23 April 2018
Our customers sometimes need to capture parts with no texture and repetitive geometry, for example, gears and turbines. This article will provide some tips and tricks, allowing to 3D-scan such objects in the most efficient way.
Use the right background
- Put the object on a surface with rich texture, for example, a sheet of paper with text, either printed or written on it.
- Keep this background within the scanner field of view, it will be utilized both while tracking and while global registration. Overall, it will improve the accuracy of the scan
- Additionally, check, that the background itself isn’t too bright, so the text on it is clearly visible. If it’s not quite right, adjust the texture brightness in Scan settings a little bit.
Add texture on the object
If the object is too large to fit a textured background in the field of view, another option is to add texture right on the object. As the result, the scanner will distinguish between colours to identify the edges of the scanned part.
- The easiest way is to mark the object with a few numbers, letters or crosses. The main advantage, in this case, is that this method is applicable to objects of any size, even several meters long - just make sure there is unique texture in each frame.
- Extra tip: you can use erasable pen or marker for adding texture to the object
- If you can’t draw anything on the object, use masking tape or stickers, so you can draw texture features on them. They are easy to mark and can be attached to any surface.
Example
Here is a 3D model of a gear, captured with an Artec Spider:
Our team is here to help! If you have any questions or issues, please do not hesitate to contact us by emailing support@artec3d.com or by clicking on the "Submit a request" button at the bottom right side of the screen. We will always be happy to assist you and will get back to you as soon as we can.