Reverse Engineering

[wzakXXL7B]

My classroom is currently equipped with Inventor. I am interested in getting a 3D scanner that is compatible with it. My goal is to have students scan a part, upload to inventor to make changes, and then 3D print the new part. I really don't want to pay licensing fees on new software.

I am open to suggestions for 3D scanners.  No special requirements, we'll be doing random parts most likely

Thanks,

Bill

[kacper.suchomski]

You can model solids with classic tools, using the scan file as reference material:

https://youtu.be/khrwwxxRdmY?feature=shared

or use the automatic feature transformation tool:

https://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2025/ENU/?guid=GUID-BDCF1B3C-E5F1-45CF-B506-0B16AB21314E

Only after converting the mesh into a solid will further modifications be possible.

[wzakXXL7B]

I'm looking for a scanner that is compatible with Inventor so I can do this. Any recommendations?

[WP_Australind]

Take a look at Dot3D, it might meet your needs.

www.dotproduct3d.com/dot3d.html

[chris]

@wzakXXL7B I'm not aware of a scanner that is "compatible" with Inventor. Most scanners are either shooting LiDAR or infrared or structured light sources. These produce a real-time "surface" or in the case of LiDAR a point cloud that a surface can be assigned to. But none of these will produce a solid that can be used inside Inventor. To get a solid, you'd need to run the surfaces produced from the scans through something like GeoMagic ($20,000). GeoMagic will kik out a best fit "surface or solid that Inventor can read, in fact it's a direct import with a feature tree, if you take the time to build in GeoMagic. No cheap options. A "good" scanner will run 20K+. I realize the term "good" is subjective, but you'd need to do your research and/or have some demo's. If you want super cheap, grab the latest iPhone Pro max, it has on board LiDAR, I doubt it's professional accuracy, but it's something and only around $1500

[James_Willo]

Hi, I'm assuming the school is buying this? You should be able to get a salesman from some company to come in and demonstrate this to you. We had that at a previous company I worked for. They gave us some demo files that were created on each device and then we could have a play with them in Inventor. 
As said above, it won't make a solid model for you, or an inventor model. You might be able to get an STL or something out of it. If you want to be able to make simple edits, Inventor will be OK, but for more complicated mesh work, Fusion might be a better tool for you.