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NextEngine 3D Scanner (Cadalyst Labs Review)
1 May, 2008 By: IDSA ,Mike HudspethReverse-engineering tool is affordable, versatile, and easy to use.
There are many times when you have a part in front of you that you need to either incorporate into a design or design something around. There are no drawings for the part. You just have one in your hand. What do you do? You can model the part by measuring it all around, but you stand to introduce error. (Be honest, it will almost always happen.) But one way you can capture that part is to do a 3D scan. Costs too much, you say? Not anymore. The tools are getting more affordable, and with the NextEngine 3D scanner they just might be in your budget range.
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The NextEngine 3D scanner uses a laser to capture the surface details of your model (figure 1). It can do a complete 360° scan. It comes with a turntable that rotates your object and a gripper that holds it steady. Setup is very simple; you just pull everything out of the box and plug it in. You have to load the software before you hook the scanner to your computer. There is an amazing scarcity of initial instruction — just a graphic pasted on the inside of the box top. I guess NextEngine assumes it's so falling-off-a-log simple you can't help but figure it out. One thing of special note: You must have a high-speed USB 2.0 port. The older ones won't connect to the scanner. In addition, NextEngine says you need 2 GB of RAM.
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Brass Tacks
There are a lot of settings you can monkey with to get just the right scan for what you want. The Bracket scan does three scans (36° each). The Single scan does not turn your object but merely scans what it sees. The Macro setting has a higher accuracy (±.005), but it only scans an area as large as 5" x 4". The Wide setting has a lower resolution (±.016) but will scan an area as large as 13" x 10". Each standard scan takes roughly a minute and a half. The quick scan will take 30 seconds. The finest scan will take two and a half minutes. As far as surface finish is concerned, a flat white finish gives the best results. If you have an object to scan that has too many shiny spots, a powder pen comes with the unit. It will take some of the shine off those problem areas in your scan.
When you have your object secured and ready to scan, the scanner will take a 2D photo and save it to a JPEG file. That's so the final result will really look like the object. Next, multiple stripes of lasers begin to scan: two, three, or all four depending on your settings. You can set the turntable to rotate the object for each scan.
 NextEngine 3D Scanner |
The scanner will capture 60,000 points per second. That's a lot of data! It's what it does next that is really interesting.
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