Strategies for Reverse Engineering Car Seat Hinge Cover

[Cam_CSC]

Hi,

I'm looking for suggestions as to the best method to model a cover for this car seat hinge, which I could then 3D print. I've tried taking a picture and scaling it, as well as measuring it but I'm just curious how other people would approach this...

Thanks in advance.

[jeffescott]

I would find out what the original looked like.

[Cam_CSC]

Yeah, sorry I should have included a picture of that. I don’t have the
original but found pictures of it online, but with no dimensions or
anything of course.

[jeffescott]

Model the outside picking up the tangents. Then measure inside probably take several trials

[jasonhomrighaus]

There are a number of photogrammetry apps available for most cell phones these days.  Ive had decent luck with "Polycam" on my iPhone.  this generates a 3D model of an object which can be exported to a number of different formats.  For example here is an excavator bucket I scanned.  This comes through as a Mesh Object.

 Excavator Bucket

From this mesh I then use it as a template to start modeling out the object.  It's not nearly as precise as a proper 3D scanner but ive been able to get pretty good results for simulating specific complexly shaped objects from such data.

[jasonhomrighaus]

Here is the scan without the texture, you can see it's not perfect but it's good enough to model off of.  I usually create planes then sketch off of those.

https://a360.co/4dQIusb 

[laughingcreek]

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@Cam_CSC wrote:.... I don’t have the
original ...

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there isn't a mirrored version of it on the other side of the car?

[Cam_CSC]

I just have the one seat, it's on my racing simulator

[Cam_CSC]

Awesome, thanks. I'll give that a try.