Thread: Who knows anything about laser scanning

My mate uses solidworks with some kind of special plugin to make it work.
I've seen it work, looked like it came with the scanner, also be sure to get some mat spray paint because the reflections of the laser screw with the image.
Hope this helps,
Pete

I would have thought that the manufacturer of the scanner would have some good info on this.
What is the make and model?

Bob Willson

PS Welcome to the site Peter.

Ive got the laser unit scanning in now no probs there, but its the post processing of the file thats difficult. Taking the singular scanned side views and collating them into a 3d image.

After program that works well for this

From what I saw its all about selecting a perfect reference point everytime on each image so that the software can sew it together.

The one I saw can be found here

There is also software they recommend for that unit on that site but if you want something easy to use I have seen a faro gage working and they are unreal very easy to use just like drawing freehand in solidworks but very pricey by the sounds.
Cheers,

Peter

Hi,

I use Rapidworks seems quite good so far as on the learning curve still. Solidworks I use for CAD but have not tried it for importing and joining point clouds/scans.

Check out website David LaserScanner, they have a free forum you can join. Many discussions regarding software and freeware.

Hope this helps

Thanks I will look for rapidworks. I need something that will allow me to take my scans from different view points and then allow me to re-assemble them into a completed model.

Not sure if something like this:

DAVID 3D Scanner

would be what you are looking for. It's probably not what you are after as it uses a webcam and laser to scan the model as opposed to a point-to-point system.

Maybe you could try emailing them and see if they can point you in the right direction??

Row.

Quickest link to rapidworks info is to visit Nextengine website (this is what I have). Their software scanstudio also works well at assembling scans.

I have found that scans are improved by giving the item a quick spray of white developer (Surechem) which is normally used for crack testing. Once sprayed surface is a chalky white. Then to aid alignment a few black texta marks,crosses, circles, mix it up.

For the system I have if relying in software to align a symmetric shape like a cylinder it can struggle as the algorithms struggle to find similarities, so in this situation you need to manually get it started. So texta marks which show on the scan as dents and creases are quite valuable.

That fiunny, I have heaps of developer.

I do crack testing for aircraft as a side line.

Will spray some bits up tommorrow and give it a twirl.

The concern for me is bringing the scanned parts back to a solid

Hi Steve
As I suggested, you can use Meshlab, which is freeware, to stitch together individual scans ato create either STL or OBJ 3d files.

There is a bit of a learning curve, but same as any other 3d package - and much cheaper.

Cheers
Noel

thanks Ill give meshlab a go