3D Scanning and printing

Assignment

1. Test the design rules for your printer
2. Design and 3D print and object
3. 3D scan an object and print it

Personal objectives

1. - Know about the design rules for 3D printing and the influence of materials and printers in the results
2. - Learn the 3D scan technique and the methods to fix the scans

After the test, I tried another model from thingiverse (Bulbasaur Planter High Res ), just to test an high resolution model with the best resolution in the Ultimaker 2+. The result was a beautiful planter with a very smooth surface and very good finishing (Figure 3 and 4)

Create and print a model

I Also create a simple model in Solidworks to test the Vase or spiral mode. This mode build the model in one string by moving the extruder in an outline or perimeter shell without any retracts. So the extruder will move slowly in the Z-directions as it prints. The vase mode has two great advantages: The printing time and the amount of material use will be reduced a big deal.

For the creation of the model I used the sweep boss/base in solidworks, the construction can be see in Figures 5 through 8.

Once the model is complete and save as .STL file must be open in Cura . For print it in vase mode is necessary go to custom setup and look for special modes and check the Spiralize Outer Contour and in my case I also check he smooth Spiralized contours (Figure 10). As mentioned before the time an amount of material is reduced by a fourth. (Figure 9 and 10). The model was printed in PLA with a 0.8 mm nozzle.

3D Scanning

For the 3D scanning I wanted to use a small figure to be able to print it in real scale after the scanning. That´s why I used an Tom Nook amiibo (a small nintendo’s collectible from animal crossing game, figure 5). The scanner used was a Creaform – Handyscan 3D, which works with the VX Elements software.

The procedure to make the 3D scanning is necessary to place positioning targets in the figure and, if possible, in a nonreflecting surface. This positioning targets (made of reflective tape) are necessary in order to give the scan a location of the object. The position targets are important due to the manual operation of the scan and the fact that is not always scanning from the same position.
After the position targets are located, the scan needs to be connected to the PC and the VX Elements software ready for scanning. The Handyscan has a trigger to activate the laser and the reflection received in the scanner sensors start to create the figure (Figures 6, 7 and 8)

Once the scan is complete is necessary to clean and fix the result. As is seen in figure 8, the model is not quite complete: the white zones are holes in the model (positions targets and difficult points to reach with the laser). To fix the model I used the open source Meshlab software (Figure 9). In the figure 10 the holes in the model are more visible.