Lannix Design has recently purchased a 3D scanner which we hope will become a useful tool to complement our existing CAD and 3D printing services. 

We’ve been working out how to best optimize lighting conditions when scanning to obtain accurate results. So far it seems that dark and featureless surfaces are not ideal! Using brightly coloured masking tape to highlight features seems to help. The marker stickers supplied with the scanner are also very useful.

Post-processing has also proven to be a challenge. The resulting output file from the scanner contains thousands of points of information (a point cloud) and is too much for parametric CAD software to handle without modification. Reducing the file size using Blender software has worked well and has kept all the important detail required for creating custom parts.

Stay tuned for future updates on using the 3D scanner to aid in creating automotive parts.