Scanning larger objects

[curious aardvark]

Hmm, what's your budget ?

With 3d scanning the more money you spend the better the result.
Industrial handheld 3d scanners are really bloody expensive. And most would not do something the size of a boat.

You have several budget options.

1) photogrammetry. long winded and often involving several different programs - can be really effective. Autocad 2018 and newer comes with a built in photogrammetry program Recap, that is suppose to be very good - I have yet to try it - I've got it, just haven't ever tried it.

2) https://3dprintboard.com/showthread....D-Scanning-app - not sure what size it will go up to.
But if you ave a recent ipad or phone - it's the cheapest option.

For the record a 'small' boat is still a massive object to scan :-)

3) drone based 3d scanning. I don't know much about this, but it's becoming more and more popular with architects and builders. And even a good drone and scanning software will be tens of thousands of pounds cheaper than an industrial scanner that can do those sized objects.
It's basically photogrammetry - so you could probablky use a mid level drone - say £500 and the autodesk software would probably be the best cost-per-result option:
https://www.autodesk.co.uk/solutions...metry-software

A cheap handheld scanner - that might work - starts at around £5000 and goes up to the full industrial versions at £20-50,000
https://www.einscan.com/
'Budge't handheld scanners.

For most things I have found that simply measuring stuff and a cad program is generally a lot faster and more accurate than 3d scanning.

But if I were going to make models of boats, then autodesk recap and a drone with a good gimballed camera would be my approach.