This may be of interest:

http://www.nextengine.com/

thats pretty incredible for the price. i think its magic, or at least all done by elves.

I've seen this before here. It's quite cheap. 5 years ago, I bought 2 Minolta scanners for work. We had budgeted $60000, and got 2 for $20k each. It seems that rate of decrease in price has continued.

Not a big enough scan area for my needs!
;)

Saw that on one of the tech blogs a while back, but they didn't have all the specs posted yet. Looks to be pretty killer for the price. Also, the max scan size of 13.5" x 10.1" (wide) isn't that bad. The Dimensional Accuracy ±0.005” in Macro Mode and ±0.015” in Wide Mode, is better than I would have thought too.

So, who is going to buy the first one and tell the rest of us how it works? ;)

I'd like a 24X16 inch scan area at least.

I'd like a 24X16 inch scan area at least.

Who knows, maybe if this little guy sells well they will come out with a $5,000 one with double the scan size?

The scan size of 13.5" x 10.1" is per frame but this can repeated and then joined up.

I'd think that would work great if I could join frames consistently and accurately.

The scan size of 13.5" x 10.1" is per frame but this can repeated and then joined up.

Kiwi,

That's the way I am reading it as well. As long as it can be scanned in multiple sections and then joined, I don't see where it would be so limited.

Not a big enough scan area for my needs!
;)

Ed, According to their website, with their software there is no limit to size. "Object Size: No present limit. Objects larger than Field can be composite-captured with supplied software."

I think that price is a little deceptive. If it came with its own software to tweek/repair holes and convert to nurbs it would be a true break through. BUt it doesnt instead you have to purchase the office premium 2007 of Solid Works to have that capability. That is gonna put you right up there with the roland 250 series laser digitizer that ships with its own pixform software for repairing of holes and surface clean up and conversion to a nurbs surface. Which is actually just a dumbed down version of Rapid Form. without those tools the laser isnt goint to do you much good. So the $2500 price tag suddenly goes to $10,000 or more when you have to purchase Solidworks office. Plus you actually get less resolution and scanning dimensions with the NExtEngine than the roland. So is it really a break through $$$ wise and performance wise? Probably not. If it had its own software for conversions/manipulations and clean up and a comparable scanning area to the roland for $5000 to $7000 it would be a real break through deal. One thing that will be real interesting is to see how well the composite capture works. With the bare bones software included I cant imagine a model with out some real troubling parting lines

I don't read the specs that way.
My understanding is that the unit is stand alone and has it's own software. This can be saved in STL , VRML and others. These formats can be imported to many CAD programs.
NextEngine and Solidworks have ALSO created a new format which makes the data able to be read directly by Solidworks and therfore no conversion and data lost.

true you can import the mesh in to your cad program im not saying that it wouldnt do that. The problem is once you have it in your cad program without the revers engineering sofware like Rapid Form you cant manipulate it, you cant turn it into a nurbs surface. For instance in Rhino you can open up the mesh file but thats it. thats all you can do besides rotate it and say wow thats a lot of little triangles. You cant perform any of the rhino operations, boolean, patch, cut, ect. it has to first be converted into a nurbs surface the reason I say its desceptive in the pricing is that the roland lpx 250 digitizer comes with the pixform software that does those things so that you have a model that you can work with. Thats why roland is asking $10000 unstead of 2400. Its like buying a ferrari without an interior.. The nextengine scanner doesnt have any of that. converting to nurbs isnt the only tool thats really needed, for example when scanning with a laser you will inevitably have holes in the mesh wether from overhangs that the laser couldnt get to or because of glare. A good sofware package will help you fill those holes and smooth any "stiched together portions of a nit together surface. Nextengines basic sofware doesnt let you do that. And if it does they sure are being secretive about a tool that they should be boasting about. I couldnt find any such indication on their site that it did those things.

I ordered one a month ago, won't be here for several months though the company tells me. I already have SW and upgrade every year so that cost is already taken care of.

I'll give a report when I get it.

I ordered one a month ago, won't be here for several months though the company tells me. I already have SW and upgrade every year so that cost is already taken care of.

I'll give a report when I get it.

That would be interesting. I've been communicating with a guy named David Shoenfeld, with NextEngine, and told him that I use TurboCAD Pro v11.02 and he told me that he'll let me know what they find after testing. I'll pass on that information when it arrives.

It would be nice to be able to buy into a system that doesn't start at a cost of $10K and really be a home/hobbists type of system that is capable of doing professional type work.

For instance in Rhino you can open up the mesh file but thats it. thats all you can do besides rotate it and say wow thats a lot of little triangles. You cant perform any of the rhino operations,

senor J, sorry to disagree, and what you say many be true with Rhino V3, but the WIP Rhino V4 will do anything you need to do to meshes. I have just tested it on a mesh modeled in one of the major mesh programs and I could slice the model, boolean split or union...just like nurbs.

Mike

Cost report: SolidWorks as shown in teh video fromthe Las Vegs show The SolidWorks functionality you saw will be included with SolidWorks Office Premium at no additional charge. I believe the list price for Office Premium is $7,995 (new seat cost). And the cost of the NextEngine scanner is $2500. Total = $10.5K

read this for information regarding rhino and meshes. They may be adding mesh capabilities in their new 4.0 release and that would be great. but for now the 3.0 doesnt do much of anything
http://www.thermoanalytics.com/support/meshing/mesh-rhino.html

read the part about Importing an Existing Mesh

senor J, sorry to disagree, and what you say many be true with Rhino V3, but the WIP Rhino V4 will do anything you need to do to meshes. I have just tested it on a mesh modeled in one of the major mesh programs and I could slice the model, boolean split or union...just like nurbs.

Mike

senor J I hate to quote myself but...... :) I own Rhino 3 and have access to the WIP (work in progress) V4. It's neither here nor there for me. If you have to have SW to get the mesh to begin with it is no bargin...at least not for me.

Mike

I am very interested in this 3D scanner; the price is attractive for the unit on its' own, but the cost of SolidWorks seems very high for something I would only be using a few times a year. Are there any lower priced CAD programs that will work accurately with STL files, or the other formats that the scanner software generates?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

Mike

A program Mesh to Solid is a Plug-In for IntelliCAD. $195 USD
Each Mesh To Solid license comes with a free commercial license of IntelliCAD worth 250 USD.

http://www.sycode.com/products/mesh_to_solid/index.htm

When opened as STL and saved as SAT this can be opened with BobCAD-CAM and tool paths generated.
Unsure about other low priced CAM programs.

Kiwi

Thanks, Kiwi,

Mike

I have another question... What soft ware could be used other than Solidworks for STL files and then exported to what software for the CNC machine to actually cut in 3D?

GAWnCA .......This is the $64K question. #23 give one option.
I would expect any CAM program that opens SAT format if using IntelliCAD with the 'Mesh-to-Solid' Plug-In.

I have just purchased OneCNC it will import STL files. Would this work with this scanner?? I too would be interested. But I am also on a budget and don't want to fork out the $$$ for a new cad system. Any info would be apreciated. Thanks

Gncc50.........When you import a STL file, can you generate tool paths from the model with your OneCNC?

I heard a few times now from the moderators that you can machine a STL file, you just need to put a surface underneath the model in order for OneCNC to analyze the model's STL information.

So, I gave it a try and it works very well.

Here is a picture

Chris

Thats looking promising.....Can you modify the model, cut a hole, trim off part, chamfer corner, etc?

As I read all these posts on 3-D scanning, I’m curious how often do these members require 3-D scanning?
What is the opinion of outsourcing scanning work? What would someone pay for scanning service?

Can you modify the model, cut a hole, trim off part, chamfer corner, etc?

I am pretty sure the answer to this is no. OneCNC doesn't seem to recognize the triangular surfaces as surfaces.

I did try exporting the STL file as a STEP and reimporting the file, but it didn't accomplish anything since after spending a lot of time reading the STEP file, nothing visible showed up on the screen.

Chris

Well, anyone get one of these yet? My mouth is watering waiting for a review so I can order one....... :rolleyes:

I understand the first orders from Canada and USA are now being shipped.

My nextengine scanner was to be shipped July 30. I received an email explaining some supply problems with the result of all orders will be late by 30 days.

One of the best things I've seen for CAD/CAM Reverse Engineering. I'll have to get one of these with BCC V22.

Thanks for the Link Kiwi :cheers:

I think it will be if it does what they say it will, however, I've scoured the net and haven't found one review of it.....


One of the best things I've seen for CAD/CAM Reverse Engineering. I'll have to get one of these with BCC V22.

Thanks for the Link Kiwi :cheers:

carveguy...Your order must be in the second shipment as the first lot have been shipped. There was a small problem with accuracy variance over the operating temperature range which is being corrected before shipment. There has also been some exporting problems to some countries because of that countries importing regulations. My order has been shipped and expect to receive in 5-7 days.

I ordererd mine back in march my shipment has been delayed till the end of august.
They did send me a thank you with a 1 gig nano drive to keep me happy.
I will be using mine to duplicate and scale carvings I make, and surely will find many other uses for my sign and furniture business.

Brian

Brian...Orders were being taken from February and the release was to be June. Later the date was set at 30 June. Dispatching was then started on 14 July for the first shipment. There has been a technical hiccup which caused a delay.
As I live in New Zealand there was a problem with export but this has been overcome. I have found NextEngine very good to deal with.
Kiwi

Brian,

What is the nano-drive for?


I ordererd mine back in march my shipment has been delayed till the end of august.
They did send me a thank you with a 1 gig nano drive to keep me happy.
I will be using mine to duplicate and scale carvings I make, and surely will find many other uses for my sign and furniture business.

Brian

They sent the nano drive as a thank you for my order, and I think goodwill so orders do not get cancelled.
Of course the more I wait the more I want it.

The nanodrive is a 1GB USB2 keyring storage device.
I think all customers who ordered early received one as a thankyou.

I am yet another potential buyer of this NextEngine 3D scanner, and I've scoured the net looking for reviews to no avail, just like the rest of you guys.

I am really eager to hear about hands-on experience with this thing - if there's anyone out there who has one, please, don't hold back!

Jonathan.
Washington DC.

tungstenfish
I have received a unit but now away to upgrade my PC. USB1 is certainly not up to it, 15 min per scan.

I have recieved the flash drive but still no scanner.

I agree with brianh, the more I wait the more I want it.

But I glad hear some people have recieved their scanner.

Has anybody tried the color/texture option yet?

carveguy

Mine has shipped and as luck would have it I will be going out of state for a week to do some work, as soon as I can I will post results.
Brian

Got the scanner last night!!
The first scan (small polar bear sculpture) was done 20 minutes out of the box.
It also included colored texture (the sculpture is white) as seen is this render from Rhinoceros.
Now to learn stiching, hole filling, etc.

Overall the first impression is very professional hardware, software and even packaging.

carveguy

Got mine also, I have found in the limeted time I have had to use it dull toned targets scann better.
A program I am using to clean up the obj files is http://anim8or.com/
the progran is free and powerfull.
As soon as I get over the workload in my shop I will play with it more.
It is very easy to set up.

Thanks for the info, carveguy and brianh - it's great to see your posts. I was beginning to wonder if the Nextengine was like "vaporware"!

Can you tell me: are you using SolidWorks? I'm not clear whether I have to shell out extra cash for SW in order to use NextEngine.

Also, about how big is that polar bear sculpture, and how long did it take for the actual scan (one orientation)? I'm wondering what resolution to expect in practice.

I hope I'm not being too much of a pest!

Cheers,
Jonathan.

Can anyone tell me, would I be able to scan 3D objects with this then use a CAD/CAM program to convert them into something like these vectorart 3D graphics ( http://www.vectorart3d.com/ ), to then carve them using my 3 axis router?

What CAD/CAM program would I need?

Thanks.

diarmaid
A program Mesh-to-Solid is a Plug-In for IntelliCAD. $195 USD
Each Mesh-To-Solid license comes with a free commercial license of IntelliCAD worth 250 USD.
http://www.sycode.com/products/mesh_to_solid/index.htm
When opened as STL (NextEngine saves as STL) and saved as SAT this can be opened with BobCAD-CAM and tool paths generated.
One problem I've encounted is the file size from the Scanner can be too large for the version of Intellicad which comes with Mesh-to-Solid to handle.
I believe any CAM program that can open SAT or 3DM will be able to generate your tool paths.

tungstenfish - You do not need SoildWorks to use the scanner (although the Scan-to-3D plugin looks like a good option when business picks-up). Scanner output is a polygon file (STL, OBJ) so using a poly modeller (Silo, anim8or) can modify the file directly. The bear was 3" high, scan 1.5 mins at .005" resolution.
diarmaid - I pulled the polar scan (one scan, holes included) into VisualMill and can create a tool path like Artcam.

carveguy

Carveguy, would you be so kind and post a STL file from one of your scans so I can se how it turns out, thanks.

You guys might be interested in this 3D scanner. Its much cheaper but I dont know anything about it.
http://www.camtronics-cnc.com/

carveguy,
Good info - thanks.

I have done a few scans now and have found the following so far.
the different settings on the software make a difference on the quality of the scan a lot. I did one scan that is not posted on three pickup settings and eliminated most holes. the scan is on another comp that I dont have at the moment.
I toolpathed and cut the eagle medalian it worked out fine, I need to brush up on my freeform 3d editing skills to really take advantage of this.

brianh,
I'm wondering; about how big are those items and how long did the scans take? Can you adjust settings to increase speed on smaller objects? I'm thinking of doing scans in a CNC environment as part of a workflow - speed would be important.

Thanks for your post - great images.
tungstenfish.

I have done a few scans now and have found the following so far.
the different settings on the software make a difference on the quality of the scan a lot. I did one scan that is not posted on three pickup settings and eliminated most holes. the scan is on another comp that I dont have at the moment.
I toolpathed and cut the eagle medalian it worked out fine, I need to brush up on my freeform 3d editing skills to really take advantage of this.

The objects are both about 2" tall they took about 3 minutes for the scan to complete. The speed is controlled by the resolution of the scan setting.
I usually still have to do cleanup on spots with missing data but I am getting better results with practice.

Mine has been ordered, and the scheduled ship date is Oct 31st. :)

I guess you can call it cheap as long as you have a 1 GHz or better PC with 1 mb RAM or better and then you need a digital camera that connects via Firewire, then you need an overhead projector (every house and/or small business has one of those. I'm trying to figure out what you get for the $275.00.

I think the Nextengine scanner is complete less the PC. And if you spring for the Solidworks 2007 Office Suite you can do just about anything with it.


You guys might be interested in this 3D scanner. Its much cheaper but I dont know anything about it.
http://www.camtronics-cnc.com/

Just to clear things up a bit for anyone wanting to machine polygon (stl, obj, 3ds, etc.)meshes. My name is Jay Delbeke, and I do 3D design and CAD/CAM for Stargate SG1 and Atlantis. YOU CAN MACHINE STL'S. I've been doing it for years in foam, plastics and metal, at remarkable resolutions. Inevitably, all Nurbs and solid models are calculated by "highend" cam programs as polygons. The tolerances you choose dictate how small the calculated facets will be on curvature. As far as I caqn tell, there is only one real cam solution for stl/polygon models. Visual Mill is the CAM software you must have if you want to cut scans. No, you dont need to make closed solids to machine a shape. Even a one sided scan shell open on the bottom can be put into VM and toolpaths generated in moments. It's relatively verry cheap, and super easy to learn if you have a good understanding of CAD/CAM. You can build suport geometry right in the program, as well as regions and circles/arcs for hole machining etc.
The first problem you will incounter with high triangle scan meshes is manipulation and separation of geometry. For most people there is no easy solution because polygon modeling is a whole career field unto its self, but there are tools that are free that can do it. Look up Wings 3D, its a free polygon modeling program made by professional poly modelers. Easy to use.
You often have to cut areas off and lay them flat for machining then reasemble. I am including a picture of A full body I scaned, cut into 3 " slabs, and layed flat to be machined on a Shop Bot with a 4" gantry!!!! And it came out perfect. Now that's a feat, if you know anything about a Shop Bot.

In some cases, you may know how to do multiple opperation cuts. You can create a tool path of one side of an object, save it, flip it over on it's center and toolpath the back. You now have 2 toolpaths. Cut one side, flip the stock over, cut the other side and most of your model will be free of the stock. Using a CNC mill like a haas, with vices and clamps, this is easy. On a CNC router table its a bit more tricky, and you need to make registration marks or pegs in the stock and table bed to flip acurately. I routinely do 2-4 sided cuts on cheap CNC router tables that are aligned perfectly, but it's an art.
If there is lots of interest in these techniques, i may write a tutorial with pics.

Ayway, the point is there is more than one way to skin a cat. machining models (almost) right out of the scanner is possible and routinely done.

Jay,

Thank you for the post! I'd be interested in reading any tutorial that you write.
My mom wants a waterfall in her back yard that looks like the stargate. When I get my first CNC machine built, I was thinking about watching the episodes on my laptop, and doing screen captures; then generating tool paths from there... Do you have any better suggestions? (I wouldn't be violating any copywrite stuff, right? because I'd be making it for personal use, and not to market and make money off of someone else's intellectual property?)
That seems like it would be quite a fun job! I would really be interested in learning more about what you do.

-Jim

Jay,
Great information. A tutorial with pics would be terrific - I might even pay money for it.

Cheers.

Put me down as one that would also like to see the tuts. I have been doing this slicing type machining in foam, but it is hard to do. Any info to help in the process would be appreciated.

Mike

Jay, I'll agree. You have a knack for writing. Where have ya been. Oh, prolly working! :D

Keep the advice coming...JRouche

Ya, Stargate is closing down for the season, so I'm really busy right now. Putting together promo material to find work for the gang over the winter. We like to move from production to production as a team.

Anyway, decided to order a Nextengine scanner. I'll give a review from the perspective of someone who has used many scanners before. May be a few months to avive though.

well I went ahead and ordered the nextengine scanner. I thought that if it wasnt usefull I could send it back and get a full refund less shipping and handling. I recieved it about a month ago. It was nicely packed and professional looking. It comes with a copy of the sofware on a cd but its advisable to download the latest version through their internet site becuase they update it quite a bit. The laser itself is very good. Its fast and accurate. It scans with no surface spikes or holes within its designated field of view. I couldnt be happier with the data it collects. The laser itself is truly a breakthrough for the price. However my experiences with the software have been way less than pleasing. Over the past month I have spent at least a 100 hours working with the scan data and the program. So Im not jumping the gun on my evaluation.
For small objects the sofware complements the scanner pretty well. (by small I mean the size of a remote control) You can do a single 360 scan and then align the top and bottom to the 360 scan family pretty easy and accurately. After you do that you will have to trim by hand the individual scans to eliminate as much overlap as possible. This can be frustrating because there is no undo button like in rhino, unless you let it save your work after every little thing you do. To save after every little thing is not really an option in the real world because each save will take about 2 minutes and you may preform 30 saves just to trim it up correctly. If its not trimmed up real well you will often get holes in your final model after blending it together. And blending can take anywhere from 20 minuts to an hour. Where the program really breaks down is when you try to do a 360 scan of anything larger than a remote control. because of numerous bugs (which their support readily admits to) It is nearly impossible to get a larger model together. By larger I mean about the size of gallon milk jug. There are a lot of different bugs I could talk about that I have run into over the last month, currupting saved data, realigning already aligned models, refusing to align models. bending aligned models, random program shut downs, blend failures, unexplained holes in almost all the blended models. I wont go on needless to say they are time consuming and can become extremely frustrating. I think it says it all to say that I have not been able to get a large model together despite over 100 hours of work, And its not because of the laser but because of the program it comes with. another thing that will prevent one from making a larger model with this program is the ineficient use of system resources. I have a
Pentium 4 2.8 gh
2 gig ram
bfg geforce 7800 gs oc vid card... The largest vid card available for agp slots
when trying to assemble three 360 deg scans of 8 faces each I will get around 1 frame every three seconds. The result is that doing anything with that large of a model will take 10 times longer than it should just in waiting for your vid card and processor to work. Ps ( I tried two different vid cards with the same result ) Just to give perspective three scan families of 8 scans each in micro mode will eat around 750 megs to 1 gig of ram so if you wanted to do something like a full guitar you better have 4 to 5 gigs in your system. But I can guarantee you you will not be able to scan and align that much data without running into a bug that will force you to start all over again.
So all that being said what is the scanner good for? Well it does well with very small models Like 4 inches tall. You can do a full 360 scan and most likely get it together. It also does well with a single scan or up to 4 or 5 scans of a planer surface. In other words if you wanted to scan in 3d reliefs with this scanner (as long as they arent to big ) you can get it done pretty easy. Beyond that Its a crap shoot if your gonna be able to work around the bugs and system resource problems to get a larger model together.
One good thing about the software is that they are working to make it better. Upgrades come out every couple of weeks so far ( although I havent seen any real improvement of the main issues that the software has) I think if they keep at it you may have a program that would be usable for medium size models in a year or so. Who knows maybe sooner... or maybe later.

so are you going to send it back?
I just ordered one. Got a better computer and I hope I get better results.:confused:

Thanks for the info Senor J. it's always nice to read an honest but fair review of something.

One question about the scanner, how does it do with shinny or reflective surfaces? I was thinking about buy it to scan coins but I've read that laser scanners don't to well on reflective surfaces.

As for the software, it almost sounds like the software wasn't ready for release at the same time as the scanners release.

Hey Senor J,

I'm a software engineer from NextEngine, and saw your post about the rendering speed. The 7800 is a sweet card, and does 500 million triangles per second. So, it should fly!

We have a bunch here, and are able to work with very large models fluidly. ScanStudio uses special techniques to handle large volumes of data quickly, and its rendering engine compares very favorably with other 3D programs.

I'm thinking there's something with your driver where its not fully using the card. Maybe another card on the motherboard isn't disabled and is interfering. If you'd like to get to the bottom of it, let me know your handle on the NextWiki and I'll work through it with you.

Great forum guys. Thanks for all the interest in our scanner!

-Pete

PS. For dighsx's question on scanning coins - you can scan them if you powder or paint them. If you lightly powder, you can still see the texture of the coin well. And when we've painted them, we've noticed that we get finer 3D detail.

well what I can say about handling large models in scan studios from experience is that you will always run into a bug. for example no more than a couple of minutes ago I was trying to run a blend on a moderately sized model. That was the 5th attempt at blending and without fail I run into a bug of some sort along the way. To put the bug problem in perspective over the last month I have had probably 70 bug reports to send in. It asks for what I was doing when the bug was detected. I dont always respond because it gets old. The software honestly should be considered a beta version under testing. But like i said before the laser itself is great and exceeds my expectations. So as far as buying it if I had to do over again I would hold off on purchasing it 6 months / 1 year in the hopes that the software issues would be resolved. If you guys can do that at nextengine it will be a steal of a deal. But right now whenever Im using this thing, for any thing more than just a coulple of simple scans, Im banging my head agianst the table.

senor J,

I'm concerned that something is wrong with your graphics card driver / PC, and is causing you to have a lot more bugs than the norm.

Would you like to get help? If so, please write info@nextengine.com, and send your contact info and/or Wiki handle and I'll get in touch with you.

A lot of folks are having a good experience with the software. We'd like to get you to the same point as everyone else.

Thanks!
Pete

Pete;

Thank you for posting here; I was starting to second guess my purchase of a scanner. It is appearantly ready to ship this week, and your posting here has re-affirmed my deicision to obtain a scanner.

I'm going to switch between my PC and laptop with the scanner...
the PC is an Athlon 64 3400+ @ 2.25Ghz w/ gig of RAM and ATI Radeon 9800 vid card

the laptop is a Dual core Intel @ 2.2 Ghz w 2 gigs of RAM and ATI X1400 vid card

How well would either of these setups handle the scanner and software?

-Jim

Hi spydermeister,

The laptop will be a great machine for powering the scanner. Plenty of horsepower, plenty of ram. The graphics card is fine too: the X1400 does 215 million triangles / second.

On your desktop PC, I'd recommend upgrading to 2 GB of RAM. The scanner brings in a lot of 3D data, and 1 GB is usually okay for small models only. The graphic card is good: the Radeon 9800 does 325 million tris / sec.

Have fun scanning, and drop us a line on the NextWiki if you have any questions as you're getting up and running.

Best Regards,
Pete

PS. In Senor J's case, we figured out what was going on with the rendering speed; his graphics card was a good one: a GeForce 7800 AGP 8x, but his motherboard had a poorly-documented secret: it only had an AGP 4x slot. Usually a mismatch means the machine won't boot, but in his case it just ran really slow. He's upgrading his machine now.

Senor J has a cool application for the technology, and has given us a lot of helpful feedback on our Wiki. Thanks Senor J!

Senior J, Pete,

Thanks for the posts you guys - it's great to see a candid review (warts & all), and especially reassuring to see help from NextEngine folks. I want to find out more but I'm not finding the NextWiki forum Pete mentioned - maybe I'm not Googling the right keywords or something. Can someone give a link?

thanks.

Hi tungstenfish,

The NextWiki contains Wiki-style help articles on using the scanner (with lots of pictures), and allows customers to chat with our support engineers when they have questions. We're also currently building some features that allow users to chat with each other.

We'll be opening the NextWiki up for public access soon. For now, it's available to customers + by request.

Here's the link:
http://www.nextengine.com/support

To get access, drop us an e-mail at info@nextengine.com and we'll reply with your account info.

Thanks,
Pete

Hey Pete. May I make a suggestion. If you were to post a "visitor" type login for the NextWiki here (for CNC Zone users) that would help the folks here.

They could get a better understanding of the system's capabilities and possible shortcomings.

Seems to me you would want it open to all anyway.

By posting a reference to it here without allowing the users here to access it seems counter productive.

Just my Op......JRouche

Hey Pete. May I make a suggestion. If you were to post a "visitor" type login for the NextWiki here (for CNC Zone users) that would help the folks here.

They could get a better understanding of the system's capabilities and possible shortcomings.

Seems to me you would want it open to all anyway.

By posting a reference to it here without allowing the users here to access it seems counter productive.

Just my Op......JRouche

I had no problem requesting and receiving a personal sign on from Pete and Nextengine. All I did was email the request and got the reply within 24 hours. Well worth the request and wait.

You are allowed to access the site. The information is good and still building.

I have access to the NextWIKI, since I have the scanner.
It seems to pretty much be an internactive user's manual. From where I'm sitting it seems like asking for access to it is like asking for access to the search help feature for MS Office. (only a real person replies, and in a hurry, at NextEngine, where the office help seems more like chasing your tail)

I really like my scanner, and if anyone is geographically close and would like to see how it works... drop me a line.

-Jim

Then again, I might not have unlocked all of the features of the nextwiki yet.

-Jim

Here are some updates that I have for you.

1. This does not work on Vista (any version), Windows XP64. We just got a new machine to host the scanner and it came with Vista. So we need to downgrade the machine to XP for it to work. Was told March/April for x64 support.
2. You need 3-4 GB RAM (even though the OS can't use it). I meet the minimum requirements on a testbed and it crawls. Put it on a monster machine and it processes at a decent clip.
3. Beware the rotating. Want to screw things up? Have a model too close to the rotating gripper (nuts)
4. No matter how much the top 3 make you mad, the price and output are solid for what I need, which is for sharing designs without having to drive a disk around or emailing raw data to vendors and clients.

I am new to this so when I get a good scan, I can put it in a PDF and post it here.

Thanks for your time everyone,

--matt

Just a quick note: 64-bit support was released last week.

But the really cool stuff is soon to come: http://www.rapidform.com/cgi-bin/multimediainfo_press.php?action=view&mnum=1530
See also: http://blog.rebang.com/?p=1177

Just a quick note: 64-bit support was released last week.

But the really cool stuff is soon to come: http://www.rapidform.com/cgi-bin/multimediainfo_press.php?action=view&mnum=1530
See also: http://blog.rebang.com/?p=1177

Just a quick note: 64-bit support was released last week.

But the really cool stuff is soon to come: http://www.rapidform.com/cgi-bin/multimediainfo_press.php?action=view&mnum=1530
See also: http://blog.rebang.com/?p=1177

I was wondering if any of you guys who have tried this scanner out would be able to post a simple point cloud or STL file for evaluation purposes. It may be helpful for those of us considering this scanner to get a look at an actual scan to see how the point cloud looks, how easily we can work with it, etc.

http://www.scanningforum.com

I'm wondering, How many of you have received the following email, about 3 times so far, just to find that it's not there?


MechE has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - "New" 3D Scanner from NEXTENGINE - in the Digitizing and Laser Digitizing forum of CNCzone.com-The Ultimate Machinist Community.

This thread is located at:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17878&goto=newpost

Here is the message that has just been posted:
***************
I was wondering if any of you guys who have tried this scanner out would be able to post a simple point cloud or STL file for evaluation purposes. It may be helpful for those of us considering this scanner to get a look at an actual scan to see how the point cloud looks, how easily we can work with it, etc.

http://www.scanningforum.com
***************

I'm wondering, How many of you have received the following email, about 3 times so far, just to find that it's not there?


MechE is a new member and his post got caught in the spam filter, it happens sometimes when new members do their first post.
It's out there now. :)

Regards,
Sven

dear sirs:

Has anyone an opinion about a comparision between the Escan and the Carso Scantech scanners price against performance?

ja mayrl

The Escan has the same resolution as the Nextengine and similar capabilites, just costs $5K more. Go figure.

Millingjeweler:


Thank you very very much for your help

I am retired and my interest is to bild my own machines


I have a 12 ft by 12 ft router that I use to creare big advertisement

objects in foam an mdf but some time need to scan real actual objects

from my clients

So I again appreciate very much your oppinion

Best Regards:wave:


Jamayrl

Hi guys, there is a write-up of the NextEngine Scanner at mmsonline.com. It is covered in the RapidTraverse section of the July issue. The three types of file formats available with the NextEngine are Mesh, Surface and Solids. There is also some new content on the NextEngine web site that does a good job showing the levels of software and how to get Mesh, Surface and Solids.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NextEngineUsers

I looks like a great tool to copy parts so you don't have to use CAD all that much. I wonder what other uses this tool has. Can it scan a persons face or the contours of your hand, mybe even your teeth for implants? Looks useful.

I'm really starting to like using mine... anyone care to try it? or want something scanned?

the scanner is a data capture system that can measure about 50,000 points per second so it has some crossover applications of a touch probe. There is a face scan study on the nextengine web site under applications or gallery that shows an example of how many points can be captured to map an organic surface. I really would not say the scanner decreases the need for CAD in most cases but it does compress the time it takes to design and manufacture organically shaped objects. It complements CAD and CAM. You are right medical and dental are two areas the scanner is being used. Scientist and Artists are also using the scanner with software designed to model 3D data. It really amazing some of the applications we see it being used for.

The new NextEngine ScanStudio CORE release was made last Friday, if you do not have version 1.5.2 I suggest you download it. There are a number of new tools like AutoAligment, Fuse, Hole Filling and Itelligent Decimation that make working with scan data even more intuitive and fun.

I'm really starting to like using mine... anyone care to try it? or want something scanned?

Try something simple like a TV Remote Control or a Zippo Lighter. Then post an Iges, Step or STL file for everyone to see.

I just might get one of these for reverse engineering of aircraft part surfaces.

As requested attached is a link for CNC Zone readers to sample scan data output from the NextEngine 3D Scanner Software Solutions that show Mesh, Surface and Solid files.

ftp.nextengine.com (ftp://ftp.nextengine.com/)
login: cnczone
pass: nextengine

Did anyone ever try this with a slide projector?

Try something simple like a TV Remote Control or a Zippo Lighter. Then post an Iges, Step or STL file for everyone to see.

I just might get one of these for reverse engineering of aircraft part surfaces.


Sorry about that, Toby, I haven't been on in awhile and missed your post. It looks as if zone users are able to sign on and get sample part files now at nextengine, though.

Since I posted, I've really discovered that I am not that great at scanning and would hate to have someone judge the scanner by my inability to use it.