Scanning Software and Hardware

[dklassen]

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?