3D Scanning and Printing
This week I attempted to design a 3D object and print it. I
also played with a working 3D scanner, and investigated some other
scanning techniques.
Simple 3D Object
Initially, I was trying to think of a cool 3D object that
could only be printed. As time went on, I also
thought about a simple 3D object that I could design in the 4 hours
before the batch needed to be sent to the printer (given my poor cad
skills).
In inventor, I designed a "Magic 8-Ball" -- essentially a
cube inside of a sphere that could answer all of the profound questions
of the universe.
I had some troubles with fillets on the corner of the cube
in the 8-Ball. Hopefully I didn't do anything too wrong --
as I thought what I was trying to do was simple, but the error messages
seemed to suggest that what I was trying to do was too complex.
Here is an image of the rendered object:
Hopefully what comes out of the printer will be the same!
Scanning
The previous owners tore holes in the kitchen ceiling to create a drop
ceiling. I've been wondering if it is possible to create
patches for
it via 3D scanning (or possibly mold making).
ceiling
Again, thinking simple, I wanted to scan a piece of metal
celing rom our kitchen. Using the Z-Corp
scanner, I ended up with the following result:
Other Scanning Investigations:
Kinect:
Microcenter has refurbished Kinects for
$80. Unfortunately, they also require a $30 power
supply/adapter cable to work. While I could get basic
functionality running under Linux, when I tried to compile various
libraries/tool-chains they failed under 64 bit Linux.
I just made a quick investigation, and didn't get a chance to dig
deeper into the problems.
I installed openkinect and
ran the following to test functionality:
David:
I also purchased a web cam to try to use with David under VMWare
running Windows 7. This would allow a 3D object to be
scanned with a web cam and a laser line generator. The package
installs and runs, finds a camera, but won't
calibrate. I haven't confirmed if it is the camera,
software, or emulation. The camera is a Gear-head WC4750AFB
(identified as a JSB PC Camera B67B9AA62) if anyone has any
ideas. It may not like that the camera has a higher
resolution than 640x480.
Update: The software seems a little
picky. The scene did show up, but really
small. It calibrated once, and seemed to start to scan, but
it was hard to tell if it was the object. In trying
to save the results, I lost the scan and then it wouldn't
recalibrate. Will need to try some more another
time. The camera was set to capture at 640x480 mode.
