Scanning Software and Hardware

I'm surprised that with the huge growth in 3D printing these last few years there hasn't been more growth on the 3D scanning side of the house including the open source community.

Sure, there are things like the Structure Sensor and others but I look at those as little more than toys that generally produce low quality and for the most part are useless in any real world application.

Then you jump to the Artec type scanners but at $25k + most people can't even come close to affording those. Then you have a choice or two like the NextEngine but you still have to drop $8k if you want the software and other goodies that goes with it.

While writing this, my thoughts are focused on my need for choice and a quality scanner setup that produces results good enough for general commercial applications, reverse engineering, product development while still being affordable.

That lead me to the David SLS-2 system which I currently have. I won't get into too much detail but I'm using the David 4 software and sourced my own camera and projector that are basically the same as what the SLS-2 package uses. Also built my own rail system.

It's a system that produces great results at a very affordable price. I guess my point is, beyond that there doesn't seem to be much else out there in the way of software like David where you can spec your own hardware either laser or SLS and build a "pro" level system within an affordable budget that can deliver results that are marketable to my clients that require an occasional scan.

I guess my second point is, given where technology is these days, why are scanning systems so danged expensive when the technology behind them seems relatively old news?

Hi. I would love to learn more about this. Are you saying you created your own 3D scanner by integrating other systems together in a seamless manner? Or somewhat seamless, I would imagine there will be learning curve for newbies like me.

Can you explain a little bit about what sourcing your own camera and projector combined with David entails?

I pretty much got everything I needed from the David forums. I think I read almost every post in there. With just a few differences, David uses the Acer K132 projector and the industrial CCD camera plus the lens can be sourced form a number of places.

David uses their own firmware in the camera but honesty it doesn't seem much different from off the shelf cameras if you get the correct one. I already had a tripod and for mounting I used a v-slot rail. The projector and cam mounts can be 3D printed from a design a guy in their forums made available. There's also other ways to mount them of course.

I bought the David 4 software and their calibration panels but that was it. So far my system is working very well.

I've been trying out the David SLS2 system as well, although I got it all from the same source. I found that while the initial scan has a lot of resolution, that seems to degrade as scan gets added to scan to build up a solid model. Since it only captures a single perspective at a time, it's necessary to do that in order to come up with a model you can print, and the process of combining scans is not altogether easy, especially if ones model doesn't have a lot of readily identifiable features to match point-by-point. Has any of this been an issue for you? Have you figured out any work-arounds?

Andrew Werby
Juxtamorph.com

I think what you describe is indicative of most scanners of this type SLS or laser. It's imperative that it's calibrated and adjusted precisely and also depends a lot on the reflectivity of the part. Some parts are simple to scan and some are very difficult. Depending on what it is, dulling spray can be a big help to getting clean scans.

In terms of alignment and scanning an object that is very symmetrical you need some markers around the object.

The only experience I have is with David and like 3D printing there is a bit of an art to getting good results.

Some good info here too.
http://wiki.david-3d.com/faq/en_problems