Want to modify a complex shaped plastic part; need a good, inexpensive, scan/service

[robosmith]

Take a pic of the item import into sketchup and trace it with the follow me tool.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've only used "follow me" to make a sphere (from a circle and a curve). It's not clear to me exactly how to use it as you describe.

[LambdaFF]

... Probably not that hard but definitely expensive.

My company has several such scanners and the handlers have become "experts" with time and experiments : they get requests from the Group to do things on a steady basis. It would be hard / costly for a small company to keep that kind of expertise.

[JSenior]

As above, there's plenty of companies that can do it, but I'm not sure it's going to be cost effective assuming it's just for a personal project (you're talking an hours work using $100k of specialised equipment and software.)


Saying that: if you want to send in to Britain (and don't need me to return it ) then I'll do it for beer tokens.

[robosmith]

Thanks for your offer J. If I can find the part for purchase in the UK, I'll have it shipped to you. So far, I've only found it in the US. It's a drip tray for a Frigidaire refrigerator water dispenser.

http://www.searspartsdirect.com/part...FUWVfgodLGcA7g

[Marm]

Ok, getting the outer shape is easy, you're making this way to hard on your self. Do the same steps as above, but when you take your photo, put a ruler in the pic, say a 20mm length. Then when you import the photo into SU, draw a 20mm line, and scale the photo to match that line. Bingo, 100% scaling. Then use the arc tool to make the arcs, tracing the picture. If it's a number of arcs with different radii, then make multiple arcs, but only half the item. Then copy/rotate the half arc into a bigger one.

As mentioned. 30 minutes.

But to be honest, I'm guessing every dimension is not critical. There are probably some parts that are open to the air, so design a new one to fit the attachment points, and the rest just needs to be close.

[LambdaFF]

Ok, getting the outer shape is easy, you're making this way to hard on your self. Do the same steps as above, but when you take your photo, put a ruler in the pic, say a 20mm length.

Works too. Splines are cleaner. :-)

As mentioned. 30 minutes. .

Yep.

[Marm]

You need a reference point, to know how long your scan/photo is.

[robosmith]

You need a reference point, to know how long your scan/photo is.

You know, I probably should have used a 2D scanner instead of a photo.

[Marm]

You know, I probably should have used a 2D scanner instead of a photo.

Yeah, When recreating bulkheads for my boat (Which have a lot of radii in them, I gave up trying), I used a flatbed scanner, that way it gave me the exact edge.

[JSenior]

No Problem.

I can't see anywhere in the UK that does it (we don't really have fridge freezers.) There are plenty of places that will ship to the UK but want $25 or so for postage.