Things to Consider Before Scanning a Vehicle

August 25, 2019

Vehicle 3D scanning services is easy, with the right equipment

Scanning of a large vehicle such as a boat, car, or jet plane can be easy, as long as you have the right equipment. Alternatively, with the wrong equipment, trying to scan something like a vehicle can be an arduous and difficult experience. Prior to beginning the scan and selecting the 3D scanning equipment, one must ask themselves a few questions: 1) how accurate does the scan need to be? 2) which parts of the vehicle need to appear in the scan? 3) how will the scan be used?  and 4) how large is the scan area?

Accuracy

One must have an idea of the acceptable accuracy needed for the project before undertaking a vehicle scan. Understanding the accuracy requirement is usually dependent on how the scan will be used. For example, if the scan is to be used to create a 3D-printed wedding cake topper, it wouldn’t matter if the scan were off by several inches and omitted fine details such as individual vehicle body panels. However if the scan is to be used to develop a replacement body part for a car, or design objects that attach to the car, much higher accuracy is required. It is also worth considering whether the part being scanned is manufactured consistently. If the vehicle being scanned is hand made, there could be a wide variation between individual specimens of that car. In these instances, it may be pointless to scan with higher accuracy than the vehicle is manufactured.

Scan scope area

If one as only after a portion of the vehicle, such as a boat hull, car hood, or airplane wing, we can concentrate our resources on a smaller area and have more choices available to us for equipment. Since accuracy is always tied to distance, a reduced scan size means that higher accuracy may be possible, or at least feasible. For example, it may be possible to scan an entire vehicle using an Einscan handheld scanner (a low cost scanner available for sale), but just because it is possible doesn’t mean that it is a good idea. Such an undertaking may be frustratingly difficult and result in a scan that is not within the required accuracy limits. When scanning an entire vehicle, a scanning method must be used that does not introduce excessive error stack-up as many scans are added to the scan project.

How will the scan be used

If one is only after a portion of the vehicle, such as a boat hull, car hood, or airplane wing, we can concentrate our resources on a smaller area and have more choices available to us for equipment. Since accuracy is always tied to distance, a reduced scan size means that higher accuracy may be possible, or at least feasible. For example, it may be possible to scan an entire vehicle using an Einscan handheld scanner (a low cost scanner available for sale), but just because it is possible doesn’t mean that it is a good idea. Such an undertaking may be frustratingly difficult and result in a scan that is not within the required accuracy limits. When scanning an entire vehicle, a scanning method must be used that does not introduce excessive error stack-up as many scans are added to the scan project.

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