I tried out the next engine 3d scanner

enginyr · Newbie Joined: Jun 25, 2006 Posts: 7

Well... we needed a solution to scan parts in 3d to solidworks. It looked like a good solution till they came to demo the unit. Okay....I tell you the rest in a bit. back to work for now.

NeilClifton · Newbie Joined: Mar 24, 2007 Posts: 1

I am looking forward to your reply. I had a demo on Thursday having seen Konica amongst several other scanners. I was very impressed with the data of the scanned parts and the ease of use. We use a Faro LaserArm for our accurate work 0.001" but now have found work for a less accurate quicker way of modelling.

enginyr · Newbie Joined: Jun 25, 2006 Posts: 7

it really sucked. The scan was not complete and missed a lot of areas because of the reflectivity. It needs a special powder as to not have any shines. The scan took forever and the color matching sucked.

gregoree · Newbie Joined: Jun 03, 2008 Posts: 1

The scanner blows. I was on the Beta test team before they came out with the scanner and never got anything usable from it. it is a Fisher Price scanner for little kids to play with along with their easy bake oven. I am not kidding!

NextTodd · Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:04 am Post subject:

I'm pretty surprised by some of these comments. For starters, please take a look at this quicktime movie of a scan I recently did:

http://www.nextengine.com/todd/hulk.mov

The original figurine was about 5.5" tall, and somewhat shiny with dark areas. The animation shows the model as created by ScanStudio, with and without textures.

A couple other things I'd like to point out as well...

1. You could try using a $400,000 GOM ATOS scanner and you will find that shiny black, chrome, mirror, or glass surfaces are difficult to capture without a surface coating.

2. Specular reflections will create some holes in your raw scans, as well as occlusions (shadows), or parts out of range of the scanner. This is why the system is built around the concept of aligning multiple scans from different angles, then Fusing them.

3. Fusing is key to creating nice looking models. If you're unhappy with the texture blending, go into the Advanced Fuse Settings and change the texture blending distance with to a higher or lower number.

4. Experiment with different scan settings. For every new object it's a good idea to do a few test scans to determine the optimal settings (especially the light/dark control).

5. Make sure the object is positioned properly within the depth range of the scanner. Sometimes when users aren't getting very much data it's because the object is too close or far away so data is being cropped-off. Also, the fringes of the depth range are a little noisy compared to the center. Use a ruler to measure the distance between the scanner and the surface you're trying to capture.

6. Use the resources in the NextWiki, or contact support if you're having trouble. It is highly recommended that you go through the tutorial with the sample object (mini football).

- Todd

NextTodd · Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:16 am Post subject:

One other thing Id' like to add...

It's usually unnecessary to max out all the controls for precision and mesh density. This often just adds a bunch of data and memory overhead without all that much benefit, while increasing scan times.

It's a sort of like trying to go 100 mph in a car without shifting out of 1st gear, then wondering why your engine just exploded.

If you need to collect a lot of data, or are scanning a large object, use the triangle size (mesh density) slider to increase the triangle size and reduce memory consumption.

And because all the raw data is saved to disk at scan-time, you can always ReGen your scans to a higher or lower mesh density (In the latest release, ReGen is under the Fuse menu).

Hope this helps.

NextTodd · Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:31 am Post subject:

snewton · Newbie Joined: Jun 25, 2009 Posts: 18

Its a cool product from a company in connticut, I have one of these and is faster than next engine

NextTodd · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 3:29 pm Post subject: Re: Check out Escan 3d scanner

snewton · Newbie Joined: Jun 25, 2009 Posts: 18

there is no software that can do the importing the model into solidworks , with out enough work, but if you have premium package of solidworks i have had some success

snewton · Newbie Joined: Jun 25, 2009 Posts: 18

there is no software that can do the importing the model into solidworks , with out enough work, but if you have premium package of solidworks i have had some success

NextTodd · Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 8:03 am Post subject:

Check out RapidWorks

https://www.nextengine.com/indexSecure.htm?section=product&identifier=rapid

It's basically RapidForm XOR, but for $2,500 instead of $20,000. You can use it instead of Scan-To-3D (Part of Office Premium) to turn your scans into SolidWorks CAD models with full feature trees.

Snewton is correct that the process is not automatic - work is involved in translating design intent. Still the best thing for it.

snewton · Newbie Joined: Jun 25, 2009 Posts: 18

the product i am refereing to i called escan 3d and is made by 3d digital corp in ct , this is really good and these guys really do good customer support, that means you can really talk to a real person.

NextTodd · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:47 am Post subject:

eScan is an interesting product.

But why does is cost $4350 more than the NextEngine Scanner? The point density is lower, and the accuracy is about the same (0.005" for NextEngine, 0.006" for eScan). NextEngine captures 3 MP of color data with each scan, eScan does not publish their color specs. I also don't see any info on their site about scan times.

Letting the data speak for itself, compare the face scan on this page:
http://www.3ddigitalcorp.com/EScanGallery.htm

With the NextEngine face scan here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EblHQEdm-QM&fmt=18

Oh, and I just realized eScan does not come with a robotic positioner.

NextTodd · Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:51 am Post subject:

And if you're interested in NextEngine's support, just google "nextengine support"

http://www.google.com/search?q=nextengine+support

snewton · Newbie Joined: Jun 25, 2009 Posts: 18

all i have heard from and from my experience, nextengine is a good hobby tool and takes 2 mins for one scan and escan takes 7 secs to scan, also the accuracy for this scanner is questionable.

The reason they charge 4350 more is it does work in industrial enviornment and can be used for producing real parts, also the face scans from nextengine is impossible to get a person can never hold himself steady for 1 min still to take that scan.

As a consumer i am a true beliver in if it is too good to be true it always is , that is why they mass market the equipment.

NextTodd · Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:00 am Post subject:

Your implication that the NextEngine scanner is not suitable for an industrial environment seems a bit unfounded, to put it mildly.

To good to be true? I can see how you might think so. I can assure you, the face scan is not fake.

Take a look a what some "hobbyists" are doing with it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gke_lPFTZEk

NextTodd · Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:07 am Post subject:

Another story of interest...

Matt Tocheri, of the Smithsonian Institute, used his NextEngine 3D Scanner to provide evidence that recently discovered skeletal remains are indeed a new species, now known as the Real Hobbit.

Here's a picture of some of his analysis, based on the NextEngine scan results:
http://researchstories.asu.edu/files/images/hobbitwrist.jpg

And here is a quote from Dr Tocheri (found on a bulletin post):

"It's been awhile but good to hear from you again. Yes, I am laser scanning using a portable scanner right now. In Belgium currently, but off to France and the Netherlands in a couple weeks, then Indonesia for two months. Lots of folks in anthropology and related disciplines ask me this question and I'll give you the same advice that I have given them. I highly recommend you buy the NextEngine 3D scanner, with the Pro version software. the scanner costs about US $3000 and the HD Pro software around $1000. www.nextengine.com Without question, it is the best scanner out there for the money. and the software is straightforward enough that students pick it up quite quickly in my experience. Unless you have very specific research plans that require a different type of laser scanner (and much more expensive one), then you simply cannot go wrong with the NextEngine. I also recommend getting the 3-year warranty ($300) as NextEngine is very good at replacing the scanner if you run into any difficulties with your unit. they've even replaced my scanners while i have been in belgium. If you're setting up a lab, then i suggest you look into buying a two or more NextEngines (they have packages for universites so check the web site). I have two scanners right now and i will likely buy another within the next year or so. hope that helps. let me know if you have any additional questions. all the best, matt"

And a related article:
http://researchstories.asu.edu/2007/10/asu_prism_shines_new_light_on.html

snewton · Newbie Joined: Jun 25, 2009 Posts: 18

it looks like you are getting a little defensive and i thaught this site was for bloggers with unbiased opinion , it looks like you are a salesman for this company or you work there so if you like to advise step outside the box and look at what the real world problems are

i really believe its a good boat anchor or a hobby tool.

just a food for thaught :

you can fool one man once or all people once , but not all people all the time.

NextTodd · Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 3:30 am Post subject:

Here's the result of another scan I did with the NextEngine Scanner just this weekend:

http://www.nextengine.com/todd/dualaxis/gargoyle.mov

Yes, I work at NextEngine, as is clearly stated on my profile (click the profile button under any of my posts). Strange that the NE scanner bashing posts are all from anonymous posters or people who run this forum Wink

Anyways, my opinion doesn't matter. I'll let the scan data speak for itself.

snewton · Newbie Joined: Jun 25, 2009 Posts: 18

Now that i know that you work for Next engine, i respect your opinion its your product an you have to support it.

michaeldesigncompute · Newbie Joined: Aug 31, 2009 Posts: 1

Well, I don't work for NextEngine, but can corroborate his claims.

Any problems you are getting with surface reflectivity will be duplicated in most of the scanners that use active methods (i.e. laser, white light, etc.).

It's definitely not a "hobby scanner"...we use it frequently at our animation studio, and we can afford pretty much anything. We have a few other scanners here, and I've used everything from Cyra (now Leica) large field scanners to the small scanner I built myself. If you can't get decent models from the NextEngine, I'd be surprised if you could get them using *anything* (i.e. ease-of-use trumps rez in most cases).

If you're still having problems, feel free to drop me an email and maybe I can help. It *is* a little finicky with respect to model placement (assuming you are using the auto-scan/rotate strategy), but nothing you cant figure out in 10 minutes.

enginyr · Newbie Joined: Jun 25, 2006 Posts: 7

What scanners will scan a small part and import to solidworks

Silas-Models · Newbie Joined: Dec 04, 2009 Posts: 1

Hello Guys,

I know nothing about CAD, CAM, 3D, you name it, Industry. I never used a 3D scanner and even never saw one !

I need to scan small part from a 1:32nd scale model kit, then reduce the resulting files to scale 1:43rd and send them to prototyping machine.

I am very interested in buying a NextEngine.

My question is :

Is there a loss of resolution, or will I get the same level of details of the original parts ?

Below is a sample of parts I have to scan. the quarter is here to give you an idea of sizes :

Frédéric from Paris, France

halfpriceprototypes · Newbie Joined: Feb 18, 2010 Posts: 17

I have heard similar stories about the Next Engine. The RapidScan is comparable and a better buy. http://www.ems-usa.com/rapidscan.shtml

However, it will not give you the same quality data as a Vivid 9i. Just like a RepRap is not going to provide the same results as an SLA Ipro or Z Corp Z650 3D Printer.
http://www.ems-usa.com/zspec_650.shtml

The Rapid Scan IS GOOD FOR CERTAIN THINGS, but just like the Next Engine, it is not a silver bullet.

Sure you can draw a really nice car in MS Paint, but Photoshop would be easier and more efficient. Same goes for 3d scanning, you can buy a Next Engine, but a Z Scanner or Vivid 9i or comparable would be more powerful.

_________________
Andrew McEwen
Engineering Services Manager
Half Price Prototypes - A division of EMS, Inc.
andrew.mcewen@ems-usa.com

www.HalfPricePrototypes.com
www.EMS-USA.com