3D scanner

[Kyle Stapleton]

Well on to my next grant and need some insight sooo.
This is a question for Brady, but I thought everyone could add some input.

What would be a good scanner to get for a school (I do not buy toys, if I can't get a good one I don't want one) I was thinking of a max of $5-6,000.

Or would a 3D printer be a better investment?

Thanks,

[myxpykalix]

Well he would be the expert on scanners but i don't think you could find anything to give you the quality you need for that kind of money. You could get one of those cheap ipad scanners for $500.00 that might give them hands on experience.

Now the question to ask yourself re: scanner vs 3d printer...what objects would kids be bringing in to scan and most likely it is just something they find around the house as opposed to wanting to replicate antique moulding, ect.

And they can find tons of stuff online or create something themselves for a 3d printer. So i would say you would get way more use from a 3d printer. However you could buy both for less then a grand nowadays.

[Brady Watson]

It depends on what you want to scan. The only thing marginally decent in that price range is a NextEngine. It takes some skill to get decent scans and there are certainly trade offs. Opt for the HD version + better software. Don't expect scans to look like my stuff - but you should be able to do things good enough to tweak in Aspire or another 3D package for machining purposes. Many of my customer's own these cheaper scanners & send me their stuff to scan in Hi Def.

Do your research & try to attend a demonstration for anything you are considering. It's best to bring a few items typical of what you want scanned & have them show you the results. This way there isn't as much buyer's remorse when you get it home. Beware of dog & pony shows...

-B

[andracke]

Kyle, We are thinking pretty similar regarding other cool things for kids to do with the Shopbot.

I would like to do some object scanning with my manufacturing kids. Constantly I think the head creation example that have the Shopbot hq of Ted. I have played around with Autodesk 123 Catch, it does a decent job of modeling. I would like to be able to have something basic that we can do some scanning of objects. Kids would go bonkers if they could create replica of their face or another object.

Thoughts?

[Kyle Stapleton]

A 3d carving of a student's face is what made me think of getting a scanner, other than that I'm not sure.
That said I got that bot to do production runs of parts and we do a lot more thing now than I could even think of when we got it.

[andracke]

Kyle, have you ever tried the Autodesk catch?

There was an Aspire thing online that I had found related to using the scanner for an Xbox, but have never been able to find anymore information on how to do it.

[bleeth]

Kyle: Are you using Aspire or AC Pro? Having the kids work with either to create a face relief from a photo is a great exercise in using the modeling tools in them. AC has a facial profile relief tool that is pretty cool as well. Brady's Avatar was done with it years ago.

[Kyle Stapleton]

I have used the 123D with little to show.

Aspire, What is AC pro?

[RUSSELL MC]

I purchased 3D scanner a few months ago after seeing it demonstrated. I was so impressed I bought it on the spot. Their is an old saying, Fools and their money are easily parted, well that's me. When I did my first scan it looked great until I removed the colourize and guess what, most of the detail disappeared. When I converted it to an STL file and opened it up in Artcam Pro it was really lacking in detail. I then spent another few hours in Artcam using the sculpting tools in order to get something that looked reasonable. I checked with the manufacture about the lack of resolution and was told that it would not pickup detail smaller than 2cm. It is easy to be impressed with the result when it is colorized but I have found you need to look at the Scan without the colorizing and also look at the converted STL file that is produced. I paid $1000.00 AUS for this scanner and extremely disappointed with the results. I guess you get what you pay for.

Russell

[bleeth]

Artcam Pro.As an educator they may have "special arrangements" for you.
Contact them direct or through an active reseller/customer service pro like Gary Beckwith (He's a member of this forum).

Aspire is an excellent program. AC Pro is one of the heavy duty professionals choices in the field.

[myxpykalix]

A month or so ago i was all excited about this ipad scanner for $500. and studied all i could find, asked those here who had one for their opinions and to see what they had scanned and when you see the photograph wrapped around the object it looks cool but when you "take the cover off" it lacks alot of detail.

The kicker for me was when the company had a policy of "no returns" that was a red flag to say "even we aren't happy with the results". It will probably be way better in a year but not now.

One thing you might could do, like i did. If you have a university close by, I went over to the "Digital Acquisition" lab and made a deal with the head of the dept. to do some scenery cutting for the drama dept. and in return they would scan stuff for me for free. They have scanners that are worth tens of thousands of dollars.