Happy Halloween!

What does Growshapes do to prepare for Halloween?  We 3D scan pumpkins!

We 3D scanned this pumpkin using the HP 3D Structured Light Scanner Pro S3 with dual camera and automated turntable.

Actually the pumpkin's organic shapes is more difficult to 3D scan than you think due to the top half and bottom half of the pumpkin being sort of symmetrical.

If you 3D scan the top half first, then 3D scan the bottom half next, alignment can go haywire. There is a high chance that the 3D scans of the bottom half of the pumpkin tries to align to the top half of the pumpkin by the contours of the pumpkin. This tends to result in the bottom half of the pumpkin aligning directly on top of the top half of the pumpkin, ending up with a 3D scan of a half empty pumpkin that is distorted, rather than a full pumpkin where the top half and the bottom half are aligned as it should be.

In order to avoid this, putting some markers on the pumpkin helps.  The markers help the HP 3D Scan Pro 5 software to align the 3D scans to distinct features i.e. markers on the pumpkin, rather than just the contours of the pumpkin as it is flipped over.

In this case we put 2 markers on the pumpkin like this. It doesn't have to be this kind of marker, it can be just some masking tape as well.

If you prepare the object correctly, you can scan objects in a couple of minutes and it will align beautifully. 

​So here you are, the 3D scanned model of pumpkins with and without texture.

    Figure 1 : 3D scanned model of a pumpkin without texture

 Figure 2 : 3D scanned model of a pumpkin with texture

On the latest HP 3D Scan Software Pro v5.5.1, "export fusion result to PreForm" has been added. PreForm is a software that prepares 3D models for printing on the Formlabs 3D printer.

    Figure 3 : "Export fusion result to PreForm"on HP Scan Pro 5.5.1

  Figure 4 : Exported fusion result of pumpkin to PreForm software by Formlabs

3D scan to 3D print is getting easier now as well!

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Growshapes is an HP Silver Partner of HP 3D scanning solutions and the official U.S. distributor of Open Technologies 3D Scanners - an endorsement that makes us proud.  We are adding the Shining3D EinScan 3D scanners to our line up too.

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