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The scan data imported into UP! software
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The White ABS print of the scan
What with the mac update to the Sense scanner it was time to crack out 3D Systems' ultra-consumer, handheld device and for what better project than a school project?
DW’s daughter is due to have her first show-and-tell at school this week, she was going to draw a picture and describe it to the class, but Duncan had a better idea than that traditional show and tell fare: a 3D printed version of herself!
A fantastic chance to not only try out the Mac software but also test the scanning capabilities of the Sense on a small child who may or may not keep their head still.
What I’ve increasingly found with the Sense is that scanning in the designated 3D Printing Lab here at Personalize Palace is difficult, the space is too small to walk around the subject and the light coming into the room isn’t exactly studio quality. Time to find a different room.
After three failed scanning attempts in three separate rooms we decided that being as bright and breezy spring day as it was, the scan may be better in the natural more rounded light of the great outdoors. Not the case.
Scanning outdoors is something I’d been meaning to get round to at some stage but it is infinitely more difficult than I thought. When scanning outdoors the scanner seemed to pick up what can only be described as countless dust particles in the air and not pick up any of the physique of the child, who by now must have been getting fed up of having to stand still for such periods of time as a strange man walked around her holding a device that looks like a VHS in one hand and balancing an increasingly heavy Macbook in the other arm.
The final destination on our whirlwind tour was the conference room filled with both natural and artificial light - it finally worked, scanning without colour, on hi-res and with object recognition turned on. It must be said that the software does still lose tracking fairly regularly though it is a lot easier to get back.
Since that scan I’ve installed the Chrome Remote Desktop app on my Android phone and must say I’m impressed with the lack of lag when scanning. I plan on adjusting this Phone Mount by Farnix on Thingiverse to fit my phone and testing it out for the next Thingi Thursday.
Having cleaned up the scan and exported the stl file I noticed, after importing into Netfabb, some holes in the print in the facial area. One thing I wish the Sense software would allow you to do is save a project and return to it after it is closed. As it stands you need to open a 3rd party software if you want to make adjustments such as smoothing to the scan after you have closed the software. If you were able to save a project rather than exporting a file it would allow you to make more iterations with the scan data.
Having repaired the file with netfabb I set a scaled down model to print in White ABS on the UP! Plus at 0.20mm resolution and on the normal speed setting. The big problem with white ABS is that any inaccuracy or slight burn mark from the nozzle is highlighted massively. Even using the acetone smoothing trick there remained a brown burn mark on the model, not something you’d want to give a small child.
I then remembered two things; a.) the UP! was now printing PLA without a hitch and b.) we had just enough Aurora PLA by Faberdashery to print the model. Aurora is much more interesting than the White ABS for two reasons; firstly it is bright pink (without going all chauvinistic here that tends to be little girls’ favourite colour) and secondly it shifts colour when held under a UV light for added wow factor.
The print did have some difficult to remove support, especially in and around the hair but in the main it is a pretty great little show-and-tell project.
