Tested In-Depth: Desktop 3D Scanning and 3D Printing

We've been experimenting with home 3D printers for a while, but we now finally have a desktop 3D scanner at the office too! We test the new Matter and Form 3D scanner that digitizes any small object, generating a 3D model and file that we can then send over to our 3D printer. It's like photocopying a real-world object!

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Closed Caption:

hey guys and welcome tested and I'm not
from tested
Norman chan you have a lot of toys in
front of these days is really exciting
untested we talked about 3d printers for
a long time we were earlier doctors of
3d printers behind will one of the first
of second three-pointer we actually
built that was a second one
no that's the first one the seat beside
went on the show that's the first Gary
printer for years ago that we built it's
the MakerBot cupcake it was like
fourteen hundred dollars at the time it
wasn't very good
right be perfectly frank with you know
it's also not very good 3d scanners a
very first generation of the 3d scanner
will hold on
home three days you can buy you can
spend a truly obscene amount of money on
a 3d scanner that does all sorts of
crazy stuff like you have scans the
object and then apply is what is
important to cad project it on top of
the objects you can see exactly where
everything matches this is not that
right just like when three partners are
you really hit the home market a
hobbyist market for years ago five years
ago
3d printing technology feat fdm use
decision modeling has been out for a
long time mhm
except obviously out with software with
the with the the cat designs they can
build their own and may I got a lot of
people home to try it at the point at
the point at which the cupcake came out
and early reprap designs were being
posted and shared the gap between a
twenty-five-thousand-dollar commercial
3d printer and a thousand-dollar home 3d
printer was true
very wide and dramatic that gap has
closed dramatically so if you're talking
about the same style printer the fdm
which you mentioned before then
then those printers have gotten better
and better and better until you know the
difference between an expensive para and
a and a us cheap printer is you know
speed and maybe
fine fine fine detail in the amount of
time you have to noodle with it not the
quality of the final print or the
ultimate ultimate print you can get out
of it
3d printing 3d scanning 3d scanning at
least for home consumer 3d scanning uses
of what again their last it
there are different types of three
pretty technologies there are different
types of three scanning technology with
a very manual and
we've done things like photogrammetry
where you take actual digital photo
images composite them and software the
software does a lot of magic
makerbot the makers of that cupcake
three printer they have their own 3d
scanner
it uses the same technology as this one
this is the matter and form it was
launched as an IndieGoGo project year
and a half ago and they built themselves
as a affordable home with 3d scanner
even portable now I was four hundred
fifty dollars
you should show this in the I like this
thing is neat I love the way it folds
open and closed yep
if you take the calibration block off of
the of the turntable they're like it
becomes a thing that is much more
portable than any of the 3d printers
we've used a design standpoint it's neat
it's a clever like you pop this down
sexually is that the foot that goes down
here is there cord storage inside it
someplace
now you actually the court storage is
best summed over there ok inside there
and the principle of this 3d scanner
works under is the same principle as the
MakerBot 3d scanner and that uses lasers
and cameras
if you look here this is the one who's
built a 3d printer could tell just a
z-axis up with a stepper motor and on
the stepper motor inside this this
carriage here is two lasers
so laser they are in a laser there and
the center is a camera
what kind of lasers are they like red
lasers blazer green lasers their red
laser spread laser sounds old-fashioned
but it is
and on the platform so this is the
scanning platform you can put objects up
to about nine and a half inches tall 9 .
8 inches tall and the diameter is what
matters so does it can be squared circle
what about seven inches in diameter so
it needs to fit inside that turntable
yeah i would call this a what the loaf
of bread
at least a bigger than a cupcake scanner
and what happens then is this turntable
rotates several degrees are very slowly
and two lasers hit the object
this one for example I'll put this
little android figure there
you hit the object and then the camera
read . . like a . cloud so 2000 dots
pursecase so it's literally just looking
for
replaces that it reflects back to get
the distance the time takes a piece of
light to reflect back at any given time
so it has that are the laser zooming
back and forth or is it just not relying
on it to rotate to hit and purely
relying on this turntable to slowly
rotate
what happens if you don't get the object
centered perfectly then it doesn't work
ok they didn't get it then it gets
confused and there he put object on the
side and then i'll try to figure out
whether it's a part of it because it's
variable distance and it really assumes
the software assume that the object is
spinning around the center and that's
what is it scanning for so so with the
3d printers we found that things that
have holes in them like the holes have
to be predictable and you have to you
have to kind of design the object around
the where you want the holes to be in
order four holes to work how does this
handle it there's a void in the center
of that it can look down into the object
that's a that's a cup
it can't so only is surface scanning on
the outside so it's they say that the
best thing can scan or things that are
solid shapes
maybe a curved solid shape the flat
texture even something like this
the android figurine I noticed
underneath its armpits right here at the
the bodies block so because the camera
when it's looking here can't see what's
underneath that arm
it's going to assume there's nothing
there will be hauled it won't even .
data for that it will see as its
turnaround maybe a little shadow edges
here and i'll try to fill in as much as
possible but any overhang is bad
so what's the resolution finally of the
of the model like so okay so you get a
point cloud
yes but what's the resolution of that
how can you look at that and see what
the object is
yeah so i'll show you the software which
is a big part of it it comes with the
software its windows on
right now so I'm running on the surface
3 i'm gonna show you a new scan so we'll
use the example and i'm in the software
i can click new scan and you have three
basic precepts your small smooth medium
or wide in detailed and basically what
this tells you is how
first of all how us how slow the
rotation should be and also how much
information the laser is taking in the
cameras taken per each of the double
laser scans with the smaller scans the
less detailed scans
what happens is it only takes about five
minutes per entire rotation so in five
minutes or seven minutes time actually
I'll rotate once fully and that if you
have a taller object for example going
back to the Android this android is
probably a to height you want to look at
the size of the android
it's a to highlight today to Heights can
ok so the scans are equivalent to like
3d printing layers it's not doing it a
couple of microns at a time now it's
doing it's doing a couple of inches and
it's a couple interesting to talk
so for this will scan up to here and
give less detailed data on the top and
then with the stepper will step up and
then scan it again is that checkerboard
one height the half the checkerboard is
one height so right there any so it's
not quite enough to do
Yeah right there that is one height ok
and that is about the second height
interesting ok so this is this is
basically like in the beginning of
aliens when that when they find Ripley
spaceship and they come in with the big
blue beam on the robot arm and they
mapped the entire room that's what this
is doing just two inches exactly i'm
gonna show you a quick demo right now
i'll show that i'll use the small and
smooth scan settings you can actually go
in advance and choose how many degrees
is turning
how much information on the highly
detailed scan it's about 20 minutes per
full rotation
ok and you have something that's tall
for example this action figure here
that's going to be at least three
Heights and so we're talking about over
an hour of scanning just for this
I mean given the length of time that it
takes things to 3d print things that are
high detail that doesn't seem
out of the realm of possibility for me
so they're going to noisy
it's very noisy I've started right now
and it's racist first height and you can
see that there is a the red laser on on
there right there so it looks like it's
winking
it's winking right there and you can
actually see it on because it's
connected on a platform but on the
platform you see a little bit of red
that is of the laser line
ok so it's just it's is the turntable
spinning or does it go incrementally
does it go constantly or just America
but that was a calibration
ok so that was figure out how high it
has to do it and now it's going and now
it's actually doing the skinny on
turning and look at the software you can
actually see the data being populated in
real time in the software results and
it's taking up colors to it looks like
it or at least colors and texture what
it thinks of dollars i can zoom in and
you can actually see that . data right
here so okay so you said it for smooth
objects so it's assuming I I assume this
is generated . cloud this is not
something that my 3d printer knows that
what to do it no so why was about
lighting conditions objects and I
conditions is actually really only
loudest when a when it's moving the easy
access ok
they can see like the point data right
here you can see the texture of that tie
on the android right there and it's kind
of really cool to see that's like this
object being scared you know from
science fiction standpoint it's kinda
like the dream right now
can you set it high enough resolution
that there's no gaps in the lines
ok that this is the very lowest
resolution and actually because it does
the two lasers will double up
and so it gets way more dense as time
goes along this is actually the the
lowest lowest resolution this is will do
multiple passes or I will do it looks
like the right is that is better than
the left
yeah yeah um ok so lighting conditions
matters a lot
yeah I tested this in three different
locations one just kind of extreme
outdoor condition next to an open window
using no natural light that is terrible
for 30 skating
even though like if you're a
photographer you know that just a
difference with outdoor sunlight and any
type of Endor
there's a huge
difference in your community your light
intensity or light histograms even
though I'm might seem for your natural
eye that things are just looking clear
right
I don't scan this your open window so i
took this home and set up my dining room
table and had absolutely no luck so I
have a big giant window right next to
the dining room table and I just
couldn't
it wouldn't go yeah it was too dark at
night and not bright enough during the
day time it seemed like i try to defuse
settings so with the frosted frosted
window so you got like some of that even
natural light
in addition to indoor lighting and that
was okay but the colors were all wrong
it does it is it is still not in the
best condition is actually right now we
are in the best possible scenario for 3d
scan here so you needed to do like a
video studio with a bunch of life what I
did was actually just in my garage and
I'll overnight I turned on the lights
which I I for less stress and lights in
my garage and it was nice and even
no changes and I get that gave me the
best scans
ok we can actually maybe even leave this
running in just a second for a second
seat so that the seven minutes it takes
for the scan
it's already it's already getting us a
good data now you can tell there's
nobody out big holes there's a big hole
right there underneath the arm and its
kind of shadow texture so right there it
doesn't fill in this connection . so
will it will it eventually come back and
figure that out or is that just dead in
that information will fill up as much as
best it can but it will never connect
the dots between the inside of the body
and that's because the laser just goes
straight on to one . it doesn't aim side
to side so it doesn't forget the oblique
angles right so I'm gonna finish up the
scam out actually I'm going to pause it
and go home
finish it up you know fish scan you can
stop at any time if you want you really
want these things to stay steady I must
say this later say I really don't want
to do anything with it
international in addition to the
lighting the type of object matters a
lot
mmm so i'm going to show you a couple
objects just on the platform that
starting with the worst of the best
this is the worst this is an action
figure I really want skin action figure
and that's got a ton of crazy fine
detail and
I'm fine detail here and also overhangs
here confused the hell out of it
not only that it performs really poorly
with dark colors with with things like
this character pilot is notified fighter
pilot which i thought would be a good
size it
they couldn't tell the difference when
we the gradients in in dark so if you
put these off center does it
theoretically get enough data on the
point cloud because if you if it's not
on the center axis then you'll be able
to see in those gaps and it will get a
better view of that stuff but i assume
the software just gets confused on what
is confusing things that things on the
outside might be over na stretches
things
ok you don't get a solid object when
when you're doing 3d printing
there are at this point that that
handful of really good options to do the
slicing and printer control of all that
stuff is that the case here are using is
this only does it only work with
software provided by the people who make
the scanner that works it exports so see
what happens we get the final notice but
the thing that generates the point cloud
is is there
they're closed software yeah they they
generate the point and the point cloud
is very basic it's gonna be you know
it's it's
cartoons of their cameras and their
scanners it's about 2,000 dots purse and
/ / blink so i guess about what I'm
getting at is if the software is tied to
the product printer
it's only going to improve as fast as
those guys can work on the software not
not like the open source stuff right
3d printer community where there's four
different projects going at any given
time and each one is getting better than
constantly right
okay um and then for example the next
thing the next best thing is something
like the android or like this bus like
head bus were there is a good amount of
detail and color
this game is pretty well this can pretty
well and and gave me a pretty good
result i can actually show you
I think if i have this file here what
this looks like this one that one I
would think it looks pretty good would
do pretty well although it looks like
there's some gaps around the curling his
hair and all that stuff so this was the
scan
really creepy and you can see the hair
did not do well because it doesn't do
well as the blood I'll ER
yeah but the the flat texturing of this
did pretty well this is that hi this is
a pretty high-quality scans you go all
the way n like that's a lot of detail
right there
ok so you have this point cloud which is
a oh yeah
ok one more little warm you up and give
you a couple more examples
next up a flat shaded like Norma's this
is a 3d print and the same
this is from the photogrammetry that
brandy on did last year for earlier this
year for you right
so this is a 3d print and I scan this
but I was afraid that once camera
because it was too light
when I was this printed what is this
material do you remember this SLA
ok and this one also scan ok
you'll notice that in the bottom in my
scanner holes here
mmm so I didn't notice that yes and you
could tell that the color when it moves
up
it actually tried you know that the
color doesn't always match up perfectly
well since you're probably not going to
be using this with a color 3d printer
then yeah like if you have access to
color 3d printers this is a toy right
color does not matter when these cans
it's really the geometry that matters
most and then one final thing
come on you have a ring around the edge
of this model that's interesting yes
actually it takes into the platform
ok scans the platform welcome doesn't
know know that the kid doesn't know
where the platform is right
it's always gonna want to get as much
data as possible and then finally I'll
give you one more example and this is
the best thing I scanned which is very
similar to bus except the texturing the
color allowed it to recognize more of
its details of sculptors is 3d printed
to know this is a broadcast
ok vinyl cast the kidrobot cast we don't
support communism and tested just for
the record is this
but that's that's a it is Lenin it's
part of London and this can really well
the the pink hue of this and the flat
texture is not too shiny
that allowed it to give the laser in the
camera as a lot of a lot of data so it
seems like if you were sculpting stuff
and using something that
is a dark but not black material like
super sculpey or something like that
then you could then take that and scan
this in and it might be a good way to
get ya
- import your model so I'm okay
something you've generated . cloud and
see what kind of how long does it take
the highest resolution about like uh an
hour and a half
uh your friend that was two passes
probably for that height
I don't have one pass one pass for that
one okay to two-putt to vertical passing
yes
so figure 45 minutes per layer at the
high-resolution taller so obvious is
going to take longer how long did you
use your bird
I didn't do the burg and that one took
the longest time and also it overwhelm
the computer in terms of the point cloud
so i can actually analyze that on the
pee on this on your computer
yeah okay use a lot of memory so let's
look at this this this vinyl figure and
I get the scan and like you mentioned
with the norm bust it actually has some
of the external stuff so what can you do
with the scan after well you can clean
it up
and so I'm going to go and you can see
it actually took in some extra data from
around it
it looks like the hats a little out of
sync - yeah you just be the angle and
it's missing some data here that's the
lighting
it's got confused so there's a clean
button and this is built into the
software
let's see this load is properly clean
well maybe it's not like there it goes
ok so there are two things you can do to
clean you can say crop all the points
below a certain height
ok so if I like dramatically sketches up
you can see all the red stuff so it's
basically bringing a plane up from the
ground and saying okay here we go
we have not do anything which is good
because you want to get rid of that
platform yes I mean maybe you want to
create a flat bottom for from certain
uses benefiting the object so I say that
thought
ok so today I'm gonna crop to hear
making the flat bottom here is not a
good idea
just for the record and then we want to
be reduced the radius and so if we know
what the radio like all this external so
it doesn't matter and so you can see the
circle comes in and you can reduce the
radius say i don't want these external
stuff right here
so if you converted this to a 3d model
without
this stuff all those little specks would
show up in the 3d model and Confused
whatever you're gonna try to assemble it
there's also an auto clean around this
and it has like threshold so i'll try to
remove extraneous bits of . data so i
would do that it's gonna depend on the
detail the model but still it will take
a while
obviously on the stool for processors
it's going to be this is a desktop app
it just kind of looking at metro app and
then we can also do well so this is your
model you can save this and you can
export this you can explore mesh cloth
this is still . like it's not a mom
right and you can export it as a point
cloud of ppl wife I'll ok
an obj file and these are files that
free model applications like blender and
there's a lot of good open source point
cloud innovation programs they can read
them it as as well as things actually
like Maya and 3d imax and stuff like
that
yep or at least get plugins to read so
you can export you know XYZ point cloud
people I polygon
but what's the big selling point of this
and of course the MakerBot also has the
same feature is they can export it as an
stl file something that theoretically
works with 3d printing stl is kind of
the de facto source for models that you
want to print is it's the it's the file
format that ever used to transfer files
that are that you're not going to add
any more typically but what the stl file
is it's not a point cloud it's a mesh
it's always the PL y for that matter
it's it's a pot it's a wireframe
okay um and the wireframe the conversion
from the point clouds of the wireframe
that's the tricky stuff that's what
takes a lot of mathas the computer
stupid
it doesn't know like you know is that a
nose is that you care about that detail
here all does is take these are all of
the above cloud of . and say okay made
option this is a straight line here
maybe there's a plane there maybe this
is under important here is just trying
to contribute convert a bunch of little
points of light a million points of
light into the lens conical head right
and so in the settings when you convert
to a match that actually to two ways you
can configure it so right here I said
meshing beta square
and we go and before convert the mesh
there are two parameters you can adjust
one is the octree death and what that
means is how many little cubes
this starts analyzed so at eight it's
actually exponentially so you think
about i think you feel like it's
breaking up this the surface into a
series of green to a grid is really read
into 3d grid a matrix
ok if it was for example for you would
do a slice vertically and a slice for
his own way you'd have eight cubes right
if you add another level detail then it
slices all those in AQ e che it becomes
another paid and then eventually got
like a hundred fifty thousand simply the
larger this number is the better your
eventual models in a look but also the
longer it's going to take much longer
ok by raising this to 10 it's going to
take another 20 minutes is it full
ok so 20 minutes isn't that long for
what we're talking about short compared
to the old days of 3d printing where you
would slice a model that was that size
would take two hours to do the slice
I'm not upset about 20 minutes and then
there's also degrees so this this
it's it's very it's a lot of math so it
looks of it tells how the the point
cloud tells it whether she's straight
lines one curve lines to curve lines
three curve lines or for curved lines to
render out those two mesh that point
cloud
ok now you don't need to do that here
there's separate applications that will
take . clouds and also do much to it
will export the point cloud in a
standard format if you're familiar with
something else or have better tools
available
right on ok but what you did for me
you know with you took this I assume
exported here yep
you haven't any of those other point
cloud applications right and here here
actually that was relatively quick this
is actually this is a failure because
the mesh actually is no color
it's clearly no color i don't think i
can actually open a mesh fall here now
but what you get is something that looks
like a 3d printed flat 3 printed on with
you what I got was something that was
there was a theoretically a manifold 3d
model
yeah arm and and so you sent me a
handful of these over the course of the
last couple weeks I think you have some
i printed some of them yeah and we can
show how good
print was like I think there's two use
cases for this I think people are going
to use this to scan stuff that they want
to 3d print or then manipulate so they
can 3d printed
I think people are also going to send
this to to get part for things for 3d
application so if you wanted to make a
game and you wanted a quick way to get
some 3d models and and I don't know that
this works if you're bad at 3d modeling
I think this might be a shortcut to to
get the first over the first pump and
then you can refine from there or you
can scale up and that's something that
you can do like free veterinary skills
you sculpt something small important
scan it and then scale it up so you
printed and now you get a larger size
thing or the other way as well so i
think this one this is a totoro and this
is a scaled-down version I skin
the total sculpture and you can kind of
tell he has the texture and in here but
you would do some stuff to make this
work
so yeah the one of the things i would
recommend is that if you're scanning
stuff on this you should get a little
square block that you can put on the
base so that it scanned up off of the
surface it will make the scan take
longer but it will mean that you'll have
more material to cut to make the the
flat plane because that was the first
thing you have to do for everything that
you sent me to ask and the cut the phone
was in order to get a flat surface that
was big enough to adhere to the platform
and also be flat enough that it wouldn't
waffle and break loose and make that
Prince
I always had to cut run a plane through
one of the first few layers of the print
to get to get a flat surface to put the
model on the on the print bed but this
time it turned out pretty well you can
actually still make out some of the
faces the facial details here of the
Torah sculpture and i love the original
unfortunately I do have the other thing
that we mentioned earlier the 3d norm
print this was the original so the thing
i forgot to do the thing we didn't do is
actually print the stl that you use to
make that initial print on the same
printer that I printed the scan on
yeah we'll do that and put up on the
site at some point but this is the scan
and this is the print from the scan five
right so you can see I had to cut off a
little bit more of your shoulders to get
it to work
and if you look on that mesh on then
there was a gap on your left shoulder
the other shoulder actually had the film
that I had to fill and i ended up just
cutting off more than that because it
was hard to do on
so all of these came with some little
speckles around which i think you could
probably removed and maybe didn't know
how to do at the time you sent me the
STL's I had to cut those out using
either just slicing or I opened them up
in meshmixer and then deleted a bunch of
stuff on filling in holes like like that
one in meshmixer is pretty
time-consuming meshmixer is an autodesk
I think it's either something that
required or it's like an experiment
it's it's a really rough piece of
software its kind of poorly documented
you have to kind of just experienced
experiment to see what works if you have
access to a better piece of software or
good at using blender in a way that I'm
not
it was probably a better tool for doing
what I was doing I thought that turned
out really well the you can see on the
camera but the resolution of the print
versus the original SLA print pretty
good
yeah i mean it's it's analogous to a fax
machine
yes i would say yes and this is part of
the best thing that was scanned printed
the model again we showed the point
cloud was the best from this flat
textured final sculpture
I think there's that you can see that
there's a little bit of an error you can
see the error in the point cloud on the
on the Hat it didn't line up quite right
because of the angle that it's at but
the official details
I think it turned out really well those
cheekbones the eyes the ears even he's
immediately recognizable as Lenin or and
immediately recognizable as the original
and you can see but you can again you
can see that i had to cut a couple of
millimeters off of the bottom love you
line up the left shoulder right shoulder
to the right shoulder
it's just a little bit lower on the
printed one um the guy i thought this
was really promising I i know it's it it
this is significant seems to me to be
even with the problems i had at home
seems to be a lot less deadly than the
early stages of 3d printing where which
I thought was kind of good given that
this is a relatively new thing
yeah this is super knew it they just
fulfilled their IndieGoGo backers are
selling this now for five hundred eighty
dollars i believe seems like a
reasonable price
it's a reasonable price if you have some
use for it this is not something i think
anyone should buy just because
as they want a 3d scanner but if you
have a 3d printer if you are have
applications as if you're sculpting
if you have your game designer then
maybe have one of these in your office
you can have any of experience turning
point clouds in the meshes in actual
models then you can actually this this
is obviously if you're if you're a game
developer and want to make your game
looks like things from the real world
than this is a good way to do that you
have at least two get started I'd like
and increase its worth exploring i don't
i don't know that i would give it a
ringing endorsement as we are not those
guys now on the last thing I'd i found
the last was really useful is a
microsoft tool called net fab with 2 b's
and what it does is it turns models that
are non manifold meaning that they
aren't watertight that they did you can
see the inside from the outside into
manifold models and it's just a web form
you upload the stl you wait 10 minutes
come back and you can download the pics
stl and that that fixed
most of the problems I had without
having to use mesh mixer so for things
like android that whole we talked about
in the army that one you would have to
fix the mess mixer like if there's a
chick small hole big holes you couldn't
fix with that big giant like it fixed
the hole in Lenin's hat no problem
I wouldn't have fixed the hole in the
android guy or if it
unpredictable things would have happened
if you tried to do that because you
would have had it would have had this
big several millimeter gap and not known
what to do with it and who knows what
could have happened there
so there you go it's this is a matter of
form three home 3d scanner with the 600
bucks 580 value little over five hundred
fifty bucks
the first 3d scanner we've tested I
think that they're definitely more
limits in 3d scanning technology than
our there are in 3d printing technology
and it's not going to improve as readily
as 3d printing technology did four years
ago and there are lots of different
approaches to 3d scanning - I mean we've
seen
we haven't done the test yet because
they're in kind of limited supply yet
but we've seen scanners and clip onto a
surface or an iPad
and lets you capture that point cloud
from things that are in the environment
not just things that are tiny and will
fit on the on the on the turn tail or
handheld one that you walk around the
object and it does like fast lidar
scanning and I think that kind of stuff
potentially is is going to be more
applicable to most people than something
that just a small things you can cut off
and make flat poem on the surface
yeah it's a really neat idea and we're
glad we could share this with you even
though i don't think most people to buy
this right now it's the future
3d scanning a few facts the thing to me
and then putting it out
teleportation yeah faxing norm see you
guys next time bye bye