Hello all. I build a desktop tool for the stage after scanning, and since most people here won’t have come across it, I thought I’d introduce it — it runs on both Windows and Mac.
What it does. WARELAB Mesh finds the datum features itself — flat faces, bore axes, symmetry planes — aligns the part to them. It also has tools for manual alignment and creating and adjusting your own reference features which is sometimes required on more complex parts.
From there:
- Compare to CAD — deviation map across the whole part with RMS, max and coverage. STEP files load directly, no converting to STL first.
- Probe and section — click anywhere for the exact deviation; cut through on X, Y or Z and read the error along the cut, scan and nominal drawn together.
- Export — Export the Aligned scan into your CAD package right away and start designing / reverse engineering.
- Analyse — Create inspection report as PDF, or a 2D DXF of a section that opens in any CAD package.
The detection is built around real scan data rather than clean CAD meshes, so it copes reasonably with partial and noisy captures — which matters with structured light.
Platforms. Windows, and as of this week a native Apple Silicon build for macOS (13 or newer, signed and notarised). Project files move between the two, so you can start on one machine and finish on the other.
There is a free trial available to everyone so feel free to check it out: Downloads | Download Now, Stay Informed — WARE.LAB
Its a tool I have been developing myself for a number of months now so would be great to get some feedback!
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Well well well… what an interesting software !!!
I specially like the analysis tool, because there’s nothing at a fair price for this.
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By all means check it out!! Would love some more feedback/ideas etc 
If you have any other questions feel free to message me directly!
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I tried the mac version. My first honest impression, a lott of options, no clear flow steps to work, but this could be intentional.
Imported a 2 gb 3D scan in obj. format and tried the auto align, that didn’t align properly but ok it was a harder file to align. Tried the 3 point, it drew a plane, but no clear steps to align it to the world x/y/z, which would be usefull for a CAD import.
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Hi Martijn,
Thanks for giving it a try, and I really appreciate the feedback.
Yes i think inevitably with some scans, the Auto-Aligment will fall short. But my mindset is hopefully it gets you closer to that aligned orientation then before, then with a few manual adjustments you are finished.
That’s useful feedback regarding a clear workflow. I’ll have to think how to make it more intuitive. I’ve tried to add a tool to cover most scenarios, and to allow the user to align it how they desire.
The important part which perhaps needs to be more clear: When you create a datum manually with “3-Pt Plane” or “Flat face” for example (these show up as yellow features), you then need to assign that datum to either the Top / Right/ Front plane. Then you see the part aligning.
On the feature tree on the right hand side, you can expand each feature by clicking on it, then you have the option to Assign it as a datum, or adjust manually. Hopefully you found this part.
For the tools on the top toolbar you can also hover over them for a brief description:
I also put together a Youtube video to show the basic process, perhaps this can help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asJfpjYEZu0&t=47s
Thanks again for the feedback, If you have any other questions feel free to drop me an email: george@warelab.co.uk
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