Hello everyone, I’m Bella!
I joined the Revopoint in July this year and am part of the Marketing team, where I manage the Facebook group. Since I’m usually quite busy, I don’t normally need to use laser scanners in my day-to-day work, so I’m still getting the hang of it.
My leader asked me to write a tutorial as a beginner and share my experiences, and I thought it might help some of you who are also using a 3D laser scanner for the first time.
In this post, I’ll be documenting the challenges I faced and how I solved them, hoping to help you avoid the same pitfalls. Let’s learn and grow together!
My PC Specs:
CPU: i9 12th Gen, 2.5GHz
GPU: RTX 3060
RAM: 64GB
My Scanning Process
For this scan, I used the Cross Lines mode to scan a metal part.
1. Attach Markers:
At first, I didn’t place enough marker blocks around the object. This caused MetroX to miss enough markers when scanning the edges, leading to stuttering and poor model quality.
Basically, make sure you stick markers on flat surfaces, avoiding curves, and make sure there are at least 5 markers visible per frame.
*Lesson Learned: Always use plenty of marker blocks around your object to ensure MetroX can track all edges smoothly.
Intially I found it difficult to capture the sides of the part cause it was hard to get a good scanning angle on it. Then I used the Pyramid Blocks to raise the object, and it was much easier to scan.
Once ready, click New Project in Revo Scan 5 MetroX
2.Scan Settings
Depending on your object, you’ll need to make some adjustments. Here’s what I did:
Because my object was metal and a little bit shiny, I selected my object type as Metallic Shiny Objects.
Exposure Adjustment: I initially used the Auto exposure setting, but it didn’t capture enough detail. Now, I manually adjust exposure, ensuring a more accurate model, aiming for gray with minimal color distortion.
Distance Matters: It took me a while to get a feel for what the right scanning distance was, even with the help of the scanning distance indicator bar.
Sometimes during the scan, I’d look at the bar and see that I’d gotten too close or too far away, and then I would correct my distance until it showed Excellent or Good.
It also took me a while to get my head around the angle of the scanner. You need to pay attention to this because if you angle it wrong,
MetroX won’t see the markers, and it won’t capture any data. So, keep your scanner at an angle between 45-90° to the markers. (It works best when at around 90°, but it’s not always easy to keep it at that angle)
3. Starting the Scan:
Once everything’s set, hit the Start button to begin your scan.
I started by doing a quick sweep over the object to get a general outline of it.
Once I did a couple of passes, I focused on getting more details by slowly moving the scanner around the object.
*Avoiding Fast or Too Close Scans: It can easily get a little carried away and move the scanner too fast, but this might stop the scanner from capturing any data, so lol, it’s the opposite of what you want.
In the preview window, watch out for orange areas cause that’s Revo Scan MetroX’s way of telling you that you don’t have enough surface data. So you have to keep scanning till the whole surface turns green.
4. Processing Your Scan
After I finished scanning, I decided to manually process my scan instead of using the One-click process.
Because my object had some fine details, I selected a lower Point Distance to keep them sharp.
After using it, I decided to remove some unwanted scan data, as this would make the meshing process slightly faster.
To do this, I first used the Isolation tool to quickly remove some unneeded isolated point clouds.
You can also delete unwanted parts using the selection tools. In my use, I used the Select Connection tool on the main body, then hit the Invert Selection button to select everything else.
After I finished cleaning up my point cloud, I converted it into a Mesh. I set the quality to high to preserve details.
Then, I made some final touches with the Smooth Brush Tool to clean up marks from markers.
Here is the final result:
Exporting the Model: When you’re happy with everything, click Export to export your scan in your file format of choice.
*Other Tips:
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Don’t worry if your first scan doesn’t turn out perfect! Take your time, adjust, and try again.
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If your connection fails or your frame rate drops below 10 fps, disconnect and reconnect the USB while keeping the scanner powered on.
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Very important: I can’t emphasize this enough. Do not plug MetroX’s cable into anything other than the scanner. You could fry another device!
So, that’s all for now! Parallel Lines Mode works similarly to Cross Lines but takes longer for more detail and accuracy. Since it’s pretty similar, I won’t demonstrate it separately.
In the next tutorial, I’ll cover Full-Field Mode with Feature Tracking for quick scans, so stay tuned!