3D Scanner Help

Hey guys,

I’m doing some preliminary research for a project that would use a 3D scanner to create full color full body 3D prints of people through Shapeways. Do any of you have experience or 3D scanner recommendations? Level of detail is important, but this would be out of pocket so a sub $1000 solution would be preferred. Thanks!

Sub $1k is difficult but there are solutions.

Photogrammetry (capture using conventional camera)
Autodesk 123D Catch
Agisoft PhotoScan

Software paired with an Xbox Kinect
Faro Scenect
KScan 3D

Honestly you’d be amazed how far you can get with just a decent camera + one of the photogrammetry solutions. There’s a definite learning curve to mastering the scanning technique, but that’s true with any scanning method. We find Agisoft a bit better of the two.

Otherwise there’s a myriad of structured light, laser, and stereo scanners, but many of them are constrained to scanning a desktop-sized object. Handheld stuff starts to get very expensive very quickly.

A lot of people have been doing this just using the Kinect as the cheapest solution. For a print thats only a few inches in size it should give you enough resolution. It depends exactly what you want to print (IE a life size face print will have different resolution requirements than a 4" figurine).

I’m leaning towards Artec Studio with a Kinect for windows, but I’m not sure if there is a more detailed option out there. Does photogrammetry provide good geometry detail, or is it mostly the quality of the textures it lays over it? Also out of the two would the kinect or the photogrammetry take longer to make a scan? Thanks again!

Photogrammetry can make incredibly good geometry. There are so many parameters to tweak that you can push it pretty far. Processing time will increase of course but you can dial it in to whatever detail level suits you.

I believe the Kinect would take longer but can have a better result at times.

You could be playing around with 123D Catch immediately for $0, might as well test it out before plunking down an investment in something else.

Agreed, 123D has a lot more backing behind it than the hacked together Kinect solutions, and considering their demonstration video is entirely about printing a 3D figure of your kid that’s probably the easiest place to start.

This is probably one of the “easiest” solutions out of the box, but none of these sub 1k scanners is really going to give any type of high resolution results. Many different companies are already doing this and they are leveraging scanners at like 10k (i.e http://www.artec3d.com)

What you can also take a look at is the http://cubify.com/en/Products/Sense.

I’ve been trying an old NextEngine Desktop 3D Scanner I found gathering dust under someone’s desk at work. It’s been a huge disappointment, hardly any of the data is usable.

I’ll have to experiment with 123D this weekend. Since I’ll be using it for a 4 day event maybe renting something more professional would be an option, but I would hate to hit a snag the night before and not be able to fix it.

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