DIY and Entry-Level 3D-Scanner Forum

I am working with a Non-Profit group in a challenged neighborhood, in Minnesota USA. We are expanding our digital arts class from 2D to 3D. I am looking for advice on purchasing a 3D scanner and software options for this effort. We'd like the scanner to be robust enough to let supervised kids use it. They'll be from 10-20 years old. We are assuming the kids will want to scan themselves, so it must be eye safe.

We will likely try to keep the cost of the scanner & software to under $3,000, but may go as high as $5,000. Is that enough money to budget?

Our computers will be donated CAD stations from the company I work for: Dell T3500's with 18GB Ram. Is that enough RAM for a scanner?

Our CAD options are SolidWorks Student version, Rhino Student version, 123D Design, and ZBrush. Any suggestions on which of these is easiest to use with scanned data? I have heard that SW doesn't handle large point clouds well, but Rhino does. I haven't use 123D Design.

We'll be using a Makerbot 2 for manufacturing.

Any advice on scanner selections that will work with the described system would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi!

Welcome to the forum

Your buget and hardware are OK to get your class into 3D scanning.

If you want to to explain the scanning process an get some good detailed scans of smaller objects, I recommend David Laserscanner or the Nextengine Laserscanner.

To scan bigger objects like people, I recommend Primesense scanners like: Carmine, Kinect or the Sense from 3D Systems. The sense scanner has even its own software. The other options need additional software like Skanect or Artec Studio. Personally I recommend Artec Studio since the Software has so much options to tweak your scans.

If you want to get your 3D models into CAD software, you probably need reverse engineering tools like Geomagic studio or EGS Leios.

Best,
Bernhard

_________________
Bernhard
www.virtumake.com

Thanks for the welcome and the advice. This was a very useful list.

The Sense system looks like a good fit. At that price we could afford to purchase both a Sense and a David.

If we were going to use the David for fine detail, which would you recommend, the laser system or the white light?

Thanks for the advice.

Hi LuckyMaroon!

As Bernhard said, you can go with David-Laserscanner and structured light for eye safeness (no laser). If you already have a beamer and a web-camera (or better a Canon-DSLR or even better a machine view camera) then you only need a license for 329 Euros ( Pro USB Edition) to start with a structured light scanner. You have to do some DIY to built the scanner, but I think that is interesting to the kids too, look for advices at the forum of David Laserscanner at http://forum.david-3d.com. There is also a complete solution for 1993 Euros https://ssl.david-vision-systems.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p124_DAVID-Structured-Light-Scanner.html.

Another possibility is photogrammetry. A good point to start with is the free VisualSFM (for noncomercial use) see http://ccwu.me/vsfm/. For working with the point clouds you can use free software solutions like Meshlab http://meshlab.sourceforge.net and CloudCompare http://www.danielgm.net/cc/ or of course your edition of Rhino and ZBrush.
If you want to spent some money for photogrammetry I could recommend Agisoft PhotoScan. The standard version for educational use costs only 59,-$ and the professional edition for educational use costs only 549,-$.
You can start with normal point-and shot-cameras.

Hope that answers some of your questions

Best Karsten