6. 3D Scanning and printing

Week 06: Feeling confident heading into the session, having built and run a 3D printer before. Only scanning will be a new experience. Should be fun!

Link to Group Assignment work here

Scanning

  • Scanner: Sense 3D Scanner
  • General Observation:
  • Very finicky, irregular results…not easy to get a clean scan as the scanner requires a scanning steadiness that is difficult to achieve by hand, and does not “see” dark colors
  • Not an easy one person operation…requires the scanned object to be stationary or moving in a very stable and regular manner. Best to move the object than to move the scanner itself.
  • Better scans when scanner fixed and object movment steady Scanned people and leaves…using lazy Susan and Tripod and handheld. Best result…tripod and slowly turn body in place…scanning using face function to capture head and torso scan.
  • Software Too Simple?…Object function OK. Body function appears useless.
  • The good scans look great…when it works, it works brilliantly (1920 x 1080 color texture mapping) large files.

Scanning my head and torso using the ‘Face’ scan option…

…not bad, but my dark hair was not captured. Let’s try putting on a hat.

A little better, but still lots of stuff not captured…let’s point more light to my head.

More stuff captured…but maybe my movement was not so smooth…because the results are…weird.

Will try to turn in place slower…

Still not getting it…try again (the good news is the scanning process doesn’t take very long and the image processing is only seconds long)

Probably the best scan of the day…

Not bad either, but lots of bits missing (tried using the Sense software to fill in holes…it didn’t really produce great results)

3D Printing

  • Designed a simple self-contained mechanical part to meet the objective of a 3D part that is ‘Additive’ and cannot be created ‘Subtractively’ with a mill. Simple because printing took so long I wanted to be prepared for redesign and reprint time.
  • Decided to mock up a circular hinge that might be a learning prototype for my final project.
  • To demonstrate understanding of an ‘Additive’ model, the part was designed to have a movable piece (the ring) captured within the model…difficult (if not impossible) to subtractively mill. The clearance between the ring’s top and bottom surfaces to the respectively interior top and bottom interior faces of the capture device…was made minimal, referencing the results of the test prints completed in the Group Assignment. When the print was done, upon removal of the supports…the part moves. Yay!
  • …removing raft and supports a real pain with ABS plastic!

  • Learning Outcome: 3d printing is good for rough drafts…but is really not ideal for rapid prototyping…even rough models of a small size takes a ton of time to print!!

Files

Scanning Links to 3 reasonably good OBJ 3D files here, here and here

Additive Printing

Fusion360 file is here

2 Versions of STL files here(original) and here(updated)