Advice on motorcycle side panel

Hi, as my first 3d design effort I am working on a side cover for my adventure motorcycle. I'm hoping to get some help moving forward. So far I used photogrammetry to get a rough 3d scan (point cloud, converted to mesh) of the area to be covered, used Sketchup to make a share that followed the attachment planes (bike frame) on the edges, but came outward in the middle where clearance was needed. Finally, I used a Microsoft online tool to "repair" my shape. It seems pretty good except that a hump for clearing a hose got filled in solid. The resulting surface is attached.

So what I'm hoping to do from here are:
- clear out that hump
- make the whole thing more smoothed out as viewed from the exterior (convex side). The edges shouldn't move, and the interior shouldn't move inward (more toward the concave side). But the interior can move outward to make a more pleasant view.
- find a way to print it inexpensively to see how close I am to actually fitting. The photogrammerty process was pretty rough.
- make any needed adjustments and then print for real in some fairly sturdy material, preferably one that won't turn too stabby if it gets cracked in a crash.

I'll take any advice - how close am I so far, what are good tools for making the kind of adjustments I'm talking about, who should print it... or can I get this all finished cheaply by someone who can do a better job...

Thanks in advance!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by number40Fan

Pretty rough rendering. How does it attach? I don't see any bolt holes.

Is the side panel on the other side similar?

How big is this piece?

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For now it will attach by adhesive velcro along the edges (replacing an existing cover made from nylon fabric).

There is at least one area on the other side that will get a panel, but it is a different shape.

I think it is like 18 inches wide by like six inches tall, and has to bulge out by 3 or 4 inches. Something like that. Thanks for looking at it..

I can probably get away with shortening the long dimension or doing two pieces. Assuming so, any advice on an approach to refining the design itself?

Hello Keninct,

Just took a quick peek at your model, and I'd agree with number40fan. You may be better served starting from scratch with a photo underlay to trace over. Or, you could use the rough model you've gotten from scanning to work from too. I have experience using Fusion 360 and Onshape, if you were to pick up your project in one of those packages, I may be able to help you out. I've had some luck with using interfering dovetails to assemble small parts into large parts, maybe this is something that could be adapted to your design to break it into smaller, more print friendly components.

Regards,

Matt

Attachment 10951
I want to share a recent project with you. This is a penal for Caman Sonic 300.
It was a scan to print workflow.
-Shining 3D EinScan-S turntable auto scan first with some additional free scans
-Small edits to the watertight mesh export with Meshlab, MeshMixer and 3D builder
-sliced with Simplify3D to print on an entry level no name Chinese metal H frame structure printer, 100 micron PLA test print for test print.