I have no idea of the costs involved – how expensive is it for scanning small individual parts? Are we talking hobby level costs or is it still a specialist field?
The part sizes are approx 200mmx200mmx 30mm and the other part is approx 150mm x 80mm x 20mm.
They are quite tricky to measure with quite a few curves/radius’s to them.
TIA

I’ve used laser scanning (on site so no idea of cost I’m afraid) for bringing parts into modelling quickly. I certainly wouldn’t use one for reverse engineering though, only as a formative guideline. A CAD jockey (like myself, so perhaps biased) would be able to do a better job of modelling it from scratch given the object and a pair of calipers, although not necessarily cheaper.

You could get it CMM’d which would probably be easier to find and cheaper. It depends how much detail you want/need. CMM measurement with a tidy up on a CAD would get you a drawing and/or CAM programme

It certainty can be done well, I did a whole semester module on it. Our task was to reverse engineer a VW bus model producing class A surfaces, no discontinuities or kinks in the surfaces.

We used a laser scanner to produce 6 meshes and then trimmed, aligned and rebuilt the surfaces. All the work was done in Autodesk Alias. The files was then thickened and exported as an STL.

However, if the item is less complicated than that example, modelling from scratch is likely to be faster.

I usually design industrial parts and machinery from scratch using Solidworks as a small part of my job so never really need to reverse engineer anything. I only have the usual basic engineering measuring tools – verniers, mic’s etc.

I’m looking to use my lunch times 😉 to draw up a few items for personal usage.

I think I need quite detailed measurements – and I know laser 3d scanning has been used previously for similar items (automotive trim/mouldings)

We have a 3D scanner at work. Resolution is largely a funtion of how many scan cycles you go through and meshes the surfaces together. It’s a relatively inexpensive machine in terms of metrology equipment, and the scanning process is automated for the most part.
There are limits in terms of surface finish (doesn’t like shiney surfaces), and depth of holes/pockets that it can scan into.

3D scan >> Solidworks >> Powermill = shiney new part 😀

What you won’t be able to replicate quite so easily will be the mechanical properties – has the original part gone through any sort of heat treatment ?

What you won’t be able to replicate quite so easily will be the mechanical properties – has the original part gone through any sort of heat treatment ?

the items are not structural – they are automotive interior/exterior trim parts.

Well, if it’s complex compound curves, use Alias Automotive, if it’s simpler shapes use Solid Works then!

Job jobbed

You can make a 3D scanner fairly easily. http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/how-to-build-a-3d-scanner-with-a-webcam-and-a-hand-held-laser-525466 I made one like this a few years ago. It worked surprisingly well. The model would useless to machine from but you could take it into CAD then use it as a reference to build a proper model.

I do reverse engineering quite a bit and it is usually easier just to start from scratch. You can get curves pretty good by eye or use selective measurement.

theres a few options based around the xbox kinetic type cameras, don’t think the rez would be upto much.

from the title:

3d laser scanning – reverse engineering

that’s basically my job description,

1) photo’s please.

2) what do they do? – they might not need scanning, maybe a cheaper looky-likey CAD model would do just as good as reverse engineering.

basically: try and avoid scanning-to-CAD if possible, there’s no point if you’re not prepared to do it properly*, it’s not easy, and it takes ages. which all adds up to £££.

*for a start, is the scanning device calibrated? – lots aren’t.

“oh yeah, we’ve got a FARO arm, we use it all the time”

“how often do you calibrate?”

“dowhatnow?”

Never used laser scanning outside of university, but now use CT quite a lot as we deal with generally small parts.

I’ve never used the output surfaces for a product – always imported into CAD as a reference and rebuilt from scratch.

Before we had the kit in house we used Zeiss as a bureau service.

For a rough idea of costs it was in the region of £300 per scan of ~150x53x53 product.

I have a Structure Sensor which sounds like it’s just a nicely packaged version of what nickjb linked to which clips onto an iPad.

Works very nicely, but once I import the models into SolidWorks as an STL I can’t seem to be able to manipulate them or change the origin etc, which is a little limiting. I’m sure I’m just doing it wrong though!

Cheers, Rich

Turboferret – if its anything like NX you won’t be able to move the facet body within the part file you have imported into.

What you can do (easier on simple parts) is define a datum scheme by applying datum planes to planar surfaces e.g by points.

Then within an assembly, you can reposition the scanned part file by constraining the datums.

Alais has Mesh Auto Align and Deviation maps, which can also help you.

[Just putting it out there in the name of balance]

Oggles, thanks, that makes sense and I’ll give it a go.

Cheers, Rich

Thanks for the info!
I think commercial 3d scanning is a little out of my league price wise although the David DIY scaning looks interesting.