Hi
I am quite new to 3D Scanning and I was wondering what are the best settings for the Metrox to get usable scans from Metal Sheet parts
The parts are 2mm to 3mm thick and have various bends on them.
Most of the parts are powdercoated black, but I could use scanning spray if required.
The shapes are irregular shapes so quite difficult to draw with tape measure and Vernier etc.
The company I work for has loads of brackets to reverse engineer and are considering buying a 3D Scanner if I can show them that one will work.
I’ve never tried it, but I would think that you could scan those. You might need spray and markers. Particularly the larger flats that lack much for features. You can often get away with markers around the part rather than on it as well.
You do still need to model them. But you can work from the mesh. What you get at the end is an STL. There are programs like QuickSurface to help with that. Your CAD program probably has some options as well.
What do you mean by usable scans? Usable as in 3d printable watertight models or as in perfectly usable for reverse engineering?
I don’t recognize the true size of these, but I think any marker tracking mode will do. For feature mode there might be too little features needed for reliable tracking.
For smaller parts that fit on a turntable and where some extra crisp minuscule details needed, I’d first give auto-turntable a try. Or even freehand fullfield shouldn’t be a problem, especially if you can coat them enough with (more expensive of the shelf or less epensive diy) scanning spray. With these I reckon you might get a faster single scan.
Cross-line or parallel-line laser mode will give nice results, too. Depending on the size of the object even markers only around the object might be enough for the tracking.
Do yourself a favour and always use (prescanned) global markers for smoother tracking and scanning , no matter which mode along with markers you use.
And of course , depending on orientation of the brackets for each single scan , several different oriented scans will be needed for merging them to a complete mesh.
Make sure to go to through the excellent revopoint tutorials on scanning with metrox on youtube!
If you follow the tipps provided there you should be able to great scans of these brackets in little time. Reverse engineering should be fast and easy, too, depending on software you use for that.
Thanks Ivan for the detailed help!
I will be reverse engineering the scans in Solidworks Professional.
Once reverse engineered they are cut out on a Fibre Laser and CNC folded.
I will let you know how I get on .
I need to look into Global Markers, I see them used by a lot of people.
I am also going to 3D Print some Marker Blocks
And because brackets usually are made of mostly flat surfaces without much details you don’t need to use lowest (highest resolution) settings, which will save unnecessary computation (time/file size).
What size variation do have in your parts?
Minimum and maximum size would be of interest.
And the size of the smallest detail you must be able to pick up and what it would be. For instance a hole, a bead, a dent.
I will look if i have a similar part lying around and next week i have a scanning session planned, I could scan it and share the results.
