3d scanners under $1000 worth the money?

[steveseers]

Hey guys,

I've been browsing the web looking for a 3d scanner. I'm a beginner and find 3d modeling a bit time consuming. Especially when it comes to intricate shapes. I am printing on my Ultimaker (and Shapeways occasionally)
However, when I look at the 3d scanners <$1000 they seem to produce quite nasty/low res results.
Is that just where the tech is at the moment? Or does anyone have (or have used) a scanner that they are really happy with?
Any recommendations? I've looked at MatterAndForm, Rubicon, Fuel3d (available yet?), Einscan (expensive, not sure about the quality), David Scan (really expensive, nice quality).

any help appreciated.
-Jack

[curious aardvark]

I think it's where the tech is at the moment.

I don't think it's so much the hardware. Most of the budget scanners will resolve at 0.1 mm for close up items and 1mm for things like people - both of which should do most people for most things. But the editing and meshing software doesn't seem to be quite there yet.

Once the intel realsense chipset and cameras start to make a regular appearence in cheaper portable devices, we should start to see a lot more software hitting the market.

At the moment what scanner systems there are all use their own propriatary software and chipsets.

That was one thing that was notable by it's absence at tct this year. No desktop scanners, no desktop scanner startups and only the makerbot scanner in evidence and the only one we saw wasn't running.

[Hugues]

I have an Einscan1 and very happy with it.
0.1 mm accuracy
Almost below 1000 usd
Ease of use, calibrate once.

[Bobby Lin]

I tried Rubicon at around $600 USD and it has a good precision, accuracy and quality. However now I switched to 3d System's iSense.

[scobo]

I just bought a BQ Ciclop kit which is about the cheapest scanner on the market right now.
I can get a decent looking point cloud with it but I'm finding it hard to convert it to a useable mesh for 3D printing.
As said above, the software for this doesn't seem quite there yet.

[dklassen]

With a little work and research you can get a David system close to a grand. $500 for the software, $350 for the projector, 3D print the mounts, us a v-slot rail, cheap tri-pod and you are almost there. For the camera you can up the ante and go with an industrial cam similar to what David supplies only a lot cheaper or modify a webcam for evan a cheaper solution. I have basically the equivalency of their SLS-2 system that I specked myself and all in I was at $2100 but that included a band new dedicated laptop to run it all. For the money, nothing can touch the SLS-2 system...if you put in a little effort. IMHO.

[steveseers]

@curious aardvark : I kinda see the scanner and software as a two sides of the same product. I look at it from the end result point of view and expect to use the hardware with the software provided before I go shopping for 3rd party improvements. Trying to find out to what point my purchase gets me before I get the chisel out Also, I'm not sure that most scanners in the lower price range can really scan 0.1mm. Why would all the scans look so blobby? Or is that a result of some kind of noise reduction?

Hugues, Bobby Lin, dklassen: You seem happy with your scanners. What kinds of things are you guys scanning?

[steveseers]

@Bobby Lin : Why did you switch to iSense? How does it compare quality wise ? Or is it just more convenient?

[steveseers]

I just bought a BQ Ciclop kit which is about the cheapest scanner on the market right now.
I can get a decent looking point cloud with it but I'm finding it hard to convert it to a useable mesh for 3D printing.
As said above, the software for this doesn't seem quite there yet.

have you tried meshlab ? or what software do you use to mesh the pc ?

[scobo]

have you tried meshlab ? or what software do you use to mesh the pc ?

I'm using Meshlab and Cloudcompare but neither is giving me a mesh that looks good enough to 3D print.
Having said that, if I try to set the reconstruction quality much higher than the default, I get out of memory error messages or the program hangs.
My laptop is an i5 with 4GB ram.
Maybe a more powerful computer and/or graphics card is needed for better results ??