User:Zkrell1/ENES-100/project 1: 3D Scanner

Week0 Narrative
''The first week I discussed with my teammates about the project and how we would break up tasks in class. Anthony got the laser and was told how it worked, Claude was given the PS3 camera and was told to find software for it to get to work on a computer. I was given the task of figuring out the 3D software for makerbot or the makerware. We exchanged numbers and decided to meet up next in class on Tuesday. Over the weekend I attempted to install the differant softwares however on the Makerbot website I didn't see the softwares for the 3D scanner everything was for the printer. I looked for the software on the Digitizer but couldn't find. I installed Digitizer quick start guide and user manual but neither helped then looked at some youtube videos of 3D scanners. I didn't get the software downloaded however, I did get some useful information on how 3D scanners work from youtube.''

Week1 Narrative
''My team found the software page under the website makerscanner.com so I began downloading and looking into how all of that should work. Anthony Got the laser working and attached it from power supply through a switch and Claude found the software for the PS3 camera. Now that we have all the components working everybody is working on putting the whole project together and testing along the way. The 3D printer wasn't working tuesday but by thursday it was so that was when we began printing mounts for laser and camera. Anthony said he might come in to finish assembling that over the weekend. During the first few test scans my group had trouble. We found out we needed a flat background and that it works best by entering distance to the backdrop rather than trying to center and scan. The way we are currently scaning and testing is by moving the laser along one surface of the object which only gives you one side of the object being scanned rather than a fully 3D item you can hold it makes more of a mask. Eventually we would like to get the whole object and some ideas I have for this include using a table that rotates while the laser and camera are stationary we would need compleatly differant softwares. We could move a table 90 degrees at a time and scan all sides of an object by moving laser as currently doing and put together on the software but we would need software to put together. Another option is to compleatly do away with a turning table and manually turn the object 90 degrees and scan each side. The next step is to try to get a file we could print on the 3D printer now that it works. We also had some trouble scanning objects with a shiny appearance this might be able to be fixed by adding a second laser which would only really work with a turning table and fixed laser approach or another option is to find a way to reduce the glare on the object itself by somehow making less shiney or maybe if we had a better or differant type of camera it would make a differance.''

Week2 Narrative
''Tell a detailed story describing what you did for your team over the first weekend. Link to any CDIO documents you are working on that need to be considered for project points. Compare your task with what you actually did.''

Week3 Narrative
''This week I just got Meshlab installed on my computer at home. I need a scanned file from my group so I can see if i can solve the problem of not being able to export files from blender. While I was in class during the week on my teammates computer i was able to export objects but not point data from scans performed. I am currently working on understanding the software so that we can get a meshed object that we have scanned printed out''

Week4 Narrative
I was having difficulty exporting a file with points from blender. This week I looked over the documentation on the makerscannerwebsite and found some settings needed to be set while exporting. The files scanned in the past have a lot of scattered points. I scanned some new files to get a cleaner scan to use and showed the new group how to scan a object.