Anyone with experience in 3D scanning?

Joe Dunfee

Thanks for the update, but the 3D Scan Expert side has 2018 as its latest scanner review. And the author has moved on to other things. 3D scanners are one of those technologies that see fairly mature now, so you don't see much change over time. Though, I had been hoping to see some price drops and technologies to make low-cost room scanning more accurate. My own research shows this is not the case.

The "Project Tango" from Microsoft was theoretically going to be that low-cost revolution. But, it really fizzled out and it not useful for much, except for presenting walk-throughs of houses where accuracy is not needed.

There is plenty of low-cost hardware available that can do the kind of precision I would like for myself. In fact, a laser distance meters for $30 USD will give you +/- 1/8" accuracy at 65ft. But, the task of integrating that sort of precision into a system to create a 3D view of a room or small warehouse seems to be forever the in the world of a project that a university student does, that never becomes a real product.

Tom Foster

"a laser distance meters for $30 USD will give you +/- 1/8" accuracy at 65ft" - just bought one for $19.95 in Lidl, promises '+/-1.5mm typical accuracy', whatever that means (over 1m or over 20m?) in terms of a warranty justifying returning it to the shop! Worth a try.

Michael Mayer

Reminds me of my cheap ultra sonic meter (from Aldi ?)
about 20 years ago. Did not really use it or checked accuracy.

I usually use a 2 Meter stick and mark marks with a pencil to go through rooms
and create a 3D model.
My problem was less the accuracy than unexpected slanted and rotated Walls
in pre WWII buildings

Should look again for Laser Meters if these are now affordable.

I think a 3D Laser Scanner and Bricscad Point Cloud Tools would be very nice
but maybe a bit too much for my needs.

Tom Foster

"I usually use a 2 Meter stick and mark marks with a pencil to go through rooms" - me too, forever, tho in past year have given that up, instead client pays Surveyor to make point cloud (usually) and supply 2D plans sections elevations from that, but snags - their wait-list and their sloppy 2D drafting which defies easy modification as basis for As Proposed drawings - 3 different Surveyors.

Consequently, another re-think - next job, will use their point cloud but extract my own geometry from that, and draw 2D 'As Existing' to my own standard - see currently https://forum.bricsys.com/discussion/37587/section-tools#latest . Looking for someone to teach me the geometry extraction, prob in Acad tools, then teach myself how to do same in Bcad.

If I make a 3D solid model, that's extra, needs to be justified.

"My problem was less the accuracy than unexpected slanted and rotated Walls
in pre WWII buildings" - never unexpected! Add floors and everything else to that, and try a thatched Devonshire farmhouse!

Michael Mayer

I am always unsure - if I want the real accuracy - by e.g. using Bricscad's Face Detection
with point clouds Or do I better want the reduced architectural planning, as it was meant
by the planner.
E.g. when you see that the column grid looks like being intended to be 6 m.
Should I really center that column on 5.98253878 in X or create each column in real
existing dimensions - or just idealize like the design and warn consultants to remeasure
on site .....

Jim Canale

BubbleB said:

I'd like to share two portals with reviews, and good reviews of 3d scanners. This guy who seems like he get scanners for a review, so he shows what he get from this equipment. Probably one of the most helpful reviews.
And this who is more about technical data, but good structured, so if you are looking for exact info it's also a choice.

Thank you BubbleB. I will check out the reviews and the other link for my own enlightenment. My employer nixed the concept of buying a scanner without any real discussion, just as they refused to upgrade my 8 year old PC. Since I haven't had a payraise in 5 years, I don't think I can expect much from them.. I'm 67 and in poor health. My eyesight is failing. Soon they will have to find someone else to reverse engineer housings.

Tom Foster

https://aecmag.com/magazines latest edition is all about lo-cost scanning and getting the results into CAD.

Joe Dunfee

Mr. Foster, that article has a lot of exciting info. Specifically, about the Iphone being used with SiteScape software to scan large buildings and ending up with +/- 1" accuracy.

Actually, the whole magazine brought me a few chuckles, though not necessarily out of delight over the technology. They obviously worked to come up with new words, or at least oddly worded phrases. "with a specialism in interior design". "...demonstrate that it is exceptionally performant." Also, there was a major push to use special political/sales phrases, "The power of that inclusive experience transforms projects", One article used "inclusive" almost every other paragraph.

-Joe

Tom Foster

I gradually get used to extracting some meaning from the jargon in such mags, their journos being exposed all the time to marketing- and corporate-speak which seems the lifeblood of the biz schools and the thrusting young tech entrepreneurs who pass through them. Having said that, AECMag, with new Editor, has just taken a leap in substantial coverage such as this issue.

Or maybe there's just a lot new happening right now. Did you see on p52 what our Erik de Keyser is up to these days? Can't say I quite understand it, tho.

Joe Dunfee

I guess the Dilbert cartoon needs companies like this to provide material for the cartoon.

I will add that the +/- 1" statement didn't actually provide the context of that precision. So the value is meaningless. They successfully fooled me into thinking it was a great value. It may have been a 15' wide facility, not the much larger facility that was being discussed a few paragraphs earlier.

I've been following the scanning technology for several decades. Around 20 years ago, was evaluating it for creating a 3D as-built, of a very large theater space. I saw all the glossy magazine pictures, showing how the software could take the point cloud data, and figure out where I-beams and pipes were, and automatically create those objects. Then, when I actually spoke with the laser scanning service, they said it doesn't work well enough to use. They almost exclusively used 3D scans, to create 2D drawings. We ended up just getting a standard survey done, to locate the important points, and I modeled it from scratch.

However, I really think it should be possible to create a very low-cost 3D scanner that has the sort of precision people want. LIDAR distance meters are quite cheap, and precise. And super-cheap occipital structured-light system can have its accuracy increased by just moving the projector and camera further apart. Cameras on phones are getting MUCH more resolution, (Samsung recently announced a 200 megapixel one).

So, I am puzzled why significant improvements have not really come to the very low-cost scanners.

Michael Mayer

Michael Mayer said:

Reminds me of my cheap ultra sonic meter (from Aldi ?)
about 20 years ago. Did not really use it or checked accuracy.

Should look again for Laser Meters if these are now affordable.

OK, Ultra Sonics Battery was empty (ancient 9 Volt)
Decided to replace it by a beautiful (design award) Chinese laser meter for 15 €.
Now I, after checking along both parallel Walls,I realized that a concrete wall is just
not in angle - in a seventies building !?
So far I always thought I measured wrong or just took the dimensions from the
old plans ....


I do not know, with a Leica 3D Scanner I would have thought about an accuracy issue
instead of thinking about builders fails ....

ALANH

We scanned in full 3d an Underground Brick and Bluestone drain for some 70m, the walkthrough produced was amazing the bluestone and bricks show clearly the relief features. It was done as it was unknown the true levels in the drain. A new outlet was to be built part way along and was some 4m deep.

The one drawback was the size we are talking gigabytes and not 1 or 2. So normal Cad would just not hack it.

A 3d Cad dwg maybe 10Mb

apolloLaser

Hello! Did you already find a perfect 3d scanner to do the reverse engining? I find an affordable blue-light 3d scanner live on Kickstarter. The standard package just only needs to pay 475 USD. The buy link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2125914059/revopoint-mini-3d-scanner-with-002mm-precison

Robert

@Apollo Hernandez I just watched the kickstarter. Looks like a nice hobby scanner.
But I don't believe the 0,02 mm precision. There are some bigger and more expense brands (scanners in the 10k price range) that only guarantee 0,05 mm precision. Maybe I'm old an cynical, but 0,02mm seems to be good to be true for only 475 dollars.

Michael Mayer

I thought about $ 2500 ...
Nevertheless a nice Scanner.

Although I do not think it is suited to fulfill architectural needs
and scan a Cathedral or such ....

apolloLaser

My friend bought the Revopoint MINI to do reverse engineering. He was not too happy with the scanned results. So he bought another professional 3D scanner worth $5000. But he found the 3D scanned result not better than Revopoint MINI.

kurtzanker

Yes, I read about project Tango back in 2014. I wish it had gone as smoothly as was intended.

BubbleB

Jim Canale said:

BubbleB said:

I'd like to share two portals with reviews, and good reviews of 3d scanners. This guy who seems like he get scanners for a review, so he shows what he get from this equipment. Probably one of the most helpful reviews.
And this who is more about technical data, but good structured, so if you are looking for exact info it's also a choice.

Thank you BubbleB. I will check out the reviews and the other link for my own enlightenment. My employer nixed the concept of buying a scanner without any real discussion, just as they refused to upgrade my 8 year old PC. Since I haven't had a payraise in 5 years, I don't think I can expect much from them.. I'm 67 and in poor health. My eyesight is failing. Soon they will have to find someone else to reverse engineer housings.

Dear Jim! I am so sorry to hear this. I wish health to you and your family!

carlsrobinson

Hi, I don't have much experience with 3d Scanning or 3d scanner but I have been following this website called Trevilla Engineering & Designs, they have written some good content for 3d scanners you can visit there and learn about that.