[b-kandor]

dacct: My guess is your first hypothesis is correct:

color/texture information are being captured by photographic means (and therefore saving and mapping a digital image)

[Leonardo]

Looks good on the demo... yet, sometime what you see is not what you get

I don't trust the stiching of the meshes. Maybe it took them 1,000 trys to find the right object that could be stich with no broblem for the demo

leo

[b-kandor]

Hi -

I saw the unit do multiple scans of an object - then be stitched in software and it was extremely easy to do, you just give it a hint by clicking in a similiar region of each scan and it seems to analyse the point cloud looking for relative matches, then pop - the scans are 'glued' together with correct orientation.

It's true they could have cheated in the demo etc. But if they did it wont take long to uncover such a scam!

[Eric Lagman]

I just had to pick my jaw up off the floor after watching the video demo. I must have that! Must use powers of persuasion to convince boss.

[b-kandor]

Hi Eric, Yes I had the same reaction when I saw it. They demoed/introduced it at solidworks world this year. I bought it without hesitation as the return on investment is not hard to justify. Easier since I own my company but even so it is definately not a hard sell.

All that being said, I havn't received mine yet (delivery in june) so it's all conjecture at this point.

Also -optical scanners traditionally will have trouble with certain types/colors of surface. Lot's of times powder or flat paint needs to applied to shiny surfaces so that returns are not scattered too much. You'll note that nextengine includes 'paint sticks' and powder iirc with the scanner. So it isn't all star trek yet....

[Eric Lagman]

Hi Eric, Yes I had the same reaction when I saw it. They demoed/introduced it at solidworks world this year. I bought it without hesitation as the return on investment is not hard to justify. Easier since I own my company but even so it is definately not a hard sell.

All that being said, I havn't received mine yet (delivery in june) so it's all conjecture at this point.

Also -optical scanners traditionally will have trouble with certain types/colors of surface. Lot's of times powder or flat paint needs to applied to shiny surfaces so that returns are not scattered too much. You'll note that nextengine includes 'paint sticks' and powder iirc with the scanner. So it isn't all star trek yet....

Yeah I noticed that. My boss saw the video, and ordered one 20 minutes later. Looks like they wont be shipping ours until july though. Definately keep us posted when you get yours. I am always suspicious of things like this for some reason, but I guess we will see. I have been waiting for something like this for a while if it does turn out to work well. The only thing I need now is a SLA quality 3d printer for my desk. I have seen the zcorp stuff, but am not impressed. The models are very rough, and you can't test things like tight fit and snap features. Have you seen anything for reasonable cost that outputs 3d files? Its only a matter of time I guess. The waiting is always the difficult part I guess.

[JDHill]

Hi Eric,

I've reviewed your company's web site, and it seems to me that a Stratasys FDM machine would be the closest fit for your portfolio. They're located in Eden Prairie, so you can easily arrange a tour/demo. The downside of FDM (uses ABS) is that the surface finish is quite rough in the z-axis (around .005-.013" resolution). The upside is the extreme durability of the parts (snap-fit and such, as you indicated). They do have some smaller build-envelope machines for a reasonable price.

Good luck spending some more of your boss' money.

~JD

[b-kandor]

My only problem with rp for plastic parts is accuracy. I've done a lot of snap joints - common or annular. Some of the water handling things I've worked on with annular joints for assembly also have O-rings. So both of those features need tolerance of +or - .002" - Not quite there yet with fdm.

So I would typically machine samples in delrin or make these cute little aluminum block prototype injection molds - they can be made in a day for competitive prices. (talking smallish parts here <25gm injection.

Other perspective is: I bought a LOM machine about 10 years ago for a small fortune (seems quaint now but it was cool when it came out.) But now in the town I live in there is an rp service bureau who has fast turn around and very competitive prices. They keep it so cheap I can't imagine justifying even a 10k machine.

[Eric Lagman]

Im confused a bit now after reading more on their website. What exactly do you gain by using the scanner with SW 2007 office premium. All of our seats are just SW office. It would cost another $4,000 to upgrade one of our seats to office premium. Is the scanned file worthless to sw if it I only have office? They do not seem very clear on this, and there is no number listed on their website to call. Looks like you have to e-mail them and request a callback. Is it just a few guys in a small rented office or something?

[b-kandor]

Hi Eric,

Well it is deceiving when you think about it. What the deal is is that the scanner comes with a standalon 'scan studio' which can output to stl, obj etc. But the cadillac software is actually written by solidworks expressly to work with the nextengine scanner and allows you to scan inside solidworks so that no data translation is required but also offers some of the new surfacing tools like global push pull etc. (Not sure of the full list).

I really think they should sell that package seperately because premium is all about fea and motion analysis which if you don't need regularly feels like a waste of money. The scanner certainly isn't useless without it but definately not as much fun.

Let me know what you find out.

[daimon]

Great post!!!
When you guys get yours let us know, I love to get one especially with that price tag.

[Mihai]

b-kandor, I don't understand what's sneaky about it, you buy the scanner and you get a standalone application, no need for any version of SW. If you do have SW office premium though, it's a nice feature they added that lets you import this data directly. I would be very surprised if the new surfacing features in SW only work with scans imported from this NextEngine scanner. I think they work with any scanner data file (stl or other) that you import into SW.

[b-kandor]

Mihai: Not really sneaky, but ..... If you want the embedded software and need to upgrade to premium, they really have you over a barrel. Think that the cost to upgrade from pro to premium is somewhere around $3k. Most of what your are buying is a lisence to cosmos motion and cosmos designer - 2 fairly reputable FEA programs. But now they are throwing in this embedded scanner software with it?

But what if you don't need fea software? The reason this is a problem is the hidden cost of premium - your yearly maintainance fee climbs approx 450$ per year from about $1400 to 1850$. You have to pay this extra money every year from now on!!!

Also, Solidworks can only import a 'graphic' image of an stl / obj file, you cannot measure or manipulate or reference any of the geometry. You need a another plugin to do that (3rd party company).

The premium lisence is pretty rare out there so it's 'odd' that they would choose to lump this new software into to this kind of exotic and most expensive package they have.

They say "Full-blown capabilities for manipulating the scanned models are available only in SolidWorks Office Premium 2007. " and "... and several features for handling scanned data." without really elaborating too much which tools would be available without premium.

and most telling: "The first release of the scan tools in SolidWorks 2007 includes a Surface Extraction Wizard to help you create a NURBS surface from the scan data. Once you create the parametric surfaces, you can use other SolidWorks Office Premium editing tools, including the new push-pull features."

I know that even all factored in it's still perhaps a reasonably good price to pay. But definately a lot higher than the sticker price. It would be nice if they clearly advertised this distinction to sw customers. They definately are not hiding it but also not drawing attention to it very much either.

?too much coffee

[Cyberfish_Fred]

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... hp?t=12884

[daimon]

Anyone got the Nextengine scanner yet?