5. 3D Scanning and Printing¶
This week I got introduced to 3D scanning and 3D printing.
3D Scanning¶
3D scanning maps a physical object into digital format, making it editable with CAD programs and 3D-printable.
Fab Lab Oulu’s 3D scanning methods:
- MakerBot Digitizer automated 3D scanning bed
- Sense3D hand operable scanner
- HP Sprout 3D scanner integrated into all-in-one computer
- Kreon Ace portable 3D scanner fixed into instrumentation table
- Photogrammetry options available in various apps
Individual work¶
I decided to 3D scan a phone charger to possibly 3D design and print wall mounts for chargers.
First attempt¶
I tried to 3D scan charger with HP Sprout, but it didn’t recognize object due to being too small.
Second attempt¶
MakerBot Digitizer was my next option, it seems quite easy and simple to use.
I switched Makerbot Digitizer on, it has power switch on the back and started MakerWare for Digitizer software on PC. MakerWare couldn’t find Digitizer, because Sense3D was plugged in to same computer. Digitizer got recognized immediately after disconneting Sense3D.
MakerWare has easy step-by-step instructions and following those, I placed my object onto scanner table, selected object color to be dark (scale is white / medium / dark, dark being difficult to scan), and covered Digitizer camera lens with IR filter.
Single scan takes about 9 minutes. Live progress is seen in MakerWare.
After 9 minutes I was pretty amazed with result. No, wait, I wasn’t. Definitely not what I expected!
Matte surfaces of the charger were scanned with pretty ok result, however the rest of scan was useless blob of goo.
Third attempt¶
Take to change for object that has lighter color and less glossy surfaces.
There was a white semi-glossy charger at FabLab, so I tried my luck with it, too.
I repeated steps mentioned previously, and after successful scan, I selected Multi-scan option and changed object alignment from prongs pointing up to prongs pointing side and started scan. This improved result a bit, so I went further and aligned charger to lay on it’s thinner side (charger was supported with blue-tack) and started new multi-scan.
This time Digitizer messed up a bit, adding edge of the scan bed to scan result. I discarded the latest scan and saved the result of first two scans into .stl (binary) format.
If .stl format is not available on other scanning methods, .obj format is recommended.
Summary¶
Both of these scan results are useless. First scan failed. Second scan should be considered successful, but it is still easier to pick up a caliper and model the charger in CAD program.
Why I dislike 3D scanning¶
- It is more likely to fail than succeed
- I couldn’t scan phone charger with sprout 3D since charger was too small.
- Sprout loses tracking often.
- Softwares are not mature, may require restaring often. Like after every object.
- Or they might just mess a good scan when refining scan in a new position.
- It definitely can be picky with object color and surface glossiness.
What’s next?¶
My scan objects were geometrically quite simple, no curved surfaces etc. These objects should be modeled in CAD rather than in 3D scanner.
However!
What about more complex objects? Like a figure of Baby Yoda? Such figures are very tedious to model in CAD software, so maybe 3D scanning could be useful in this case.
I’ll add a scan results here if I have time, now I’ll shift my focus to 3D printing.
3D Printing¶
Group work at Mona’s page¶
For this week’s group work our local students (me, Mona and Kenichi) printed and compared prints of three different 3D printers by using test object from Thingiverse by user ctrlV. I wrote most of the notes for first two printers (Makerbot and Stratasys).
This week’s group work is documented at Mona’s site.