Cutting A Fender Using Geomagic Essentials

Edward’s goal was to cut a fender and make sure it was the right size for installation. Usually, he will print out the part for test, and in this case he offers an easy-to-print and material-saving trick.

​He creates a small offset about 5 mm or even less, and cuts the part again, so that he gets a tiny piece of the fender, but maintains the geometry he need. 3D printing this thin piece was just as good for installation testing, and using only a minimal amount of printed material.

Reverse Engineering An Engine Using Geomagic Essentials And Fusion 360

Furthermore, Edward uses Geomagic Essentials to extract features on the engine, and then using Fusion 360 to model the three holes in which he wants to simulate the mounting bolts.

This is basically how to go from scanning to printing of a part; how to use a mesh and model mounting bolts in Geomagic Essentials and Fusion 360. And it is clear how much can be done with a bundle of 3D scanners and softwares.


You may find more operation details in the playback video. If you found this content useful, please follow Shining 3D's webinar pages, so you won’t miss out on more information.

Solid Edge 2021 brought us powerful performance updates to make our working flow more efficient in the areas of Reverse Engineering as well as Part Modeling, and this year, it moves further, launching the promising and practical next generation design functions, Subdivision Modeling and Convergent Modeling.
Let´s take a look at the detailed updates of Solid Edge 2022 and discover its advantages and innovations.

Please note:

1. Users who activated Solid Edge SHINING 3D Edition Floating Version (not for dongle key) between 2021/5/9 and 2022/5/9 can update to the latest version for FREE. Download the software now.
2. Users who activated Solid Edge SHINING 3D Edition before 2021/4/26 can obtain a FREE license in exchange for a Solid Edge/EinScan case study. (See reference@https://youtu.be/QhN5jqbbEiI) If you are interested in updating via this option, please fill in the form.
3. For more upgrade options, please feel free to contact info@growshapes.com

Bridge

In the Subdivision Modeling environment, you can use the new "Bridge" command to create a loft-like feature that connects edges or faces selected on a single cage or two separate cages.

Offset Cage Faces

Offset allows users to select faces of a cage and offset them along their normal direction. Offset allows users to select faces of a cage and offset them along their normal direction. Offset allows users to select faces of a cage and offset them along their normal direction

​Split with Offset
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Allows adding local detail to model without having to split the entire model, use the new "Split with Offset" command to add detail to a face by offsetting the new faces inward by a user-defined amount.

​Align to Curve
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​Use the new Align to Curve  command to fit the vertices of body cage faces to one or more existing curves or to curves you interactively sketch. You can undo and redo each curve edit until you achieve the desired shape.

​John, also being a talented engineer and with his deep knowledge of 3D printing technology, he decided to reverse engineer these Mini Cooper steering column covers and 3D print new replacement parts. Rather than measuring the parts with a caliper and designing in CAD from scratch, John decided to 3D scan the plastic steering column covers to generate a 3D digital surface model to get accurate measurements of the parts with the EinScan Pro 2X 3D scanner​

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The EinScan Pro 2X 3D scanner with the Industrial Kit enabled John to put the object on the turntable and within an hour or so, get a workable 3D mesh. Multiple scans were automatically fused together to create a watertight 360-degree digital surface mesh that was then imported into the Solid Edge Shining 3D Edition reverse engineering software. The surface mesh files were leveraged to build a solid model, make design improvements, and then be further process for 3D printing.

Results: Capturing details enabled precise CAD file creation for 3D printing 

Also importatnt to note is to understand copyright laws in the US.  Reverse engineering is legal but if you are going to reproduce and profit, you should get in touch with a patent lawyer. With an old part like above, it's beyond the copyright

3D scanner is a data acquiring device. There are multiple data types involved in 3D scanning and users may be confused by all the filename extensions. What is an ASC file? Which file should I export into other software? In this post, we will discuss all file types which involve Einscan software.

There are a total of 6 types of output data format (ASC, p3, STL, PLY, OBJ, 3MF) that you can export from EinScan software during data capture and generating mesh. We will explain the differences among these 6 file types in this blog.

Point Cloud Data Format

When you have finished your scan and are ready to generate a point cloud, you can click on the save button to save the point cloud data as an ASC file and the marker position as p3 format when markers are detected.

ASC file contains position information of each point in the point cloud. This file type can be opened in most scan data processing software and metrology software like Meshmixer, GOM Inspect, and Geomagic Essentials.

The P3 file is for marker reuse purposes in EinScan software. For a large object scan, the user can scan all markers only first and save the marker frame as a p3 file. Later the object can be scanned part by part in a separate project using the same p3 file as a reference which improves the accuracy and will require no alignment between each project.

Post Processing Data
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EinScan software provides basic functions for mesh editing in Post Processing and Measurement sections. Usually, users use these functions right after meshing data. However, external mesh data can also be imported into the EinScan software for editing. The EinScan software supports STL, OBJ, and PLY format for post processing and measurement.

The project group folder contains different kinds of files. The project group directory links all projects in the group. The project directory links all data files belonging to this project and the rest are project data files. When moving the project group, the user needs to move all the folders in the project group. 

When opening the project, the user needs to locate the folder where the project group was saved and open the corresponding directory files.

So that's it!  You have 6 output formats to choose from and all the associated files of your project will be saved in a project group folder.  Remember, these file sizes are large, so make sure you secure a space on your PC where you can save the files.

EinScan H users, download the latest software version V1.0.5.3 Exscan H that enables the capture of fine details when using Infrared Scanning, Face Scan Mode.

With the newly developed algorithm, the software can capture more details around the face with invisible Infrared light. Check out the details below.

EinScan H is also useful in making 3D digital replicas of ancient artifacts which may be sensitive to white light.

​The combination of great hardware and software truly makes a difference in how much detail can be captured with 3D scanning technology. The team behind EinScan 3D scanners continues to innovate pushing frequent software updates and develping new software algorithms, so make sure you have the latest software to get the benefits of all the new features!

Recently the media picked up a story about how 3D printing saved the day to produce valves for an intensive care unit in Italy to treat COVID-19 patients.  The Italian startup company reverse engineered, and 3D printed these valves that are key components of Venturi oxygen masks that are connected to ventilators.  

When you read the details however, you realize they jumped various legal hurdles to do this - the valve is protected by copyright and patents with its blueprint not released but in an emergency case such as this one, the hospital seemed to have allowed them to reverse engineer the valve and 3D print them.  The CEO of the company that 3D printed the valves is now is explaining what his intentions were on his Facebook post and LinkedIn video (in Italian).

When emergencies of such enormous scale occur as is happening right in front of our eyes, you just want to help if you have the capability and technology to solve the problem quickly. But regulations exist to ensure safety and durability thus everybody in the 3D printing industry is doing a thoughtful balancing act. 

It is not clear if they used a 3D scanner or just used calipers to do the reverse engineering but 3D scanners can play a key role in enabling accurate and quick reverse engineering of physical objects.

Using 3D scanning technology, you can capture the surface dimensions of complex physical objects accurately and quickly especially with the structured light 3D scanners, then then reverse engineer with various CAD software such as Geomagic and Solid Edge which comes bundled with EinScan Pro 2X & 2X Plus to create a blueprint that can be 3D printed. 

Have a look at how you can reverse engineer products that are missing a blueprint by using 3D scanners.
https://www.growshapes.com/einscan-pro-2x-3d-scanner-series-bundle.html
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Over the past few months, we have been quietly working with PrinterPrezz, the new additive manufacturing startup in the Bay Area focused on the medical field. 

Growshapes partnered with PrinterPrezz to help them select the right 3D scanner solutions to advance in their mission "to bring more ideas for innovative medical devices to market faster, connecting medicine and manufacturing to become the first Medifacturing™ company in the world."

We helped them set up a dedicated 3D scanner room in their facility in Fremont so that surgeons, engineers and innovators can try various 3D scanning equipment and find a solution that fits their needs, whether it be design creation, reverse engineering or measurement and further explore new possibilities such as creating AR/VR applications by digitizing physical objects to create content for AR/VR applications for surgeon training. 

We hope the medical field will get more exposure to various 3D scanning solution through PrinterPrezz and learn how 3D scanning technology can help in their quest for innovation.

Current lineup of 3D scanners being used at PrinterPrezz include the Cronos Dual from Open Technologies, now FARO, HP 3D Scanner and the Artec 3D scanner Eva and Artec Leo coming soon.

Read more here: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181212005580/en/PrinterPrezz-Opens-Bay-Area-3D-Print-Nanotech

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.

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

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