"A Wrinkly in 3D Scanner Woods", a tale of an OAP Vs a 3D Scanner

Discussion in 'Workshop Benches' started by Jim Freight, Apr 17, 2023.

  1. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    Introduction - including links to episodes

    Well this wrinkly noobie wandered into a dark wood next to 3D printer land called 3D scanner woods, a dark place,where only the hopelessly geeky drift in search of the sort of stimulation which they know deep down they may regret and lose more hair over.

    I have had the urge to buy and try (aka play with) a 3D scanner for years, but two things put me off, firstly 5 figure cost, then 4 figure cost, however like 3D printers some potentially usable 3D scanners have appeared on the market for a highish 3 figure cost. Admittedly it is still a hefty price tag for most of us, probably the equivalent of three sound equipped mainline steam locos.

    If you thought choosing a 3D printer is difficult, try a 3D scanner, it's on a different plane altogether, reason, it is easier to quantify the output from a 3D printer than for a 3D scanner especially as there are still emerging technologies changing the market place.

    As before I am not going to review various scanners as many YouTubers have already done this, videos are not my thing, it takes long enough to create my various series of articles.

    I will concentrate on how I got into this, what I 'required' (apart from a shrink) what I chose and why, following up with my trial by ordeal as I try once again to wrap my brain cells around another raft of jargon, diabolical instruction leaflets and a multitude of applications that supposedly make your life easier, or so they say.

    Writing about these activities helps me learn about using these tools and is hopefully useful to you as I am biased to using these tools to aid my railway modelling, and railway modelling is probably why we are all here on P1 MRC.

    Adventure episodes :-

    1. Choosing a 3D Scanner
    2. Setting Up
    3. Preparing to Scan
    4. My First Project - 1960s Skip Truck
    5. Skip Truck Chassis - Scan
    6. Skip Truck Chassis - Scan Post Processing

    As always in my threads, comments and discussions are very :welcome:

    Jim :)

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  2. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    1. Choosing a 3D Scanner

    With a few to choose from in the sub-four figure price tag what should I specify, well, based on the intended use of my 3D printers to which it would be a source of data for creation of e.g.

    1.1 Functional items for my railway.
    1.2 Scenic items for my railway.
    1.3 Components for non-railway use with a variety of appropriate materials.

    The Raise3D printer is capable of extruding many more mechanically useful materials including nylon and to a higher level of detail when fitted with 0.2mm industry standard nozzles than possible with my 6 year old da Vinci 1 Pro which is restricted, (without applying 3rd party mods) to a 0.4mm nozzle.

    In all cases above the ability to optically scan an object and import the result into SketchUp (Make 2017) for replication and more importantly modification for either replacing a broken part or modifying an existing part becomes near essential when often the original part consists of many curves.

    This I found was particularly time consuming when creating a design for a Hornby Dublo early plastic coupling (EPC) hook which could clip into a NEM socket. But at least that was essentially 2 dimensional, the Z-axis was simply straight.

    Questions, questions ...

    For creating small items a modest level of precision would be required but this was easily met by the contenders under the maximum tolerable price limit.

    Although hardware manufacturers supply software to drive their devices it is often pretty basic and may require a ''Pro' version, aka paid version for anything that is of any practical use. So that must be considered.

    Also how do you transfer the scanned data to your favourite CAD modelling tool in a useful means without buying more software, I really don't like subscription based software, never have done, but I'll pay for a modest package if it does the job and has a perpetual licence. These may often be restricted to non-commercial use and limited functionality but they often suit me, I'm just a retired wage slave who does not intend to do paid work for anyone ever again!

    Emerging technologies such as 'Blue Light' are supposed to be better, however I could not really see the advantage of using a new tech so soon, I prefer to be a step behind the 'bleeding edge', M$ Windows is great example of this.

    I recently bought a low speed refurbished HP laptop with Windows 11 Pro installed, at quite a good price from an IT recycler on eBay to run the Cura 5 software as my elderly Vaio running Windows 7 was not supported.

    What a culture shock, I hate it, it was bad enough moving from XP to Windows 7 for which I applied 3rd party hacks to tweak it backwards a bit, especially relating to folder and file navigation to make it more usable for a techie like myself. But with all the social media, accounts and connections supposedly an essential now, bah-humbug, my alta-ego is a hermit, but I digress.

    So, I decided to stick with a step behind, good or bad, I might know by the time I kick the re-cycling bin whether this was a mistake or not.

    After much deliberation and running out of patience with myself I decided to commit and coerce my flexible friend into providing much merriment. :rolleyes:

    My Choice

    Creality CR Scan Lizard became my choice, it has had a chequered birth through crowdfunding of which there is much on the web, but that is something you can find and read about yourself should you wish.

    I decided to buy the kit with case and turntable, the case at least keeps it safe between jobs, and the motorised turntable is good for smaller objects, this review describes it well :-

    Creality CR-Scan Lizard: An easy-to-use 3D scanner for 3D printer owners?



    Well it arrived quickly, purchased from the Creality store, almost as though they thought I would change my mind if they delayed.

    Next I look at setting it up and trying to scan things, let the fun begin ...

    Jim :)

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  3. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    2. Setting Up

    Installation

    First mistake I made was to install the driver software and user program, CRStudio (Lite) which is supplied on the included USB drive, my advice would be, do not as the user interface is out dated and almost unusable!

    After a couple of hours I was seriously close to sending the whole thing back to Creality as not fit for purpose. :mad:

    Instead, go straight to the Creality website (at the time of writing)

    https://www.creality.com/pages/down...isplay_1.1&spm_prev=..page_1934481.header_1.1

    and download the latest full (and free) CRStudio application, (current version is 2.5.7.00380) and install it.

    PC Requirements

    I noticed as others have done that there is little reference to what version of Windows CRStudio will run on and what is required in terms of minimum requirements for processor speed and memory size.

    Update 18-04-2023: Compatible with Windows 10 64 bit
    Ref: https://www.creality.com/products/creality-cr-scan-lizard-3d-scanner

    A Mac version is also available.

    I tried to install CRStudio 2 on my Win7 laptop, however a pop-up dialog informed me that although the Intel i5 CPU running at 2.27 GHz was okay, the 6GB of RAM was not, at least 8GB was required, in the background the main window disappeared taking the pop-up with it. It just crashed big time, without any explanation as to why, but it was repeatable!

    So would it have run on Win 7 with 8GB of RAM, I'm not going to add an extra 2GB to my Win7 machine to find out, as with my printing I prefer to keep my main laptop with Win 7 away from the bench.

    My Win11 laptop i5 CPU runs at 1.7 GHz and has 16GB of RAM so it installed and CRStudio 2 runs okay on that.

    This machine is used for Cura 5 on the bench, so it can run the scanner too.

    As pointed out in the review video in part 1 and as will be noted in some subsequent videos the amount of RAM required and the processor speeds (operating system CPU and graphics CPU) will make a very big difference to what is achievable, e.g. whether you can grab a quick coffee while it processes scan data or have lunch out somewhere.

    Before CRStudio runs the scanner for the first time it prompts for calibration data, it's best to select download from the web and not local, I can only guess this is required by CRStudio and not the scanner itself.

    User Interface

    CRStudio 2 has a much improved user interface, you can also download a V2 User Guide (3D Scanner CRStudio 2 Software QSG_EN), however a much better way to learn how to get it set up for scanning is to view YouTube videos, although most include unpacking of various versions this one, below, is more specific to the user interface.

    Unfortunately the presenter shows the user interface in the default grey scheme which is not easy to see on the video, it may be easier on the eyes (or is it just a M$ enforced fad).

    There is a white mode too, which although bland compared with coloured window presentations of a decade ago is much easier to see and use. The video :-

    "CR Studio 2.0 Installation & UI walkthrough | Creality CR Scan Lizard User Guide"



    Having finally installed a working viable CRStudio version on a PC it's time to try and perform a scan. So far not very impressed, have I bitten off more than I can chew this time ... :hammer:

    Jim :scratchchin:

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    Last edited: Apr 29, 2023
  4. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    3. Preparing to Scan

    As the objects I intend scanning for railway modelling are small for now I shall be sticking to table mode, i.e. the target is scanned while rotated on the powered turntable.

    This is where the fun starts in earnest, there are several factors to take into account when setting up for a scan :-

    3.0 Target objects should be rigid.
    3.1 Minimum distance between the target and scanner, 150mm.
    3.2 Maximum distance between the target and scanner, 400mm.
    3.3 Minimum size of the target 15x15x15mm.
    3.4 Glossy surfaces reflect too much light.
    3.5 Clear or translucent surfaces do not reflect enough light.
    3.6 Black surfaces can be scanned (although I have had difficulty so far, maybe because they were not matt enough).
    3.7 Preferably the target surface should be matt white for geometric scan accuracy? (that is what is suggested for coatings on objects so they scan easier).
    3.8 The background behind the turntable should be clutter free.
    3.9 Loose material on the turntable must be avoided, e.g. spilt powder applied to aid scanning.
    3.10 Firm tripod, in practice I find that using a lightweight floor standing camera tripod with a pan and tilt head is preferable, makes for easier positioning of the scanner relative to the turntable and frees up bench space.

    Phew, got that?

    When you have met all these criteria you stand a chance of achieving a usable scan.

    Although I am not sure how easy detecting features on a black surface works so well, eluding me at this time, because if insufficient light is reflected back it may not be detected readily.

    I note that in a Creality video that a black sculpture scans well, but it does take place outdoors in bright sunlight.



    The scanning is performed in the near infra red frequencies of light which is just below what the human eye can typically see, the ring of LED lights around the centre lense I believe are for texture scanning and uses visible light.

    There does not be appear to be an ambient light level range specified.

    Scanning Method

    This YouTube video gives a good rundown of the required sequence of events :-

    Creality CR Scan Lizard - Table Mode Guide



    Jim :)

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  6. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    4. My First Project - 1960s Skip Truck

    This is to create a 1960s skip truck using an out of the box model which I can modify, the type of vehicle I have in mind is :-

    https://www.stilltimecollection.co....scene-scenery-destination-venue-thetford-95CC

    Further images of the this truck are available on the Still Time Collection site above.

    Although it is on a Commer truck chassis it has a 'D' registration from the mid 1960s, the Base Toys Leyland LAD chassis and cab from their simple tanker model LT-01 are very close and could well have carried this type of body. The registration plate on the model if authentic would make it at least 4 years older.

    1.JPG

    My industrial modelling approach has generally been focused on 'if it looks right, it is right' as many aspects of industrial and commercial activities were inaccessible to joe public and few workers would have actually had a camera to hand to snap their everyday workhorses.

    Information is rather scant in many areas, e.g. concrete mixer trucks of this era are nearly as difficult to source info and images of.

    Modern skip trucks are still very much the same as these early designs, early vehicles are generally simpler with vertical hydraulic stabilising jacks at the rear instead of the arms used now. The swinging arms to load/unload the containers are fixed length, not telescopic and do not have built on load sheeting gear. The skips however are virtually unchanged.

    Skip models are available in 4mm scale from multiple sources, but excellent ones are sold by Goodwood Scenics, detailed and weathered of which I have ordered a few, having bought models from them before I expect them to be very good.

    https://www.goodwoodscenics.co.uk/product-page/yellow-12yard-skip-lorry-skip-with-chains-pack-of-1

    Unfortunately they only sell what appears to be 1970s skip truck, and the price is premium, whereas the Base Toys model can be bought for less than £9 including delivery via e.g. eBay.

    Preparation

    To do this I am going to 3D print a custom body to fit the chassis, I could just try and measure up the chassis but no, I am going to try and 3D scan the chassis with cab attached so I can import it into SketchUp and design the body onto it.

    The tanker body separates from the chassis by 2 screws, but the wheels fit on barbed end axles and are difficult to remove as is the spare wheel and tyre attached to the chassis. The rear axle differential casting retains the rear axle and is easily broken off, as is the stub on which the spare wheel is mounted. Tough luck, but both repairable.

    The cab is retained with one screw.

    I only need to dismantle one chassis as shown below to get a good scan created.

    2.JPG

    Scanning

    This is where the fun really starts, taking the chassis, with cab attached, minus wheels and scanning on the turntable in various poses quickly revealed two issues.

    1) The gloss black chassis parts are very difficult to scan
    2) The resulting STL file is huge!

    Addressing these issues.

    Chassis colour

    The paint on these models is fairly crude, it is high gloss, thick and not very smooth, this when scanned at the resolution the scanner is capable of gets translated into a very uneven surface, this worsens the second issue.

    Huge STL file

    Ideally if the high resolution just captured the overall dimensions accurately and smoothed out the areas between the defining edges of the scan target that would be great, but unfortunately this I would expect to be the domain of very expensive expensive scanners and supporting software.

    The detail this scanner can capture is far in excess of what we can expect to 3D (filament) print, and I doubt anything less than a high spec industrial resin printer could achieve either. So what's the big deal, well the massive STL file is also bad news to load into SketchUp as from what I read it does not handle large STL files easily.

    When I tried to load one of these scans into SketchUp on either of my laptops it would sit there for some while, 'Not Responding' eventually after 30 minutes or more it would load into the Win7 laptop, gave up on the Win 11 machine.

    Incredible detail but impossible to cleanup well enough to be usable.

    However I have found a suitable 3rd party tool which can easily reduce the detail and STL file size to manageable proportions, this I will cover shortly.

    Going Forward

    I stripped the paint from the chassis using Deluxe Materials Strip Magic which works well, first time I have used it and tried scanning again, the result was better but the bare alloy has quite a shine in places, so I think it could be better still.

    So bearing in mind I want to repaint this chassis anyway I have now sprayed it with a matt white acrylic primer for another attempt which I will try and document in the next sequence of posts on this thread.

    I feel I have a good enough handle on the workflow now to write something useful, you can judge me on that shortly, and please ask or advise me, I'm open to discussion and learning from others. It's all new to me.

    Jim :)

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  7. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    5. Skip Truck Chassis Scan

    This has proved to be a difficult and time consuming exercise due to the target object being close to the minimum size for this scanner, it's original colour and the fact that when looked at closely it is quite a crude casting with hardly any straight edges or surfaces.

    Much of the cast detail is very shallow and ill defined, particularly around the cab where details are enhanced by the paint and printed colour.

    Scanning this chassis to provide a basis of creating a custom body was always more to do with determining what can actually be done in this scale (1:76) and learning how to use a 3D scanner than it actually being a time cost effective means of producing a truck body.

    Careful measuring up of the chassis would have been much quicker, anyway I finally obtained the right set up of target and equipment to actually obtain usable scans.

    Although background light levels are not supposed to affect the scans I get the impression it can help when trying to scan difficult places like under wheel arches if some natural light can shine through, which after all must contain some near infra red.

    Setup

    The target truck chassis with cab was eventually as shown below, the chassis stripped of the original paint and sprayed with a matt white acrylic primer, places that the spray was not able to cover where touched in by brush with another primer. Also brushed was the rear of the front mud guards which are part of the cab casting. I did not what to strip the cab as much detail work would have been lost.

    1 DSCF1281.JPG

    2 DSCF1282.JPG

    The next pair of images show the setup of scanner and target which gave me the results I needed.

    3 DSCF1273.JPG

    4 DSCF1288.JPG

    Scanning

    I will assume that the video showing the process of scanning in the previous episode has been viewed so as to keep this episode focussed upon the fun I am having with this particular exercise.

    Multiple scans are required to cover a 3D item with enough overlap such that the processing step can knit all the views together into a 3D model of the entire item.

    Step 1 - Preview

    The target and scanner are configured to keep the target in view of the scanners field of view and with suitable reflected light levels. The settings that I have found satisfactory are :-

    Brightness : 2
    Sensitivity : 5
    Scan Mode : Geometry

    This is run as long as you need to achieve optimal results, click on the preview (time counter) again stops the preview mode.

    5 Image26.jpg


    Step 2 - Initialise


    The target is removed and then initialise is started which scans the table on its own for 10 seconds and stops automatically, the data acquired at this stage will be available to be easily deleted once a scan of target and table is completed.

    6 Image27.jpg


    Step 3 - Scan


    The target item is then placed back on the table and the scan proper started, 320 frames of data are collected per table revolution, and it stops when one revolution is complete. First image shows data acquisition at frame 47.

    7 Image28.jpg


    The next at frame 229.

    8 Image29.jpg


    Once the scan is completed the result is displayed, target colour changes with each scan, but the table is highlighted in magenta as shown below.

    9 Image31.jpg

    In the scanning video of the last episode the table part of the scan was retained, I have found that for this target deleting it now works best, simply hit the delete key and the magenta coloured parts, the table in this case, is deleted leaving the scanned target as below.


    Wow, something simple to do, make the most of that!

    10 Image32.jpg

    So after a much trial and error this is a promising looking first scan, the spaces under the wheel arches are looking pretty good and not full of artefacts, at this stage no clusters of points due to misinterpretation of the target which can end up as surface warts and floating lumps akin to a lava lamp of old.

    Next, further scans are required from different angles so that a 3D model may be constructed.

    Right, coffee break as reached 10 image limit for a posting.

    Continued in part 2.
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2023
  8. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    5. Skip Truck Chassis Scan - Part 2 - Scanning Continued

    Assuming the scan is to be kept and the placement of scanner relative to the table remains unchanged then it is just the matter of repositioning the target and selecting Append to commence the next scan.

    If the positioning of the scanner relative to the table is changed then Reset is used to start the original pre-scan alignment of scanner to the target on the table as was done before the first scan.

    The next scan is with the chassis laying on its right hand side, frame 15 is shown :-

    11 Image33.jpg


    Completion of the scan :-

    12 Image34.jpg


    Table deleted, showing the acquired data, the side it was laying on is missing, however there is plenty of data for which to connect this scan to the first one.

    13 Image35.jpg


    Next scan is on its left hand side, frame 116 shown :-

    14 Image36.jpg


    Scan completed and table deleted, in this case left hand side missing, but once again sufficient data to connect to the first scan.

    15 Image38.jpg


    Next scan is the chassis inverted, frame 66 shown :-

    16 Image39.jpg


    Scan completed :-

    17 Image40.jpg


    Table deleted.

    18 Image41.jpg

    Continued in Part 3
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2023
  9. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    5. Skip Truck Chassis Scan - Part 3 - Alignment and Processing

    Step 4 - Alignment

    So far I have found that Auto alignment has worked most times and so I have not resorted to applying manual alignment.

    The scan numbered names in the bottom right pane are those automatically assigned, some are missing due to their poor quality and were deleted.

    In the first alignment I have selected to align Tablescan4 with Tablescan3, the two side view scans, these are made viewable by clicking on the eye symbol against their names in the bottom right pane. From where they appear in the pane above Tablescan3 was dragged into the "Select the the model to align" box. Or really the model that you want to align the other visible ones to.

    This appears as :-

    19 Image42.jpg


    The result is shown below, the mix and dominance of the two sets of data are visible :-

    20 Image43.jpg

    So those two merged well

    Continuing the alignments, it's not accumulative as such, on each alignment I am continuing to add further scans and running the auto alignment from scratch, thus allowing me to check that when all the scans are eventually combined they will combine coherently. By adding and re-running in stages it means I can identify any that may corrupt or require manual alignment to be identified or replaced.

    Next I am adding Tablescan2 to the build which was the original scan looking down on chassis. Prior to alignment shows almost at right angles to the first two scans.

    21 Image44.jpg


    After alignment :-

    22 Image45.jpg

    Looking good.


    Now for the underside scan Tablescan5, displayed it shows as :-

    23 Image46.jpg


    And aligned :-

    24 Image47.jpg

    Note the colours of each scan show the contribution from each scan in the aligned scans.

    So far so good, note that each stage it is possible to spin the view around each axis and zoom in and out to examine the 'point cloud' generated.

    All looks good, so now time to process the aligned scans to merge them into a 3D model.

    Step 5 - Processing

    This you may rightly assume is by selecting the Process button. The time this takes will vary enormously depending on the amount of data and the speed of your machine, even on my Win 11 laptop it was probably between 30 and 60 seconds, I did not actually measure it but was acceptably quick not to have time to make another coffee. Nevermind, later then.

    The result of processing is shown in the next two images, a few 'artefacts' can be seen in space around around the model.

    25 Image49.jpg

    26 Image50.jpg

    These are easily removed using the Edit-> Remove Noise from the top menu bar which results in the loose artefacts being removed from the model as seen below :-

    27 Image51.jpg

    28 Image52.jpg

    With the scanning exercise completed the next stage is to tidy up the scanned model ready for importing into SketchUp, I cover some post processing activities next.

    Jim :)

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  10. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    6. Skip Truck Chassis - Scan Post Processing

    Step 1 - Check and Repair

    Further inspection and cleaning up is now required, you may already have your favourite applications but this noobie is looking at the simplest to understand and preferably free programs to do this and there appears to be plenty available on line to taste.

    The model was exported from CRStudio in STL format.

    The first I am using is the Autodesk Meshmixer. When loaded into Meshmixer and the model spun around it shows there are holes in the mesh, outlined in blue under the cab, although I am not going to print this model I might as well fix it as part of the learning about scanning for modelling.

    1 Image7.jpg


    Selecting Analysis from the left hand bar presents a menu as shown :-

    2 Image9.jpg


    Selecting Inspector from the list the defective areas are highlighted :-

    3 Image10.jpg


    I have chosen smooth fill which filled and smoothed over the holes :-

    4 Image11.jpg


    There is still some dubious blemishes under the cab, especially under the wheel arches but these do not affect the area I am interested in, namely the chassis top side where a custom body is to be mounted.

    A wart like artefact is also present under a rear mudguard, but once again that is not an issue I need to fix at this time.

    Saved again in STL format.

    Step 2 - Import into SketchUp - Preliminary Viewing

    This is just to see what it looks like prior to STL file size reduction, it took some 30 minutes to load into my Win7 machine and as can be seen the mesh is extremely fine, it's not that it is coloured black but the mesh is so dense on my screen it looks as though the surface is black when all that is visible is a very dense image of triangles. The bands of light and dark are probably fringing, i.e. the density of the drawn lines relative to the display resolution.

    I think in future I won't load into SketchUp until the STL file is substantially decreased in size.

    5 Image5.jpg

    6 Image6.jpg

    Continued in Part 2
     
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  11. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    6. Skip Truck Chassis - Scan Post Processing - Part 2

    Step 3 - Align scanned model to axes such that it sits squarely the correct way up.

    First attempt was to use Meshmixer but it's complicated.

    https://mattshub.com/blogs/blog/orientating-parts-meshmixer

    Second attempt with MeshMagic is more graphical, the first image is how it was loaded into MeshMagic, Left hand view in 3D perspective, the three smaller views on the right hand side show the alignment to 3 pairs of axes.

    Select properties and the dialog Object Properties is displayed from which the imported model can be rotated or positioned by one axis at a time.

    7 Image14.jpg

    By trueing each axis of the model in turn according to these 3 views it is relatively straightforward to align the scanned model as you wish.

    Very much easier to average the models co-ordinates and angles of orientation visually due to the lack of straight or smooth surfaces as opposed to selecting faces and edges with Meshmixer.

    Result as :-

    8 Image17.jpg


    Save as a new file name and reloading shows the bounding box aligned to the axes.

    9 Image18.jpg

    With hindsight the bounding box position relative to the x,y and z axes could have been better for import into SketchUp, but that was just a matter of sliding it along an axis as opposed to making it square to the axes which was easier to do in MeshMagic.


    Step 4 - Reducing the STL File Size

    The resolution of the model is far in excess of that required for this project, even if the chassis was to be printed, so the next step is to reduce the complexity of the mesh. Early attempts suggest a reduction of 90 to 95% was appropriate.

    I return to Meshmixer for this operation as it seems to offer the most straightforward user interface and a good range of options, I will go through the process step by step, but if you wish to know more, detailed information on its use can be found here, just scroll down past other methods of file reduction :-

    https://3dprinterly.com/how-to-reduce-stl-file-size-for-3d-printing/

    Open up Meshmixer and import the model to be reduced.

    10 Image20.jpg


    Select all by Ctrl-A, highlights entire model and displays menu of options :-

    11 Image21.jpg


    Select Edit -> Reduce

    12 Image22.jpg


    Which then displays the options for Reduce :-

    13 Image23.jpg

    Options chosen
    Reduce Target : Percentage
    Reduce Type: Shape Preserving
    Percentage: 95%

    it is better to type in a value, otherwise it starts the reduction process almost as soon as you start to move the slider which is tedious as you have to wait for it to catch up before moving it further.

    95% is a significant reduction, but trying out different values noticeable distortion only started at 98%, for this project 95% reduction is optimal.

    Tri Count: Left as default
    Max Deviation (from original surface): Left as default of 0.19mm

    Image shows result, very little difference to the outline

    14 Image24.jpg


    After selecting Accept, Meshmixer returns to the Edit options. :-

    15 Image25.jpg


    All that is left to do is export in the required format, I prefer to add the reduction value to the file name.

    Continued in Part 3
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2023
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  12. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    6. Skip Truck Chassis - Scan Post Processing - Part 3

    Step 6 - Import into SketchUp

    This time it loads in quickly, hardly a pause, the result in 3D view is :-

    16 Image26.jpg


    Plan view :-

    17 Image27.jpg


    Side elevation :-

    18 Image28.jpg


    The side elevation appears to show that slight rotation to orientate the chassis top to be level is required.

    However close examination of the original Base Toys chassis shows it is slightly curved, it is not a fault of scanning or post processing, what I have now is a 3D model of the chassis complete with original distortion!

    So I will model the body attachment to suit the chassis deformation.

    The scanning part of this project is complete.

    What Have I learned Here

    1) Scanning small items like a 1:76 truck chassis can be quite difficult to set up as it is very much near the minimum object size for this scanner of a 15mm cube.

    2) The detail produced by the scanner is far too high by default for this application, there appears to be an option to reduce this but I haven't yet worked out how to use it.

    3) Scanning larger even full size items to reduce to 1:76 is a possibility but one still has to bear in mind the limitations of filament 3D printing at 1:76, most detailed work appears to be best suited to 7mm scale modelling using resin 3D printing techniques.

    4) No single tool provides the simplest options for the minimal operations required of them to create data for use in the creation of small 3D models, most are for much more elaborate use in imaging and animation.

    5) This was not the most time cost effective method to create a base on which to create a custom body for an off the shelf chassis. But this was a useful exercise in how to scan and subsequently produce a model for use in a CAD program such as SketchUp and subsequent 3D printing.

    6) Some software tools are very processing power hungry, especially when scanning or importing very large STL files, also demanding Windows 10+ (CRStudio). RAM requirement of 8GB as a minimum too. Graphics processor unit (GPU) performance needs to be considered if high resolution work is performed to render the detail on your display at a usable speed. What I have done here was possible on low speed laptops with basic GPU performance, although RAM size and operating system versions used were crucial for CRStudio.

    Going Forward

    This project will continue on the 'parent' thread "A Wrinkly in 3D Printing Land".

    Jim :)

    Back to episode list
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2023
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