Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb
My understanding is that a scanner will only scan visible surfaces. How can they possibly scan hidden or internal mechanism without pulling it apart?
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Hi Marc,
The short answer is that they can't scan hidden or internal mechanisms.
Typically 3D scanners are used to import models for organic shapes
where the user does not have an existing CAD model for the part.
For example, scanning a human face or entire head.
For objects like the shifting spanner in the video, the scanned data would
be imported into the 3D CAD environment and then tweaked by hand
to create the hidden parts and to separate the spanner into its
various fixed and moving components. In other words, the scanner
is simply being used as a convenient way of performing the metrology
on the visible surfaces.
However, in many situations, one would not scan such a part but would
create it as a 3D CAD model by hand.
In the hypothetical scenario of a mission to Mars, one could
always transmit the data from a CAD model from Earth to Mars where
it could be printed.