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Claes Lundstrom

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Everything posted by Claes Lundstrom

  1. Here is a small test on a similar room size. As you say, you can't order a prefabricated kitchen based on these scans, but I have found it useful in many ways, for making quick estimates on floor and wall areas etc, and you get a lot of details you risk missing by just measuring manually and using photos. The error margin in this case is just over 1 % compared to measurements using a Leica laser. I used the trick of just scanning the roof, as lots of for example furniture tends to mess it up, and of course hoping that the walls are fairly vertical. I also used the clip cube to trim off the edges in the corners, where scanners tend to create a "worn soap effect" (rounding off the corners), which makes it difficult to extract the true wall surface. I guess a few such basic measurements can extract a calibration factor the you can use on the dimensions used.
  2. Have you tried turning off simplifications in Scaniverse ? It may generate more points. Not sure more points necessarily means better result though. Simplify can also remove irrelevant stuff and make the files smaller. One limitation with lidar is that it only sees up to 5 meters, so there is an edge for photogrammetry in areas where you can't physically go a given point within the range. I have tried a few other apps that generates more points but I'm not sure it added much in quality. Generally speaking, I wish there was an efficient method to extract edges, as a few edge points is often better as a base for modeling. This applies to most of these apps regardless of method.
  3. Scaniverse is free app to start with if you want to experiment. It exports several formats that can be used with VW, both for mixing scans and CAD elements as well as processing with the terrain modeller points. It also exports USDZ models that can be seen in Apples' Preview app as well as augmented reality on the iPhone or iPad with no installation needed. Expect an accuracy at about 0.5%. The example is about 180 s q m and took about ten minutes to scan in one session.
  4. Why is it a problem ? I get correct in scale models using the free Scaniverse with both OBJ models and for point clouds with an accuracy of about 0.5%, so why would it not work with an app with a subscription ?
  5. Adobe Illustrator simply needs a major update. The DXF import / export features are notoriously unreliable and they have been so for a very long time now. Its' surprising that such a large company can't do better in this respect considering how important the communication between the CAD and printing world is. Most of us use this type of communication a lot, usually on daily basis at least in my business.
  6. Yes, it would help a lot to have two way SVG for communication with illustration programs such as Illustrator, Photoshop CorelDraw, Affinity Designer and so on. Not sure it would help in accuracy though, as these programs are on a different and much lower level of accuracy than CAD programs in general, so expect a lot of patching when importing, unfortunately. The same applies to PDF's when importing elements containing vector data. Sure, you can decompose and extract the vectors, but it is always a bit crappy. Perhaps it could be a fixed to some extent by adding a cleaning filter, but it would be based on guessing instead of knowing.
  7. USD still feels a bit unfinished and buggy, though promising. Why does it so different in Preview as it does on the iPhone (as augmented reality and as a stand alone)? Looks better that it does in Adobe Aero though, which seemed to have stalled in development lately. Let's hope Apple put som effort into this.
  8. I agree with MGuilfoile. There is a wealth of pre-drawn and highly specialized models available for download on the web. If you need a very specific model of a person or a plant or a car or a piece of furniture, there is a very good chance that somebody else has modeled it before, so why waste time re-inventing the wheel ? As an example, I wanted this particular car model, and sure enough, somebody had done a very nice job for the love of it, and it was free too. FBX is a format where you get a more or less ready to rendering model, so yes please.
  9. I usually use Keyshot for product renderings as delivers results very quickly with its high quality realtime rendering. It works very well with my main freeform modeling program (OK with VW too), as I seldom spend more than a few minutes in it to generate a quick visual on a simple model. I would perhaps not use it for architectural renderings though. The models where just examples of fairly complex closed but hollow mesh based shapes being trimmed afterwards with solid subtractions in VW. The discussion started with meshes from Rhino and whether they could be used as solids. I don't use Rhino but have a similar situation from the program used. Here is a practical example, where I imported a "solid" mesh, and divided it into two parts in VW using solid modeling, and to be used for 3D printing. The result was a 523 mm long scale model printed in one session, which took just under five hours. Lapstrake 523mm 3D print model.568.mp4
  10. Here are a quick simple examples I generated in the fly of meshes being after processed with solid subtractions. Seemed to work as expected as far as I can tell. Dolphin.567.mp4 Mesh As Solid.566.mp4
  11. A mesh is indeed a solid provided that the shape is closed and leak free, and that all normals are facing the correct direction. You can use it for solid subtractions just like ordinary solids. To check that it's valid and leak free, check the volume. If it's OK the volume should be bigger than zero, like it is in the picture. I imported the mesh in the picture, and converted the parts (in this case four meshes) into a single mesh. I then added a smaller version inside the original, and ran Subtract Solids, and it worked ok. It still had a volume and the clip cube showed an edge as a solid.
  12. Weird cursor cue behaviors can sometimes be caused by Photoshop. Seen it in other programs than VW too, so it may not be a VW issue.
  13. Simple unfolded models can look fairly ok. This one consists of just three parts.
  14. I doubt that VW will be of much use here. The unfolding features are fairly rudimentary. The question is also what you intend to get out of the model. Getting very small and highly detailed unfolds may be ok if you intend to build a very detailed model that looks exactly correct in terms of real geometric shape. If so, prepare for a monster task. I quite often go with a different strategy, where I get reasonable decent looking models using a minimum of parts. This is ok if you want a decent looking display model without too much fuss. Instead of using a complex model, I rely heavily on image unfolding textures using very high quality texture mapping and UV maps. Unfortunately though, this is not possible to do with VW.
  15. I have noted that Photoshop can sometimes have this effect if it's on in the background. It applies to several programs, so it's clearly their fault. It usually helps to turn it off. Really annoying !
  16. Flickering cursors have been known to be clearly caused by Photoshop being active in the background, for some unknown reason. I have seen it in several apps using user interactive cursors (such as VW). It sometimes helps to turn off PS or, in worst cases, to restart the computer. It's extremely annoying.
  17. My now slightly old Creatility 3 Pro costed about 230 $ if I remember it correctly. Works very well (much better than expected) and bigger than 8" in all directions. There is however a new generation out now that is much faster (claiming up to ten times). The Anycubic Kobra 2 is an example and I have seen ads for it at $479, and with a volume of 420 x 420 x 500 mm. Creatility has similar models, and it seems as the competition is strong in this segment.
  18. I'm into my third printer now. First was purchased in the spring of 2011, and it was pretty useless. Nowadays, even cheap China machines are pretty good and they cost like an office printer. It's not difficult either generating models from VW, though you need a fundamental understanding how to think when preparing models. Some skills in solid modeling helps too.
  19. A few suggestions regarding Ladar scanning: Stitching definitely helps. Practice scanning. It's a craft and you soon learn that slow gentle movements helps. Plan your scans so that you move the camera as little as possible. Avoid thin object like for example shrubs and bicycles, which seldom works well. Avoid shiny objects such as glass and cars, as reflections never works well (spray it with something dull if you have to). Dump scans where you get weird offsets. Better to try again. At best, you can expect an accuracy of about 1%, so don't expect miracles. You can use it with DTM with decent results, but I suggest that you clean away obvious errors and excessive measurements. Each point may be less accurate than traditional measuring, but on the other hand you don't get thousands of measurements from traditional measuring. I have found that using a combination of traditional measuring and scans to be quite useful.
  20. I double-checked it with TouchCAD and it is indeed incorrect. I suspect that what happens is that the unfolder does not place the folding lines correctly, generating a slight compound shape where the shape is not really a compound shape at all. The red lines are my reference unfolds. wrong arch 2.vwx
  21. Knowing how to model from scratch in not an easer option, but knowing how to means that you can take things far beyond the limitations of the existing tools. I have seen it so many times, where users avoid certain things that should have been there simply because they don't know how to do it. Knowing how to model anything from scratch therefore means that you have effectively reached a much higher level of know-how.
  22. Sounds like 3D Studio Max has work to do to catch up. Surprisingly primitive if you ask me. Admittedly, VW could do with quite a lot of improvements as well in the fields of mesh and NURBS surface editing.
  23. Try grouping the mesh. At least you can scale if from above. Otherwise, try the menu command Modify-> Scale Objects, where you can scale in all directions, though only by a scale factor. You can overcome this by using the building in math in the edit field. Let's say that you have a 4 meter object that you want to be sim meters. Then type in 6/4 and there you have the scale factor.
  24. Don't forget to convert the relevant to meshes if it's not a mesh. Otherwise mesh smoothing doesn't work.
  25. I agree with Jeff. I never have any problems importing obj files from the source I use. Absolutely rock solid.
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