Looking for a high quality professional 3D scanner

Jory · 2015-08-26T18:55:33.000Z

Injection molded plastic parts, machined aluminum/steel…mostly RC car related items. You know…very serious stuff.

Steve_Hartig · 2015-08-26T19:07:59.000Z

Interesting application. I’d like to talk with you a bit more about what you’re doing and see if I can either help you directly or point you in the right direction (if you aren’t in the US). I always enjoy being a resource for others in the community. Send me an email at hartigs@into3dllc.com and we can talk about what your needs are. Thanks, Steve Hartig

SpannerHands · 2015-08-26T19:12:59.000Z

Thanks for that list, HandyScan 700 looks interesting.

Jory · 2015-08-26T19:29:26.000Z

Agreed, the HandyScan 700 looks good but it is a little expensive. There are a lot of 3D Scanner companies that charge a lot extra to add the software to be able to use the machine. Considering the 700 comes bundled with the software, it makes the price a little easier to handle, depending on how much you plan to use it and what your budget is. One of the biggest selling points to me is the fact it is a handheld unit and doesn’t require a tripod and rotating base to do the scans.

Jory · 2015-08-26T20:53:46.000Z

E-mail sent.

Pot8oSH3D · 2015-08-26T23:54:29.000Z

Well, guys, that was an interesting read. About the only name that didn’t come up was the Einscan-S…

EinScan

3d Scanners, Professional 3D Scanners, Software and Support | EinScan

Einscan 3D Scanners from Shining3d provide high accuracy, high precision and professional scan experience to users. Handheld 3d scanners are available.

Est. reading time: 1 minute

…but, as some people have already said, scanners tend to be optimised for specific tasks and scanning volumes. If you want to scan everything from the size of your fist to a whole body, it’s a big ask for any technology. The Einscan looks to be the best bang for the buck while covering the widest range of scan volumes. There’s bound to be a down-side and it’ll probably be resolution but at that price it’s definitely worth a look.

Another option worth considering would be photogrammetry as it’s size-agnostic. A couple of grand for great software ( Don’t take 123D Catch as a good example ), a gaming PC and a good DSLR. Take a look on Sketchfab to see what can be done…

Sketchfab

Explore 3D Models

Find all kinds of 3D models. From low poly assets to animated rigs & digital scans. All for your 3D, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality projects.

Check this ( Decimated!! ) photogrammetry scan

If that’s peaked your interest, here’s a link to a discussion about the various software packages…

Sketchfab Forum – 12 Feb 15

Comparing Photogrammetry Software

As a bit of a joint community project, I’d be interested to compare some photogrammetry software. I was thinking someone could provide a nice set of photographs and then we can all run our own software on it to generate a 3D model. If you want, you...

Reading time: 10 mins 🕑 Likes: 7 ❤

Oh! And Fuel3D Scanify!

Cheers,

AndyL

Pot8oSH3D

SpannerHands · 2015-08-27T06:37:47.000Z

Thanks for that Andy…

I have looked into this before, and played with the technology (3D product images for a website)

I think photogrammetry makes 3D look amazing and I think for web site product images its probably going to be the future, but have you ever looked at the 3D file without the lovely texture image? I don’t know if its the software I used, but raw 3D image is quite rough & basic in comparison to how good it looks when rendered out…

For example with that beautiful jet engine, which is truly amazing. If you select the wire frame or metcap view you can see the 3D file is less impressive…

koenbodewes · 2015-08-27T08:20:27.000Z

You could also try the new Microsoft app Mobile Fusion. Looks promising.

Markus_Landert · 2015-08-27T16:13:01.000Z

Take a look at http://www.faro.com we have some differen kind of scanning products.

Jory · 2015-08-27T16:47:31.000Z

100% agree. While the rendered picture looks good, the wireframe tends to be very rough. For instance, if you go to the downloadable items on the Artec site, you’ll see a nice looking picture of a PCB with Ethernet port. Doesn’t look too bad in the rendered view, but when I opened it in SolidWorks, the .STL image looked very rough in comparison. Granted, it did capture the exposed pins decently, but the Ethernet port isn’t shown very well for internal features or the depth of the plug socket.

Pot8oSH3D · 2015-08-27T17:24:36.000Z

Oh! I’m with ya there, dude. That’s why I pointed out that the mesh has been decimated. Can’t remember how many polys it was originally but it was in the millions. Gerpho had to decimate it quite dramatically to get the Sketchfab load time down and response up. I know it’s kinda counter-intuitive that photogrammetry can offer results as good as multi thousand dollar scanners but the tech is developing really fast. You only need to look at 5 year old scanners to see how many are totally obsolete now.

All things considered, if I were you, and had a pocket with 20K in it to spend on scanning anything from 100mm to 2 Metres, it’d be an Einscan, a Scanify, a Structure Sensor and a photogrammetry set-up. Put them together with a good gaming PC running David, Meshlab, Netfabb, Acute3D, Smart3DCapture, Skanect or similar and you’re good to go. Of course you can get similar results with more costly set-ups but, mainly what you’re paying for is the convenience ( and trade-offs ) of having everything in one easy to use package. And, in 5 years time, you won’t have a single item that won’t run on the current version of Windows and can’t connect to a PC anyway because the interface is obsolete. Ya pays ya money. Ya takes ya choice.

Just my ten cents

Cheers!

AndyL

Pot8oSH3D

Jory · 2015-08-28T15:26:08.000Z

Go ahead and take the HandyScan 700 out of the list. I got a response back from them basically saying their machine is not really intended for small parts. I’m waiting to hear back from Nikon about the MMDx or MMCx models.

Jory · 2015-08-28T15:27:57.000Z

Have any files of any small items scanned that haven’t gotten decimated? I’d like to see the original polygon count for a .STL file if possible.

SpannerHands · 2015-08-28T17:58:09.000Z

Bummer quite liked that… thanks for letting me know…

Jory · 2015-08-28T19:10:24.000Z

Yes, that machine offers a lot of nice features and looks to capture items pretty well…but apparently just not small items. I was very disappointed when I got the e-mail saying that. I’m going to look into the Artec more and see if the scanned items for download are run at the max resolution. I’ll let you know if I hear anything back.

Jory · 2015-08-31T19:02:53.000Z

Any more luck finding any leads?

SpannerHands · 2015-09-01T11:22:58.000Z

Still looking, got an email back form SMARTTECH LTD with a demo video and was super unimpressed.

Jory · 2015-09-01T14:48:14.000Z

While I think the technology works with SMARTTECH as far as accuracy and detail, but my biggest issue is convenience with the equipment use. It’s a real shame the HandyScan 700 isn’t meant for smaller parts because that kind of ease-of-use. I’ll keep looking and post anything that looks promising.

Jory · 2015-09-10T20:47:52.000Z

I’m still looking into things. I got a really nice looking scan from the Artec Space Spider that was done in only around 50 seconds that shows really good detail on a part that’s not even 12" long. I’m trying to get something similar from the HandyScan 700 people also so I can compare things a little bit.

For a relatively “cheap” scanner, this one looks fairly decent: http://www.nextengine.com/

StevenS1979 · 2016-07-29T15:14:17.000Z

Did you consider Rangevision (rangevision.com) or the likes? Those types of scanners (with interchangeable lenses) are meant for scanning objects of different sizes…all the other scanners are not…most are built for one size of object only. Like the Spider can only scan objects up to 20cm by 20cm and if the object is better than that, you accumulate too much data and your computer crashes.