Anna's SolidMuse

3D Scanner Project, Part 3

Yesterday, I spent a bit of time setting up my 3D scanner for some bench testing.  Actually, the workbench was our kitchen table.

I wanted to get everything hooked up to make sure all the hardware and software worked.  Also wanted to get an idea of what issues I may have with the physical set-up to help with designing my 3D scanning studio.

I made a quick trip to Best Buy in the morning to get a couple USB to Micro-USB cables for the cameras.  I also purchased a couple of those mini tripods with the flexible legs.

The picture above was taken this morning before I broke down my set-up.  The scanning studio will not be built in such a bright work area.  To much light for the scanner to work properly.  I did my scan tests late last night when it was dark out.

From what I am gathering from my reading about other people experiences and my own tests, the background and the work piece holders/fixturing should be black.  If they are black, when you are scanning they will not be picked up by the cameras and there will be less work deleting the extraneous data from your meshes.

The extra data also takes up system memory.  It looks like I will need to be careful to release memory from the system frequently with my x32 bit laptop.  It is a Lenovo T61p with 4 gigs of RAM.  Sequentially processing several meshes gave me out of memory errors.  I can see myself purchasing a new x64 bit laptop later this year.  This will eliminate any memory issues with scanning a large mesh.

I have plenty of room in my office at home to set up a nice scan studio.  Actually it will be a very good excuse to get rid of all the junk I have collected in my office.  I have to much old computer hardware and old books in my office, this will give me the motivation to eBay this stuff.

I will also need to work on acquiring some workholders and fixtures.  I can see building a nice workbench out of ATA Approved Shipping Case materialsthat can also be rolled/transported offsite.  With some drawers, etc, inside for storing the equipment when not in use.

I am thinking about going over to the RAPID 2010 Exposition and 3D IMAGING Conference in Anaheim, May 18-20th.  A quick day trip to see the exhibitors will probably give me some great ideas for my project.

Cheers,

Anna 

3D Scanner Project, Part 2

Today the cameras and lenses arrived for my 3D Scanner project.  The digital projector has been here for about a week.  The cameras and lenses are really small.  It seemed like they would be a bit bigger when I looked at them online.  The wonders of today's micro-electronics.

For details on what I have purchased for this project, see Part 1 of my 3D Scanner Series.

Machine Vision Cameras and Lenses
Digital Projector

Next step for the project is to get the mounting hardware designed.  I will most likely use a tripod with a custom mounting bar.  I will have the mounting bar fabricated at Auer.

With SolidWorks World 2010 coming up next week, I will need to put the project on hold until I return.

Cheers,

Anna

3D Scanner Project, Part 1

For a while now I have wanted to get a 3D scanner.  We always seem to have a project around the shop where we are reverse engineering a part.  Being able to scan the part, then model would be handy.  Len has recently done several cowling modifications and manufactured a new carbon fiber cowling for the aerobatic race planes that are in our shop over the winter months.  He uses good old fashion model maker techniques when building his molds.  This is pretty typical of the types of projects we are working on.  It would be very nice to be able to add scanned data to our toolbox.

Cowling Mold

Lower Cowling

Zivko Edge 540, New Cowling

Zivko Edge 540, New Cowling Test Flight

A handheld scanner like those made by Creaform and Breuckmann are out of my price range.  The NextEngine scanner is in my price range but does not have the accuracy or the scanning envelope I would like to have.

I have looked at the David Scanner and while very cost effective it just wasn't quite what I was looking for.

Over the holidays I spent some time surfing the internet to see if there where any new 3D scanning solutions that would do what I would like for a reasonable price.  My price target is in the $5K range.

What I found are 3D scanners using structured light scanning techniques.  The interesting thing about these scanners is they are pretty accurate and that you can build your own version of the scanner for a reasonable price.

The software to run the scanner and control the data acquisition is pretty reasonable to purchase and appears to be easy to use.  A laptop computer, a presentation projector and a couple USB machine vision cameras are what you need for hardware.

This was it, I had finally found a system that I could afford.

Over the last few days I have purchased the software and hardware for my system.  It will take a bit for the hardware to arrive.  In a couple weeks I hope to have the scanner up and running, working on some test parts as I learn to use the scanner.

What did I purchase.

For software, what I will be using is purchased from 3D3 Solutions and consists of the data acquisition software called FlexScan3D along with Leios 2009 for processing the mesh data.

I will be hooking it up a BenQ MP522ST 1024 x 768 presentation projector purchased from Newegg.  For cameras I will be using uEye UI-1485LE-M, 5 mega pixel, USB machine vision cameras.  The lenses will be Fujinon HF12.5HA-1B Fixed Focal Length Lenses.  The cameras and lenses are purchased from 1st Vision Inc.

The FlexScan3D software will be install on my Lenovo T61p laptop.  For working with the mesh data I will install the Leios 2009 package on my Core i7 workstation.

I am really looking forward to getting the scanner running and learning new techniques for handling scanned mesh datasets.

Stayed tuned in the coming weeks with more posts on my 3D scanner project.

Cheers,

Anna

From SolidWorks World To The Cactus Classic

When I decided to attend SolidWorks World in early December I knew I was setting myself up for one very busy week. SolidWorks World was going to be an incredible 6 days of learning, networking and a generally really good time. I was flying to New Orleans on Saturday and flying home to Phoenix on Thursday. I would have Friday to catch up on all the assignments I missed at work while I was gone. Then on Saturday and Sunday I would be score keeping at the Cactus Classic, at the Sun Valley Fliers R/C Model Field up in North Phoenix.

The Cactus Classic is the first major event of the 2007 International Miniature Aerobatic Club contest season in the south west region. It is a well run contest and is always very well attended. This year was no exception with 57 pilots competing on Saturday and Sunday.

The days started early and ended well after dark all through the entire week, both in New Orleans and at the Cactus Classic. I ended up with a bit of a cold that I was able to hold off the really bad symptoms until I got home Sunday from the Cactus Classic. I am finally recovering from the cold and now feel well enough to start gathering up my thoughts on this year's SolidWorks World.

I thought a few of you would enjoy seeing some pictures of the models our pilots fly.  The aircraft are scale models of airplanes that compete in full scale International Aerobatic Club competition.

Many of the airplanes are in the 30% to 40% scale range, utilizing 100cc to 150cc, 2 cylinder, horizontally opposed, 2 stroke gas engines. Electric power plants have also been making a mark in scale aerobatics in the past few years. The high energy density of the new lithium polymer/lithium ion batteries developed for the cell phone and computer industries have migrated to the r/c flying community.

The airframes range from the more traditional wood construction to high tech, painted in the mold, composite designs.  The high powered engines and light airframes afford the pilot an insane amount of thrust, in the 2 to 1 power to weight ratio range.  This allows the pilots to perform many high alpha, low airspeed maneuvers.  A thrust to weight ratio that the full scale pilots can only dream about.

Over the coming week I will be writing on my thoughts and observations of SolidWorks World 2007.

Stay Tuned.... :-)

3D Systems V-Flash Desktop Modeler Rapid Prototype Machine

I was reading over on the 3D Cad News blog about 3D Systems new V-Flash™ Desktop Modeler.  The system is a rapid prototype machine designed for the home, educational and office desktop environments.  3D Systems will offer the machine for $9900 and it is expected to be available in the summer of 2007.

Wow, what a neat machine, combine this with Tormach LLC's Personal CNC 1100 and the NextEngine Desktop 3D Scanner and you could create some pretty cool products out in the home workshop.

3D Systems and NextEngine will be at SolidWorks World.  I am planning to stop by their booths in the Partner Pavilion to see their products.

The affordable tools that are available for the hobbyist is simply amazing.  Hmmm.... I may need to make some room in the workshop and the pocketbook for these cool tools. 

CNC Router

A few years ago my fiancé, Len Rulason and myself built a CNC Router so we could learn a bit about CNC programming and to make parts for our full scale and model aviation hobbies.  Unfortunately we got busy with other projects and have not had a real chance to do much with the machine the last couple of years.

Well it looks like Len will not be a road warrior this year and will have time to work on some projects with the router.  He spent time out in the shop (the garage, isn't everybody's garage a workshop...) today and cleaned up the machine and fired up the router to see if it still runs.  What do you know, it still works.

The router uses a Windows PC based CNC Control Software package called Mach 2 by ArtSoft.  I think we will be upgrading to a new version of the software, Mach 3.  The stepper motors are driven with Gecko G210 Step Motor Drives and we use a Campbell Designs Breakout Board as the interface between the PC and the Gecko Drives.

We have a few more pictures of the router posted on our personal website www.acrodesigns.com.

There are an amazing number of hobbyist's that you can find on the internet that have built their own CNC controlled bridgeports, mills, routers, laser/plasma cutters, etc.  You can find a number of them that use the ArtSoft software on the Mach CNC Control support group at groups.yahoo.com/group/mach1mach2cnc.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays, hopefully all of you are enjoying the season with friends and family. In our household, the holidays usually revolve around aviation. Many of our friends are full scale and radio control airplane pilots and when we all get together it is not to long before the planes and helicopters are out for some backyard flying sessions.

This year I have a new RC helicopter from Santa. It is an E-Flite Blade CX2 micro helicopter.  The kit comes with everything you need to get flying right away.  All you need to do is charge the batteries and go. The improvements in electric battery technology has totally changed the landscape in the radio control hobby industries. Along with the recent introduction of 2.4 Ghz radio technology, it is even easier for a novice to get started in radio control.

About 15 minutes after unwrapping the helicopter I was out in the backyard giving it a test flight.  The helicopter is pretty easy to fly and is durable enough to survive my learning curve to become proficient at flying RC.  Santa did good... :-)

Best wishes to everyone for a safe, happy and healthy New Year.