Using a 3D camera image to create inventor files

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone!

Been a while since I have posted on here, but I have an interesting question that I'm hoping I may receive some guidance on. My company is looking into purchasing a nice 3d camera for a couple of reasons. The first is so they can use the camera to scan a room or space in order to view this image on a PC as if you were physically walking around the room. One camera in particular that I have looked at which can do this is made by a company called matterport.

The second reason, which is why I'm posting this is because they want to be able to take a 3d image captured by the camera, and somehow convert that into an editable inventor file or possibly a 3d CAD file. Does anyone have any ideas on whether or not there is a program out there that can aid in achieving this? I have done a lot of research on this and see a lot of posts about converting a 2d image to a 3d cad file, but many of those posts are quite outdated. 

If anyone has any input on this, I would certainly appreciate it! It may even be the case where this isn't quite possible yet, but I would love to hear some opinions on it.

Thank you.

[mcgyvr]

http://www.123dapp.com/catch

https://recap.autodesk.com/

Depending on the accuracy you need using a camera might be an option..

I doubt it though..

Typically you would need a laser scanner instead and there are some "low cost" ones out there..

https://www.fuel-3d.com/scanify/

http://www.staples.com/Makerbot-Digitizer-3D-Desktop-Scanner-MP03955/product_1439052?cid=PS:GooglePL...

[Mark.Lancaster]

I've seen a presentation of using a camera to take numerous pictures of a machine that would be coverted and used as a asset in Inventor Factory Design.  You could make out the machine in 3D but some parts of it looked like the machine had been melted.

I would agree with mcgyvr about using a laser scanner..

[jyager]

I frequently use a laser scanner for project walk downs where we're retrofitting equipment. AHU's, dampers, ductwork, etc.

Honestly I've never tried inserting the point cloud into Inventor. I've done so with AutoCAD and it's a complete mess so I figured it can't be much better having 40 million dots in Inventor.

I typically use the software as a surveying tool and extract the information I want out of it, obstructions, existing tie-ins etc....I can spend about a day doing that and practically model the room from scratch vs spending days trying to manipulate a point cloud that you can never get square/orthoganal. 

[Anonymous]

Hey thanks for all the input guys. I did a little research on some scanners and came across some really cool compnaies/products.

http://www.nextengine.com/products

The compnay from above looks to have a pretty solid grip on this technology and they have what appears to be every tool available that you would need to convert a scanned 3d object into a CAD, Solidworks, NX, and Inventor file. 

Cool stuff!

[jyager]

I'd be curious what the capabilities of that are, I know the scanner we have from Trimble was like $30k, thats exponentially cheaper.

[mcgyvr]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey thanks for all the input guys. I did a little research on some scanners and came across some really cool compnaies/products.

http://www.nextengine.com/products

The compnay from above looks to have a pretty solid grip on this technology and they have what appears to be every tool available that you would need to convert a scanned 3d object into a CAD, Solidworks, NX, and Inventor file. 

Cool stuff!

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yep.. fairly sure I've seen them around for years.. (maybe one of the first to market with a device like that)

get a demo and give it a whirl

[Anonymous]

Yea I mean check this link out, it shows them breaking down an heat exchanger that has been scanned with their scanner, and then being able to take that profile and do a live import in CAD, Inventor, etc using their rapdiworks software

http://www.nextengine.com/products/rapidworks/intro

[dgorsman]

We've done quite a bit of work with LiDAR scans, although its at a much larger scale than a single room.  Not much problem working with them in AutoCAD using Leica Cyclone and CloudWorx - all sorts of tools for controlling density, clipping, etc.  Still getting up to speed with ReCap and its use with AutoCAD, which does much of the same thing.  In order to get things "lined up" you don't do that in the host software.  You use the point cloud software, such as Cyclone, or the Faro software, to register the scans to a know (or desired) set of points.  That will transform/scale/rotate the point cloud to where it should be.

For the OP: check out ReCap (especially ReCap 360) and Project Memento.

[JDMather]

I have a NextEngine scanner (along with at least a half dozen others) - it doesn't match your problem description (scan a room)?

To do anything useful costs significanlty more - and even the best doesn't really impress me.

The technology is moving very fast, but I haven't seen an Easy Button solution yet.

In my opinion right now this technology is more appropriate for art than for engineering.  (especially at the low end (less than $40k for scanner and less than 40k for software)).

[Anonymous]

well the original idea i had was to find a piece of equipment that could do multiple fucntions such as scan a room or a piece of equipment.

basically my company builds mobile mechanical rooms that house boilers, heat exchangers, etc and it would be cool to have a camera/scanner that could capture the build process of one of these rooms to keep a customer up to speed on the build process. but we could also benefit from having a scanner that can scan pieces of smaller equipment that we could in turn create a CAD file from, and then upload that file to a CNC machine to manufactur the scanned piece of equipment in house.

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:
...we could also benefit from having a scanner that can scan pieces of smaller equipment that we could in turn create a CAD file from,....

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Scanning is easy. 

Manufacturing geometry - not so easy.

How familiar are you with stl file type?

[Anonymous]

I'll be honest I'm not that familiar with that file format.

[JDMather]

Inexpensive scanners will generate stl files - the same file format used for 3D printers.

The problem is that these files are faceted planar triangles.

For example a curved face or fillet will be thousands of trianglular planar facets.

Sense Scanner

[dgorsman]

The real world is rarely true or square, even if the design intent is so.  Using the scan as direct-input will probably not work even for the original part due to subtle curves, thermal expansion (big issue with boilers and exchangers), and so on.  Reverse engineering would use the scan of the original object as a guide only, re-creating under ideal circumstances.  Far easier for the designer, software, and fab shop.

[Anonymous]

Ahhhh ok ok now I am remembering doing a project with stl files. I had drafted a wall mounted guitar hanger in Inventor years ago and saved it as an stl file and printed the thing out with a 3D printer. I was surprised how well it turned out, but yea that application wouldn't really do me much good.

So all in all though, sounds like while there may be some options out there to scan objects and have a software that can convert that scan into a CAD/Inventor file, it's not exactly as easy as scan, upload, click, convert, done, especially if you are trying to reverse enginner something from scratch based off of a scan. 

I appreciate all the comments from everyone, definitely has helped me get a better understanding of what is being used/how well a similar or related process is working for others.

[Ed__Jobe]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Inexpensive scanners will generate stl files - the same file format used for 3D printers.

The problem is that these files are faceted planar triangles.

For example a curved face or fillet will be thousands of trianglular planar facets.

Sense Scanner

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@JDMatherWe are an electric utility and have just bought Inventor to model our line equipment. This seems like a good solution for us. We aren't going to manufacture anything. I just need to get models of the parts we purchase in order to create an assembly. Are stl files large compared to ipt files? How would this impact the assembly? How would you rate the Sense scanner?

[JDMather]

The Sense scanner is a good low-end scanner (I have 8 of them in our lab).

I recently saw a scanner that clips to the back of an iPad so - no wires to trip over.

When scanning with the Sense - I have to look at the computer monitor while trying to hold the scanner the correct distance from object.  That, and the cord, make it somewhat difficult to get a full scan.

The demo that I saw with the scanner that clipped to the iPad - you hold the iPad in front of you between you and the object.

The stl files are much larger than ipt files.

If you don't need solid bodies (for weight or editing) you an use as mesh.

[Ed__Jobe]

Thanks for the info @JDMather. Does the included software enable you to convert to a solid? Why do you have 8 scanners? Do you have multiple users or are you trying to combine scans from multiple scanners?

Do you recommend a certain workflow for what I need, capturing models to use in potentially large assemblies? I'm still new to Inventor.

[JDMather]

I teach in a classroom - that is why I have 8 (actually more than 8, but 8 of the Sense) scanners.

Multiple students are working on their scanning project at the same time.

The software that comes with Sense allows editing of the mesh - but does not create solid body.

To create a solid body you must have the Autodesk Mesh Enabler installed (not sure if it is still available for earlier releases of Inventor).  Must be on subscription to download this add-in.

Fusion 360 will also convert the stl mesh to solid - but it is limited to much smaller number of faces than the AutodeskMeshEnabler in Inventor.