3d scanning.

[MAGNUM4342]

There's been alot of chatter lately concerning the new 3D printers. I personally am all thumbs when it comes to creating three dimensional drawings. I am wondering, has anyone thought about 3d scanning? I'm thinking if I can get a company to scan an item, then I can have the digital scan printed out in virtually any size I want. I'm thinking in terms of taking a 25th scale wheel, scanning it and printing it out in 16th scale. What do you guys think?

[Deathgoblin]

There are ways to do it. I read once about using a laser pointer and a webcam for scanning, but here's a Youtube video that covers the same subject.

I noticed once on a show that someone was using a Kinect to do this, but I don't remember what show.

[Ace-Garageguy]

http://3dprintsolutions.novacopy.com/scanners/?gclid=COH-qJ-4u7UCFQXpnAodL0oA0Q

http://sensing.konicaminolta.us/search-by-services/3d-scanning-services/

Edited February 16, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy

[sjordan2]

There are a number of 3D scanners available, some of them adaptable to 3D printing.

http://www.nextengine.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFlDNsRPN1A

[MAGNUM4342]

Seems a little tedious...but might be worth a try, and you can't beat the price.

[charlie8575]

Z Corporation in Billerica, Ma. makes 3-D scanners. I've had an opportunity to see them in action, and they work amazingly well.

What's really nice about those is that you can go straight into CAD with the files it generates, and being hand-held, you can do an entire car with them. It'll take some time, but it will do it.

Charlie Larkin

[Chief Joseph]

I've played around with Autodesk's free 123D Catch program, where you take a series of digital photos of your subject, upload them to Autodesk, and let their system create a 3D model for you. It works surprisingly well, but I don't think it would be accurate enough to reproduce a 1/25 scale wheel with any precision. And for a wheel you need precision. I have wanted one of those Next Engine scanners since I first saw it last year. I would be a scanning fool with one of those.

[Chief Joseph]

I seen somewhere but I can't remember.. that some are using the Xbox 360 kinect for 3d scanning as well.

Here's a very neat application of that particular method:

http://www.hotpopfactory.com/blog/2013/01/22/3d-scanning-and-pez-hacking/

Edited February 16, 2013 by Chief Joseph

[NormL]

There's been alot of chatter lately concerning the new 3D printers. I personally am all thumbs when it comes to creating three dimensional drawings. I am wondering, has anyone thought about 3d scanning? I'm thinking if I can get a company to scan an item, then I can have the digital scan printed out in virtually any size I want. I'm thinking in terms of taking a 25th scale wheel, scanning it and printing it out in 16th scale. What do you guys think?

Speaking as someone that has owned and used laser scanners since 2002, I think you should go from full sized to scale size otherwise you are multiplying the errors of the smaller scale.