How to Reverse Engineer Parts with a 3D Scanner Part 2 | Creating a 3D Model with  

Thanks for sharing! That seems like a great workflow!

Glad you liked it!

Glad it was helpful!

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks!

Have fun!

Thanks! Glad it was helpful!

Glad it was helpful!

Glad you enjoyed it!

thank you!

Thanks!

Thank You!

You're very welcome! I am working on a more general series of videos talking through all the options in ExScan that I will be putting together in another video soon.

I am curious to know how you measure the 38mm in between the two holes in the top view ?

put 2 button head cap screws in the holes, measure the max distance outside to outside of the bolt heads, and then head diameter of the bolts. The ones that go in the triple clamp are smooth so it lets me get those min/max values. For nice round number purposes lets say the head of the bolts were 10mm diameter. This would have me measure 28mm for the inside - inside distance. 48mm for the outside - outside distance. Then you subtract the head diameter from the 48 (or rather the radius of each bolt head to the center of the hole). I measure inside - inside and outside - outside to verify the numbers but really you only need the outside max and the head diameter. I also have the "caps" that go on these and they have a counter bore on them and smooth holes. I could measure inside - inside and outside - outside on the smooth holes then do the same thing with the diameter of the hole. Since this was threaded that is how I did it.

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Interesting - thanks. I would probably try to decal the piece on a sheet of paper or just do the contour as best as I could and try to measure it.

Yeah as i mentioned in the video the chance of the designer using some random number is slim and the "cap" piece that goes on has enough slop in it that being off by .1 or .2mm would be more than fine. Eyeballing it in this case is probably enough to get you there. IF it were super critical that is when you have to bring in a CMM. I could have scanned the part with bolts in it and use that to map a circle in Fusion to measure as well. that "should" be .04mm accuracy :)

Thank You!

Thanks for the comment! I have never come across those before so I will have to look into them. Are they free/open source? Like if I used them could i freely distribute them as well? Not sure Fusion would be the best tool to reverse engineer something like that from an efficiency standpoint but not impossible.

@Learn Everything About Design Yes, they are open source, it's a really great resource! Is there another application that you think would be better suited/more efficient?

@@kampcreates i will take a look. I do have a video series planned for a game controller where we do the electronics layout, PCB design and housing design. One issue you run into with Fusion 360 and reverse engineering from heavy detail scans is that you need to make a lot of section sketches to pull details out. When you start adding ribs, bosses and snap fit details this becomes a bit tricky. Fusion can make planes off mesh selections if you are in direct edit mode for the mesh but there are a lot of extra steps. A program dedicated to that like Geomagic has tools to make this process a bit easier to build a "dumb solid" version of a part. I didn't show Geomagic in the series because its expensive and I think it is the wrong audience looking for this kind of content. Why would you add a $7-$10k piece of software between lets say a $1000 einstar scanner and $500 Fusion 360? There are free tools like MeshLab that have been around for a long time but the UI/UX is very complicated. So you end up with either paying a lot of money for the "right" tool or fumbling through a program that is a bit tricky to use or spending a lot of time in Fusion. I do have a few more scanned part videos in the mix where we will show some different ways to do this kind of thing.

I am working on some sponsored content with one of the rapid CNC companies. I will be doing a scan and design for CNC series. That is looking like November or December timeframe. It doesn't have 3d printing in it as the focus would be CNC. Is there something specific you are looking for?

These are the only 2 videos in this series. There is another series going where I scanned a car fender and have been working through a widebody design. There will be another playlist/video(s) talking about general settings for the process and I have a few other video planned designing parts around scan data. I am going to try and keep the playlists specific to the topic, but may end up with one that is just designing parts off of or around scan data, but not show the scanning part. Did that answer your question?

When you added the Fix constraint, make sure its applied to the line and not its end points. My guess is that it was still active when you click on the endpoint which fixed it in space. Click the "Fix" constraint again from the toolbar and select the endpoint and see if that unfixes it. Hit ESC to get off the tool then try to move it.

What is your goal with the shoe? Reverse engineering typically means you want to remake it.

hmmm. there is likely a small edge or artifact. Did you add the fillets to the split body at 39:16? That could be a potential hang up.

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Yes I did. I just can't get it done :) Frustrating, because I saw how easily it is done by you. :)

@@okkimistic hmm im not sure without seeing it. if you want to send me the f3d i can take a look. support@caducator.com The only other thing i can think is that the bottom shape doesn't have tangency around its edges. but odd it would allow a small fillet but not large.

Its actually on my list of things to do. just been struggling with time lately, but yes that will come soon! :)

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I'll follow this for sure ! I use Fusion at home and at work (for cnc milling) and when I see what can be done with QSPro I wonder if it worth the price 🙂

This kind of workflow would be very interesting in a context of 3D printing - maybe not if the intent is to produce an exact drawing for manufacturing 🙂

Thanks for the comment. I am not sure I see the point to doing this in blender since you have a mesh with the scan and the end part is a mesh in blender. Are you wanting to repair the scan/mesh in blender and finish off missing details for a 3d print? Or were you wondering about modeling from scratch in Blender?

​@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign actually both... I was thinking about a part that is not prismatic in nature that would need to be cleaned first to be 3D printed and maybe improved or adapted with form features, something that would require complex surface modelling in F360 but in Blender would be way easier and maybe more accurate.

@@mic03311 well the thing about precision modeling in blender, you can never have a true hole or arc. it will always be straight lines. So i never think that "more accurate" than fusion would be true. I think the things that are tough in Fusion are tough because you are dealing with NURBS surfaces. Blender lets you get away with more but the basic rules still do apply. I will give it some thought. I know Makers Tales did some precision modeling stuff in Blender that might be a good reference if you haven't come across that channel yet.

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I know and follow actively Makers Tales - he is doing a great work! Maybe I am overthinking :-) From a scanned object, a mesh, are you making editing on the mesh before using it in Fusion ? I am trying to think of scenario where you would be using blender as a post-processing step before using it in Fusion or simply slice the object for 3D printers.

You can 100% do it that way. In this specific case it would work and be easier. I did the manual method because generally when you insert a mesh it will need to be rotated as well as moved so you will likely need to move the pivot point to your center location. move xyz, and then rotate (which you generally do by measure angles between the plane we created and a reference plane. Moving point to point wont let you rotate BUT you could also rotate after the fact. In my experience i generally don't use move/copy point to point but I don't have a great reason.

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I was feeling point to point is like being more precise. Anyway thanks for the video!

There isn't much material there so there likely isn't a ton of areas where you could improve something like this, but anything is possible. Something like a much taller bar riser or the triple clamp itself would likely be a better part for GD. I do have some autodesk courses on their learn portal going over GD. One is a motorcycle frame course with practices that include things like a lever, triple clamp, and footpeg.

Hello, can you send me a link to those studies.

@@andrejevin7434 There are hours of content on there including a prep course for the certification. This should bring up all the GD stuff www.autodesk.com/learn/catalog/generative%20design This is the motorcycle frame course www.autodesk.com/learn/ondemand/course/fusion360-generative-design-intro-expert THese are a few years old at this point (aside from the cert prep). Make sure to filter search by software as GD is popping up in BIM software as well for Civil Engineering.

Hello, do you happen to have an STL model of the triple clamp component with some procedure for converting it to a 3d model. Well thank you.@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign

@@andrejevin7434 Sadly no, i did scan part of it but the shiny black isn't great. I do have plans to revisit it with scan spray but I don't have a clean mesh of it yet.

Hi Keal, what would be your end goal/hope for the STL file? Something you want to 3d print after removing or changing features on it? Most of the mesh prep would be done before it got to Fusion so I want to understand what steps you are looking to do in Fusion with it.

Just picking up on this comment. I would really appreciate such video. So far i know the tool "Instant Meshes" to simplify the mesh and convert to quad mesh but I understand such process may reduce accuracy of the scan. Note, this is the third time I am watching your video, it is really great. You have a great teaching style.

@@mic03311 thank you! This is one area where a true mesh program has a big advantage. Something like MeshLab. Fusion can manipulate mesh data, but knowing how far away from the original isn't really easy or even possible with Fusion. Meshlab is free but very tricky to use. I will give this some thought and see if I can show the tools in a way that makes sense.

It's all good, i appreciate the feedback, good or bad. I started this channel to dive a bit deeper into the how and why behind things rather than a straight step by step set of videos. I do make videos for Autodesk so if you are looking for something specific in Fusion I likely have a step by step course on that subject. Reverse engineering is a bit different and there is a lot of nuance here. I have plans to make more videos on the subject that talk more about the difference in settings rather than the workflow. I also try to release "quick tip" videos that are between 30s and 5min on a specific subject. Again thanks for the feedback!

He's also providing the why not just the how. Your lack of attention, like most other clickbait monkeys is what needs to be improved upon.

@@DR-br5gb hey hey buddy. Clickbait is what the videos are. Sorry you dont like my assessment of this one next time dont read the comment section on your husbands videos. Then you wont be so butt hurt.

I find it kind of hard to watch to but at the end of the day. I appreciate the in-depth explanation and am sure someone else is explaining fast if I need it.

For me as novice in fusion360 and reverse engineering it is very helpful to have a background information during the process to get an idea what‘s the intention of each step