Artec 3D scanner Instructions for Medium Handheld (MH) Scanner Scanning Conditions: Objects/surfaces that don t scan well: Black or shiny objects and objects with sharp edges or points, hair, glass, transparent materials, chrome or anything reflective. To scan hair using chalk powder in the hair or a swimming cap. If there are problems seeing the object then turn lights off or down. Water to scan water add chalk powder. Artec supply their chalk powder for this. Glass coloured glass may pick up on scan Open the software before turning the scanner on. If there are any problems connecting the scanner, blow into the USB cable and re- attach. Editing Software Layout: NB: scanner will install its own drives when it s USB is plugged into any new laptop. Right hand side of screen: save files and create folders for scan projects here. Top right of screen tabs: these tabs will relocate lost windows. Left Click: hold down and move mouse to rotate screen Right Click: hold down and roll mouse toggle to zoom in or out. MAKING A SCAN: Training manual is located in Help File as PDF SET UP Ideally there needs to be space to walk around the object you are scanning so that it can be scanned in one go. ON It will flash and the fan will go on. SCAN leave all at default. (If any adjustments are needed, see below) Scanning speed take speed down 1cm. Big surfaces need fewer frames so then take speed down. Scanning time should be no longer than 2.5 3 minutes. Do not scan for longer as there will be too much data and the bulb will over heat. Scan about 1m away from object. Watch the screen rather than the object when making a scan.
A histogram image will appear displaying the data being scanned. The numbers represent the Number of frames per scan. The central part of the graph between 600 800 is the best peak area to scan, any higher and the data takes much longer to process. It is better to use 2 smaller scans than 1 large scan. Allow for overlapping data (of area of the object scanned) so that the scans can be joined. Green scanned part Grey data taken in OTHER OPTIONAL ADJUSTMENTS: DEPTH OF FIELD: Make adjustments to include or exclude objects in the background. OBJECT BRIGHTNESS: Default is 50. Adjust according to object. FRAMES PER SECOND: appears when on preview. No need to adjust this When RECORD is set, Grey is data captured, Green is new data. START SCAN Press trigger ONCE to start scan + ONCE to stop scan. STOP SCAN Press stop on software (computer) too. Saves scan as a layer. (right hand column). Each separate scan will appear in this column. It is possible to delete unwanted scans here. Check the scan for any interrupted data by quickly flicking through each frame to ensure none have jumped off the screen area, if they have then this is where the scan captured inaccurate data and these particular frames can be deleted. NEXT SCAN: Turn over object and repeat scan process for the other side. (NB. If the object was properly set up and you have achieved a successful scan then it is possible that you may not need to repeat the scan process as you will have the correct scan information.) When scanning if the scanner is moved too far away from the object it will make a noise. This noise can be muted on the laptop. The information scanned at this point when the noise sounds will need to be deleted as well as it is incorrect data. To do this you must go through the frames and delete them as stated above. To delete right click.
SCAN PROCESSING TOOLS: The Artec scanner software has its own processing tools loaded into it. The laptop also has Geomagics installed on it, which is another software used to process the scan data. ARTEC SCAN PROCESSING TOOLS: (if adjusting other scans they can be imported to adjust in the software. Use Import PIN: Drop pin on scan to create a new centre of rotation if required. ROUGH: Never use this. FINE: serial registration. Removes junk. FUSION REGISTRATION: For each scan ALIGN: This puts two scans together. The instructions are in the text that appears on the screen when this command is operated. Left click here moves two scans Shift rotates just the green Ctrl Allows a double click on same areas on both scans (although this accuracy is within 5-10mm). Actions should be: click, click, repeat. Enter Puts two scans together. Finally you must APPLY SAVE always save throughout processing. MOVE, ROTATE, SCALE: Align a selected point in the scan to sorrespond to a c plane for importing into Rhino. SCALE: It is 1:1 when scanned FUSION: Set the resolution to 0.5 2 mm. Fusion will clean up the spikes etc. Once this is used the scan becomes an Stl. (file format supported in rapid prototyping and computer- aided manufacturing) POST PROCESSING / SMALL OBJECTS FILTER: choose LEAVE BIGGEST OBJECT POST PROCESSING: All these will just adjust the mesh, which may not be what is wanted. If this is the case, leave this for now. EDITOR The tabs that appear on the top of the screen. ERASER: Ctrl. / Left Click + Erase Reject to Undo SMOOTHING BRUSH: Single Left Click Ctrl. / Left Click + Smooth (The bigger the ball the more aggressive the smoothing)
EDGES: This assesses holes on the edge of the mesh and shows length. The edges can be individually clicked. Or, click directly on the table. APPLY TOOLS SMOOTH To smooth the edges of filled holes. REPAIR: Will analyse the mesh to find problems to clean. SAVE EXPORT: File - Export Mesh. As Stl or Obj. (or what file extension required) Mesh Simplification: To reduce the mesh size to allow the file to be used in Rhino or another CAD drawing program: SAVING Accuracy 1cm (error) keep boundary, triangle 1000 Remesh 2mm triangle size, edge length Triangle quality reduce Can convert to point cloud (CONVERT TO POINT CLOUD) As the scan is a mesh this is better for Maya or Studio Max. If using on Rhino it is better to have NURBS for Rhino. Cinema 4D (version II) on Computer 2 in the EMS Suite of Slade will accept any point cloud as stl. (Standard format for point clouds) All the file options are mesh not surfaces Export file, save as, stl. Or obj. If it is not possible to save as an stl, the file types: Asc / Iges / obj should also be just as good as an stl. 3D Max: when taking the scan into animation software such as 3D Max, use stl. Or obj. file types. View Shape : this is a downloadable software that is available for Mac, PC and iphone, used for simple editing and viewing. Saving file for printing colour in Rapid Prototyping: VRML file type. FURTHER INFO: POINT CLOUD This is the form of the data that the 3D scan produces. It is a set of vertices in a three- dimensional coordinate system. These vertices are usually defined by X, Y, and Z coordinates, and typically are intended to be representative of the external surface of an object. They appear as dots and spheres and are made of a polygon mesh. The scanner measures the points on the surface of an object and will output a point cloud as a data file. As the result
of a 3D scanning process point clouds are used for many purposes, such as creating 3D CAD models for manufactured parts and a multitude of visualization, animation, rendering applications. Usually point clouds themselves are generally not directly usable in most 3D applications, and therefore are usually converted to polygon or triangle mesh models, NURBS surface models, or CAD models. If the point cloud is taken directly into Rhino, the vector, nominal points and positions will appear. Essentially, millions of points that can be used to create lines through them joining them up. SCREEN SHOT: Alt/print/screen This creates a screen shot of the scan as a jpg file. NUMERICALS INVERSION: Prints the reverse of the scan as the actual surface. ANIMATION Save individual layers for using in animation software. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - GEOMAGICS SCAN PROCESSING TOOLS: OPEN GEOMAGICS after making the scan IMPORT CHOOSE FILE MESH DOCTOR YES, use this automatic tool and APPLY, OK Hold down middle mouse button to rotate. If accidentally select the wrong area press CTRL C to undo The blue layer is the area you are working on, the grey area is the unselected area. (you can right click her to hide this grey area) RIGHT TOOLS Paint brush select edges and delete. Don t worry about any noise as the mesh doctor can fix this. Go around the model and check any problems. TOOLS SELECT VISIBLE SELECT THROUGH SELECT BACKFACE MODE Allow to select specific areas only when paint brushing.
Can use O tools etc to select. MESH DOCTOR Re use every so often to remove the noise. ALIGNMENT Select layers that you want and CTRL select MANUAL REGISTRATION N POINT REGISTRATION (3points) FIXED Part 1 FLOATING Part 2 Select points on each part for recognition OK or NEXT Use next layer Turn underside around to make this less confusing. Go back to mesh doctor to clean up anything. MERGE Select all. In the COMBINE WINDOW, MERGE SAVE THE WORK AT THIS POINT FILL HOLES FILL SINGLE hole fill - this fills all holes in the model Bridge - builds a bridge from one point end to another end. CLICK FIT SINGLE To turn off FILL ALL Deselect Largest 1 SHARPENING WIZARD To change rounded surfaces SAVE