JARICO Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 Hello, I've been trying to figure out how to work with 3D scanned surfaces in IC. I'm using an Artec Leo scanner and the latest Artec Studio 17 software. It has a surface to CAD feature that creates a surface constructed of a series of patches. You can export in Step, IGES or x_t formats. When importing into IC you can't do much with the result. I am trying to solidify the object to make a mold of sorts, although the actual part I'm using is just an experiment to see if I can figure out a workflow. It's just the rear door from my car. First thing I tried was to extract the surface. To capture the detail I used about 10,000 patches. Extracting took forever. It processes one patch at a time so 10,000 was a bit much. I dropped it down to 1000 just to test (the door skin lost features) but the resulting part from the extraction was still pretty much the same thing as the import. Just a brep made up of 1000 patches. I tried to Sew it....didn't work. I then thought that I would thicken the result and that worked but I couldn't select the direction I wanted - no matter which direction I selected it would only thicken in the one direction which was the opposite one to what I wanted. I'm attaching a few files. Just a jpg of what it looks like and the 1000 patch surface to cad file in IGES format. If anyone has any idea how to make this work I would be incredibly grateful for the advice! The result I'm trying to achieve is basically a cubic solid of sorts with the top face that matches the inside of the door skin. Maybe my approach is completely wrong and this is a lot simpler than what I'm making it... hope so! door 1000.IGES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAENGENEND Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 (edited) What I did is import it, extract surface, and thicken the surface, then you have a part, it worked fine and rather fast. Part3.ics Edited October 13, 2022 by WAENGENEND Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JARICO Posted October 13, 2022 Author Share Posted October 13, 2022 Hi @WAENGENEND, I am able to do that too however the surface is still made up of 1000 patches. I was trying to combine all those patches so it's a single surface to begin with, and then basically extend the whole surface down say 500mm with the bottom face being perfectly flat. I don't know if there's a way to extrude up to the surface which I've also tried to figure out, or to boolean it somehow to end up with the result I want. Basically I want to end up with an intellipart that I can chop up into "strips" to make a buck.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cary OConnor Posted October 13, 2022 Share Posted October 13, 2022 You could just change your filter to Face. Box select, right click on a face and Select Thicken. It will take a second to highlight the faces but you can type a value and hit go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JARICO Posted October 13, 2022 Author Share Posted October 13, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, Cary OConnor said: You could just change your filter to Face. Box select, right click on a face and Select Thicken. It will take a second to highlight the faces but you can type a value and hit go. Hi Cary, Gave that a try but from what I can tell it produces the same result as when I hit Thicken and then box select the surface. I still have 1000 patches and I can't thicken in the direction I want. When I try to change direction, it doesn't work.... By the way 1000 patches is just to try and make figuring out the workflow easy. I need 10,000 to capture the detail I need... Edited October 13, 2022 by JARICO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cary OConnor Posted October 14, 2022 Share Posted October 14, 2022 The arrow direction cannot change you just select upward, downward in the property browser. Thickeding inward could be in issue as the curvature could intersect so the amount of the thicken could be a factor. Yes the performance to draw those arrows is an issue. I reported that to R&D to see if there is an alternative. We don't have tools to connect the patches to a single surface. Maybe a tool like Rhino can do that and you can import it back into IronCAD. The thickening will still have the same limitations on the direction of the thicken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JARICO Posted October 14, 2022 Author Share Posted October 14, 2022 Thanks @Cary OConnor. I tried another other option - importing cross sections in the hope that I could do a surface loft but the Artec software only exports a 2D dxf (even though it looks 3D!) so doesn't work. It also comes into IC as a single layer so the lines are all one body. That's more of a problem on the Artec side. I could try importing 1 cross section at a time and lofting that but that's going to take a LONG time for a large part. A solid body would be easier to work with than a surface but I have a job coming up where I will be doing exactly this so thought I'd do a trial run to figure things out. It would be excellent if IronCAD had some features to make the transition from the 3D scanning world to CAD a bit easier. Even if were better integration with some of the scanning software like Artec Studio. Geomagic DesignX seems to be the tool for that job but OMG it's expensive. The Fusion 360 Slicer puggin seems like it's perfectly suited to the task I'm trying to complete once you have a reverse engineered model but I suspect it will be a struggle in 360 to work with the imported data as well. In fact there is a YouTube video on this very topic I came across that discusses all the things that should work but don't! They do find a way in the end though so that's heartening! Will keep trying! #nevergiveup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.