I build a lot of metal hand railings, etc, and I am planning to buy a 3d scanner soon, with the idea of replacing the process of taking complex measurements at a job site.
I imagine going to the home and 3d scanning the stairs, lofts, and balconies. Then clean up the file in the scanner software, import into Shapr3d to at least pull measurements from. In order to do this, will I even be able to select points, like the toe of the step?
As long as there is a way to create an accurate scale of the scan, and select points, I could then design the handrails on top of the scanned steps. At that point I could create my blueprints for fabrication and also show the customer their new rails on their staircase so that they can see what they will be getting and approve or request changes.
I have many other use cases for this type of process, the stairs scenario is just the most common example.
Is any of this possible with Shapr3d?
Will I need to utilize other softwares to make this all happen?
I would be using the Revopoint scanners and their Revopoint studio software to edit the mesh before importing.
Any help or direction to learning materials will be greatly appreciated. I am trying to create the work flow to utilize 3d scanning into my design work. And hopefully in order to become more efficient rather than less.
Thank you
At the moment you can import scanned mesh files into Shapr3D to use as a visual reference but you can’t model based off them directly or perform measurements on them. Improving this is on our radar but we don’t have a specific timeline of when we’ll get there.
Would it be possible to use another software to convert the mesh to a solid, and then import? If so which file types so I’ll work best for this?
It is possible, but as Peter said the scans will most likely be in an stl format, so you won’t be able to really interact with the files. After scanning the object and meshing the point cloud (scan data), you will need to move/rotate the stl to be aligned with the origin in shaper. After aligning the scan to the CAD origin, you can create sketches and extrude objects to mimic your scans. With straight surfaces its fairly easy to push and pull your object surfaces to match the scan data. Once you have “reverse engineered” the area or space then you can start designing the railing off of those surfaces.
I’ve used a few different Revopoint scanners and currently use the Einstar. The biggest hurdle that i see with your plan is the ability to scan full stairs/rooms. The scanning window of a lot of the Revopoint scanners is fairly small and could be difficult to scan a very large area. With the flat surfaces and repetitive nature of the stairs the scanner could have trouble tracking while scanning. The new Miraco might be better at this than their past scanners. I think the Einstar would have simillar issues.
More expensive scanners can capture larger areas at once which will allow it to track better while scanning. They also come with better processing programs that can help find features (holes, surfaces, etc), which can aide in the reverse engineering process (creating a solid model from scanned data).
In short it will be possible but it might not be as straight forward as you hoped. Between taking some measurements on site and scanning the rise and run of the steps you should be able to great a model of the space and then start designing the railing.
Let me know if you have more questions. I’d be happy to discuss it further with you.
Thank you!
I was looking at the Miraco and the range. I figured tracking could be an issue but I could probably handle that with a few wadded up sheets of paper or random objects that I would remove from the scan later.
I worry that extruding bodies up next to the mesh could introduce some room for error in my drawing, as the drawings will be used to make the blueprint for fabrication of the handrails. I wonder if I could use another software to convert the mesh to a solid, and if I would then be able to manipulate it in shapr3d. And if so which formats would work best?
I currently take all my measurements by hand and then draw them from scratch on shapr3d. And that works fine. I’ve just always been fascinated by 3d scanners and hoped it could make the process more efficient. And make some more complex situations, like curved stairs, easier to measure.
If I could just create a construction plane precisely on the face of a few steps to work from, I believe it could work pretty well.