although I do need to do a dimensional check to ascertain the accuracy; but it certainly picked up the surface detail within the cast.

I hope to do my detailed analysis next week and will try to post some pics.

My guestimate, based on comments, was that right now they are shipping to their Kickstarter funders. They should be shipping to their retail outlets in 4^th quarter. So if you wanted one now you might be able to get one via retail if they have not all been pre-ordered; otherwise I guess you are looking at 1st quarter next year.

Personally I would be waiting until next year to give the time to get the software debugged. Oh one comment was that though undecided it may be that the automatic mesh stitching would ship with the Pro version.

 

 

[nallath 1,120]

It's not 'just' a stereoscopic camera. It combines the data gained by stereoscopic matching with the data from photometric stereo (which uses light sources from different points to estimate the orientation of a surface).

In that regard, it is a scanner as every single 3D scanner needs to take multiple 'images' in order to get a full 3D model.

Meshlab should be able to do the stitching manually, but it is a rather fickle program and crashes a lot. A reasonable alternative is CloudCompare.

 

[yellowshark 153]

Oh sure you are "right" and it does more than just match against the photometric stereo data (which was all descriptively covered by my term "sophisticated software" ) My point was that it operates as a camera not a scanner. YOU have to take separate pictures to get a 360 degree all around view. Each of these pictures has to be setup. For each picture you have to hold a measurement card against the section of the object being pictured and line up your camera so that it focuses on the card and validates the distance between the lens to the object before a shot can be fired. It is my understanding that this part of the process will not be required in the future following a specific upgrade release of the software.

The end result is of course the same.

 

[yellowshark 153]

Yup you are right on Meshlab too, except for me it did not crash a lot, it crashed every time, to a point where my patience ran out. To be fair to F3D their automated stitching software did not crash once but it had a problem stitching two of the meshes together. The demonstrator did feel that if he took one of the pictures again that would resolve the problem but he also made it clear that the software was still under development, i.e. not really ready for release although the Kickstarter people would be getting it. My personal view was that it failed the stitching test but if I waited until next year it would probably be fine.

 

[solid-print-3d 30]

I ordered one of these ....

http://www.fuel-3d.com/

 

That looks like a great product. Wrote them an email trying to find the nearest distributor. Will be looking into getting one of these!

 

[peggyb 170]

here was an article with a company name in the US:

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20140902-fuel3d-and-ultimaker-team-up-in-the-uk.html

 

[nallath 1,120]

If meshlab crashes every time, it might be because it crashes if some data is included in the pointcloud. Try opening it with cloudcompare, save it with it (this removes some of the data) and open it again with meshlab.

 

[sybrenbos 0]

i am also looking for a scanner which is cheap and compitable with cura 

wich scanner do you reccomend?