RUG/Pennsylvania/State College/3D scanning
Contents
Current Progress
Penn State RUG is currently using the Next Engine 3D scanner to replicate and print objects. The intial scanning process is relatively simple, aligning point data and creating a water tight model is a tedious task. The NextEngine Scanstudio software has successfully produced printable files and other software exists that makes turning the scan into a clean printable model. Penn State RUG currently uses Netfabb and Blender to clean, touch-up and ready a scanned model for printing.
Coming Soon
When to scan
How to scan objects
Place your object on the stand in front of the scanner. Using the image on the right side of the scan mode, center your part in the frame.
1. Choose Positioning of scan, the three positions are 360, bracket and single. A 360 scan takes a 360 degree scan of the object. Bracket takes three scan separated by the user inputted angle. Single scan takes a single scan in it's current position.
2. Choose the number of divisions. The division changes the the angle between each scan, in 360 scans the number of divisions is the number of scans it will take to complete the 360 scan. If 4 divisions are chosen the angle between each scan will be 25 degrees. For a bracket scan the division changes the angle between each scan. To find the angle between each scan divide the division number from 360. The divisions slider is not used for single scans.
3. Choose the density of each scan. The higher the density the more data points per square inch. The data points that are taken means more detail but also a larger file size and longer scan time.
Optional Choose your target. This is used to tell the scanner if the piece is a light, neutral or dark.
4. Choose the range of the scan. There are two main modes used by Penn State RUG, macro and wide. Optimal Distance from scanner for macro is 6.5 inches and 17 inches for Wide. You may need to recenter your part in the frame on the right side.
At the bottom of the scan window there are bars that will show the time and memory estimate for the scan.
Aligning and Fusing scans
Making Scans printable
Use Netfabb to make flat back so it can be printed.
Extras
Pictures
Links
- Nextengine ScanStudio Demo Old Version of ScanStudio
- NextEngine 3D Scanner
- Blender
- Netfabb