Laser Digitizing a surface and importing into SW2004

I was wondering what the best method for brining in a surface that we will
have laser scanned (imagine a coke can shape with a rock candy like outer
surface). I will then want to use this scan to cut in half to create a mold
pocket to make that shape.

 

depending on how good or bad the data is, points to polys will make a
polygon model from the point cloud.... it's free (or used to be) from
Paraform.

 

A point cloud is a point cloud. No more; no less. It's all in the
post-processing.

The best post-processing I have seen (I have NOT seen it all) is by
GeoMagic (www.geomagic.com). If you get in touch with them, they can
robably direct you to someone who is selling services using their
product.

I had the privilege of a 3-hour one-on-one demo of this product.
Geomagic's products are interesting. Not only can it make surfaces
from point clouds, it can also recognize where surfaces should break
off into fillets, holes, etc.

I have had mixed luck with the hacks implementing the software,
though. I had a die laser scanned and processed. I received a
single-surface model like a towel dropped across the piece, and the
service firm insisted that was all they could give us. I know the
GeoMagic software can do more, like recognize cylndrical and planar
faces and process them accordingly, so I was really disappointed.

Moral of the story: talk to the software vendor so you know what is
possible. Some service firms are either too stupid or too lazy to
properly implement.

 

well, if the points are sorted along curves, it's much easier to handle than
an unordered point cloud. All you'll need then is our SketchFile macro
(http://www.dynabits.com/sw/free/macros/sketchfile/index.htm) which will
build 3d splines along the points, and loft a surface on the curves.