Hi
I’m looking into 3d scanners. Had the Matter and Form and I had to give it back. Not made for purpose.
Then I’ve Got the Rexcan DS2. Brilliant machine but very expensive
I’m scanning small things like stones and rings but also some figures small in size.
Any recommendations? I prefer structured light to Laser.
If someone have any experience on the Nextengine scanner I would like to hear from you. I may go for that one but not sure if will do a good job.
Cheers!
.
I have had an nextengine for about a year now and am happy with it. For things like coins they don’t have enough resolution but from an inch up to car size you can get good scans if you pay attention to the details of how it works. You also need a computer with lots of ram and fast cpu. All in all I think it is a good tool to have in pipe line
I bought aNextEngine UltraHD in Oct '14, and even with the older software (the new UltraRes software is not quite baked yet, ready by April), it’s accurate to a couple thousands of an inch - it is amazing. Get one.
It’s not even on their site yet, contact “Dan Gustafson dan_g@nextengine.com”, tell him I sent you, and get the UltraHD. If your stuff is small, get the MultiDrive too. It’s a must, as is completely automates the process. You will not be disappointed.
-C
I’ve also got a NextEngine in my office. It’s pretty darn slick. We have not had enough projects to really get a good feel for it in my opinion, but we’re still plugging away at it.
I currently have our first serious project making use of it. A couple folks are scanning some Greecian shards to reproduce a cup (which i’ll help by printing parts on the Form1+). They are doing the scanning here, and taking the resulting files with them to work in Rhino and clean up. Getting good scans was a little infuriating at first since the software was not the most user-friendly. The text and wiki available was nice, but still kind of vague at times. If you look around for academic groups who provide how-to’s, you’ll see people have trouble with aligning scans to get a good object. It works in the software, it can just be non-intuitive the first time round.
Also, yes, you need some solid power behind the computer that does the scans. I have a quad core 3.39 ghz machine with 16gigs of RAM, but still need more power to run efficiently. It’s doable, but is slow and occasionally crashes the application.
overall, very pleased. just needs time and dedication to learn the tool. Much like anything else really.
Thank guys! I have sent an email to Dan from Nextengine but he didn’t contacted me yet.
I’ll wait until he does.
Best Regards
Yeah, manually aligning scans is very cheesy in their software, I agree. The zoom and rotate are a bit crazy too. But I never have to use that now. I have the multidrive unit that attaches to it. Watch it here:
[caution - link autostarts a looping video with sound]
http://www.nextengine.com/products/multidrive/demo
It’s another $1,000USD, but the scanner without it is only half the solution.
-C
Another vote for Nextengine HD. It’s a perfect match for Form1+
There’s a learning curve, but if you position the object at the sweet spot, and do multiple scans of sections, the resolution is beyond impressive. As is the polygon count. Last weekend I ran scan group that turned out to be 44 million triangles. (I’m still trying to find the optimal simplification, balancing detail with practicality.)
Overkill for sure, but I’m interested in pushing things till they break, then backing off.
Their support is also superb. Patient and collaborative.
Not at all surprised you gave back the matter and form, I got one too, very disappointing, I suppose I was expecting way too much from it.
Yes it was bad. In the end I had to sell it on Ebay. To expensive to post it to Canada. And they want it me to pay re- stocking charges.
NEVER AGAIN!
I thought I would have to have a 3D scanner ASAP especially given my propensity for 2D scanners. But I am finding that since I am the creator of the things I print. No real need for a scanner right now. They are for the most part expensive, crude and a big learning curve. I will wait until it all shakes out a little more, and gets better quality for cheaper.
I just sold my almost unused CubePro yesterday as a bad purchase decision, and a significant hit on the resale price. I can’t continue to make expensive wrong buys.
BIll
Ouch Bill, with the advent of kickstarter etc I’ve found myself investing in several products that have ended up in the a drawer or cupboard, these are fun and exciting times for what we do but equally fraught with over hyped products.
What about the EinScan-S? I’ve been looking closely at that one. Scan results in a STL file ready for printing… so they say. $900. It can be used with the turntable it comes with or put on a tripod, theirs. It’s limited to a 30x30x30 inch size scan area.
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