3D Scan Using Minolta & GeoMagic

 

I. Turn on Minolta


  1.   Remove lens cover and laser cover1 

  2.   Place black poster behind platform2

  3.   Flip switch on minolta to turn on

  4.   Wait some time to initialize

  5.   when Prompted "Please open Laser Barrier" Hit any key3  

  6.   Open GeoMagic software

  7.   Navigate to Plugins → Konica Minolta 901 Plugin v9.0

  8.   when Prompted  "Do you want to calibrate the turntable axis"
       Select No

  9.   Check minolta is displaying “Remote”4


    1 medium lens is best

    2 minolta does not capture black very well 

    3 already did with first step

    4 if not, reboot computer


lens

laser

black

poster

Remote

II. Calibrate Minolta


  1.   ClickShow Live Image Window” in the left side Scan panel

  2.   ClickEnable Streaming Video” to see if capturing

  3.   Place chart on the platform (nicely centered)

  4.   UncheckEnable Streaming Video

  5.   Click “Update Color Image”

  6.   Wait, then Click “Update Range and Color Image”

  7.   Check image to see the chart is colored within spectrum.

  8.   Click Calibrate Axis under Turntable panel


  1.   when Prompted "Please set the chart on the turntable" Click ok

  2.   Check to see a TurnTable Axis in your 3d environment

III. Test Scan of Piece


  1.   Remove chart and Place piece on the platform

  2.   Back in the “Show Live Image Window”, Click Enable Streaming Video

  3.   Click “Update Color Image” and Click “Update Range and Color Image”

  4.   Check image colored within spectrum, Aim for middle depth to be yellow

  5.   If images look like example 1 or example 2, then autofocus didn’t do a
        good job, so now need to manually set the focus

  6. Uncheck autofocus, change the “Distance” up or down incrementally
       (by 10’s) then Click “Update Range and Color Image”

  7.   Repeat until piece is colored nicely within spectrum like example 3









    Example 1 (Bad)                                Example 2 (Better but Bad)                         Example 3 (Good)

  8.   ClickScan” button for a test scan

  9.   Check that scanned image looks good, okay if there is outer noise

IV. 360 Scan of Piece


  1.   Under the Turntable panel

  2.   Current position should be 0.0

  3.   Set “Rotation Step” to 45 degrees

  4.   Set MultiShot for “Scan Mode”


  1.   Click Next, the platform will rotate 45 degrees and take another scan

  2.   Repeat until “Current Position” does a full 360

  3.   once completed, Click Ok button at the very bottom

  4.   the left panel should display a list of scans and a solid piece (w/ noise + holes) 











  1. Navigate to File → Save As a “Wrap File .wrp”

V. Cleaning Scan


  1.   Click and Drag to highlight a noisy region then hit delete key

  2.   Repeat until no visible noise

  3.   make sure to rotate around using middle button of mouse

  4.   to deselect a highlighted area, right click and select clear all

  5.   Select all scans on left panel by holding down shift

  6.   Navigate to Points → Reduce Noise, Click Apply and Ok

  7.   Select all scans, Navigate to Points → Merge, Click ok

  8.   Select the merged file at the bottom of scan list

  9.   Navigate to Polygon →  Clean

  10.   If desired, you can reduce the noise again on the merged and cleaned file









               

                              before  cleaning                               after cleaning


  1.   SAVE



VI. Filling in Holes

From the front view, the piece can seem deceivingly whole,
but once you rotate, you will notice holes everywhere.


  1.   Navigate  to Polygon → Fill Holes

  2. Under Fill Method, select the second “Partial Fills” option

    (
    Note: the first all “Fill” option is a little dangerous in that if there are complex and large areas it can stall the computer forever or make some areas really flat and not nicely curve)

  3.   Define the desired boundary by clicking on the outline your first, second, and third points for the boundary  







                      
    before fill hole                          after fill hole

  4.   Click Ok at the bottom to save this filled hole

  5.   Repeat filling holes until all are sealed

  6.   Under “View Point,” Step Through Holes can auto direct
    you to holes

VII. Filling in Holes - Advanced (Smooth Boundaries)

VIII. Filling in Holes - Advanced (Close w/ Planes)

  1.   Navigate to Boundaries → Relax

  2.   Select boundary to relax

  3.   Increase (or decrease) the iteration to make the white boundary become smoother

  4.   Click execute and Click ok









                                before                                                      after


  1.   Navigate to Polygons → Section by Plane

  2.   Change “System Plane” to “Line”

  3.   Select the line tool

  4.   Select and Drag a straight line over desired region












  5.   Rotate the piece and Move the “Position” until at a good intersection










  6.   Click Intersect plane, Click Delete section, Click Close intersection, Click Ok



IX. Saving out .STL

  1.   Right click on the Merge file

  2.   Click save
    (Note: if it complains about the model not being water tight then you need to re-look at holes)

  3.   Save as type STL binary File .stl


  1.   To reduce file size, Navigate to Polygon-→ Decimate

  2.   Set "Reduce to Percentage" to 50%

  3.   Click apply if no important features are lost

X. De-waxing

After your piece is printed out, it will need to be de-waxed by being heated in a small oven

  1.   Set the oven’s mode to Bake

  2.   Set the temperature to 150

  3.   Hit Start

  4.   Wait until all the wax melts off (~40minutes)