NextEngine 3d Scanner anyone here using?

"John Layne"

I was hoping to hear the good the bad and the ugly, would be nice to hear from someone actually using one rather than the hearing it from a salesman.

John Layne

Hi John,

I have had one since August. I've been really busy with a few big projects since then but I have used it for a few things. I've 'measured up' lots of parts in the past with calipers, 123 blocks etc and I don't think that will go away. The scanner is great for organic or lofted shapes that you would have to section to measure otherwise. Eg. I used it to establish the exterior of an old injection molded part that had no cad data and need fea to test new resin formulations. I blanked off in inside ribbed portion with cardstock and just focused the scan on the curved exterior. In sw I converted the base to a planar surface then essentially traced the perimeter with a spline and lofted it. Then I measured and modelled the internal features. Worked well and I was within a few thou.

About the scanner itself it works as advertised. Most if not all parts require surface prep of either talc powder or whtie spraypaint. Then I mark little index features with a sharpie. It takes time to setup, scan, trim, index etc. But in the end it's worth it.

The scan to 3d tools in premium for the most part work very well with one big exception. There is a function to convert your model to surfaces 'automatically' . Other software that does this will average the point cloud and create 1 or 2 (maybe 3 at the most) large surface sheets that are very smooth and fit the cloud quite well. But the solidworks version will take even a very smooth mesh and convert it to

22,578 teeny tiny surfaces which is totally useless. If you manually create freeform surface it will average pretty well but you need to split the mesh into 'zones' yourself by painting mesh areas different colors.

For a first release the tools feel very well evolved except as noted above. One other user interface gripe: When painting mesh you have to hold down the mouse button the whole time, you should be able to lock it on - my finger gets tired.

Considering the next closet scanner is about 20 times the price I'm very pleased!

ps. I scanned a 'cream tube bottle' (round and one end, flattened and sealed at the other) the other day since it fits into an injection molded assembly I'm working on. I was able to loft 1/4 of the tube overtop of the mesh, then use freeform to pull the surface out one control line at a time until I could see visually that it was just intersecting, then passing through the mesh points - ended up being very accurate - and fun to do....

Zander

John Layne wrote:

Thanks for the detailed info Zander.

A project that's coming up in January Feb that could benefit from using the scanner. It's nice to know it does what it's advertised to do.

The real annoyance is I'll have to upgrade to SolidWorks Premium to benefit from SolidWorks' integration with the scanner. Is it possible to use the scanner as a standalone product rather than have to upgrade to Premium, or is that just not a realistic option?

John Layne

You can use it standalone, but you have to figure out what you will do with the data. Without scan to 3d you'll only be able to import the mesh as an .stl file, and then it will only be a visual graphic object. You can't do anything with it. ie. With scanto3d you can snap to mesh points while your drawing a spline, you can measure the mesh, scale it etc. It also gives the ability to import and export several standard mesh fileformats into solidworks (although it can only export meshes to these new types not solids/surfaces) This means I can also open up modo or lightwave files in solidworks.

Also scanto3d has some very complementary tools to the standalone next engine software - in some case better. These allow hole filling, smoothing, decimating, aligning etc.

I complained loudly as well when I learned the scanto3d tools were only available with premium - I don't mind paying for them but in premium your being forced to pay for cosmos weather you want it or not. But you could make the same argument about any tiered program - sw office also 'forces' you to pay for animator, photoworks etc things you may not want either. But in the end I'm glad I did. Your mileage may vary! In any case the tools and increased functionality are pretty good.

I remember there was a 3rd party app a few years back that import stl > > Hi John,

Thanks again, looks like having Premium is a must.

I've no doubt COSMOS is great piece of software, trouble is I'm bright enough to know I'm too stupid to use it. If I'm forced to upgrade to Premium I probably will have a play with COSMOS but I resent being forced to pay for it. On the rare occasions I need FEA I'd rather pay someone who knows what they are doing.

John Layne

John there is a thread at Eng-Tips about NextEngine...don't know if you have seen it...also some posts at SW forum...some saying the file size it can handle is fairly small.

Thanks, although I could only find one article on the SolidWorks forum and none in Eng-Tips---- using the search.

John Layne

at Eng-Tips the thread is currently no3 when you visit the page...

3D Scanner from Next Engine Question

Thanks for that, interesting that it doesn't work with 64bit windows.

I'm currently awaiting a quote from my VAR for the upgrade to Premium and for the Scanner.

John Layne

That's good to know, thanks.

I may have to spend more time in the Eng-Tips forum, as a support Tech from Next Engine offered some detailed advice to one user there. It's nice to see that kinda of interaction and support from a supplier.

John Layne

One interesting thing about next engine:

The software has a support section which is built like a wiki. eg. If there is a problem with the software it'll pop you over to the support section and straight into a live chat with a support person. Same goes if you ask a question or add a wishlist item. It's a pretty neat idea.

John Layne wrote:

Just got the quote back from my VAR to upgrade to Premium from Professional, NZ $6,000 plus NZ $900 a year maintenance. Cost of Scanner NZ $3,676 So that's NZ $9,676 plus maintenance roughly US$6,353 -- I definitely need to think about the return on this especially since I'm only upgrading to Premium for the NextEngine Plug-in and don't have a need for COSMOS.

John Layne

"John Layne"

yup that's expensive for kiwis eh? and would be even more so for me cos I don't have pro.. this is the problem isn't it? really nice tool to have but what if you don't have a need the other bundled stuff or your business is really too small to justify the outlay for what amounts to occassional use. I wish SW would see sense and make scan to 3d a separate plugin. I guess you could take on an employee and offer scanning as a service to others in NZ...of course they could prepare some maxwell renders too ;o)