I am looking for the software provider that allows you to use a video camera to convert the shadow of a wire on an object into a 3d file. a link would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

Maybe you're thinking of this one?

http://www.3d3solutions.com/

Here's a few others:

http://www.brucerayne.com/scanz_explain.html

http://www.david-laserscanner.com/

Thank you Harryman. One of these is new info to me, however, none of them is the one I am trying to find. The one I am looking for $99 for the software, and uses an overhead projector, a video camera, and a wire to pass a shadow over the object.

The david scan software looks promising, has anyone had any luck with the wire shadow scan in this software?

I currently create large relief carvings by programming the rough shapes in various software, hogging out most of the material on my CNC, then fine tuning the carving by hand. I would like to sculpt the relief in clay, scan the sculpture, then cut the more refined shape on the CNC, with minimal had carving involved.

Most of the systems I have seen so far are used for 360 deg scanning and not practical for large shapes.

Here are a few pics of my work.

That's nice work!

There's two different approaches to sculpture and cnc, do the sculpting in CAD and then output or do it by hand, scan it and then mill. You can get the same results either way and there's advantages and disadvantages to both, plus it's a personal preference too, some people don't want to go through the CAD learning curve and would rather be more hands on.

For me, I like to work in CAD as I think it's faster in most cases and there's more freedom to experiment as it's easy to undo, cut and paste, modify etc. I've included a pic of the type of stuff I like to do.

I also have a point scanner and a laser scanner which I use to copy "real world" objects for incorporation into pieces and for scanning pieces for other sculptors.

If you had a mill or router large enough to cut your pieces, you could set it up with a probe scanner fairly cheaply, the main disadvantage of probe scanners over laser is that they are sloooow. But if you can run them overnight, it's not a huge deal.

Laser scanners that are not contained in an enclosure like the NextEngine or the David homebrew scanner are capable of scanning a larger piece in sections and then joining them via the software so that's doable too.

Judging from your pics, you could also create those type of bas reliefs in CAD if you wanted and the budget could stand it.

Check out:

Freeform: http://www.sensable.com This is what I use, it's unbelievable.

http://www.artcam.com

Z brush http://www.pixologic.com

http://www.3d-brush.com/index.html

http://moi3d.com/download.htm it's free!

Silo http://www.nevercenter.com/

http://www.cbmodelpro.com/download.html It's free!


If you're interested, check out www.3dcadjewelry.com, it's a forum of mostly jewelers using various CAD software and mills/RP, but there are some wooodworkers and some bas relief work too.

Also, http://www.sculpture.net/community/forumdisplay.php?f=35 Mostly conventional hands on sculptors, but some people using new technology.

Thank you for all the great resources.

I prefer cad and 3D for design layout, base shape creation, and scaling, but find that I can create organic detail and subtle shape changes much faster by hand. So I use a combination of both. I also have built a laser scanner that I use with a digital camera. It gives me very precise results at the scale I am working with, however I am using three separate software programs to process the image data into a usable file. What I want to do now that I have been able to prove the physics and accuracy of the data, is marry it with software that will make the process much faster. Also my wife is an artist, and several of our employees can sculpt, however none of them are well versed in cad or 3D, so it will be very helpful to be able to scan their creations in a time effective manner. We are a small company, so cost effectiveness is something we must balance with time effectiveness.

After further review of my current options I am going to try the David scan, free download, and 150 bucks for the ability to merge and refine the scans. Seems like a good choice, even if it only gets us part way there. We can at least start incorporating the process into our workflow until we can justify a more refined process.

You might also check out the inexpensive laser option on www.machsupport.com It is in development and I have no idea if it will work for you, but it is at least worth looking into.

Mike

Dan Mauch of camtronics used to have the scan panel that you would put on a overhead projector

http://www.camtronics-cnc.com/

i would send him an email asking if he still has any information on it or the software