Western University

Faculty of Engineering
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Scanned Data
Processing and Formats
 Data Flow in Computer-Aided
Reverse Engineering

Data
Acquisition
 Data Acquisition

 Multiple view scanning and registration overcome occlusions

 Registration of Scanned Views
 Registration = the process of recovering the rigid
transformation that relates these two coordinate systems
 Coordinate transformation: P = RP’ + T
 To determine the coordinates of a point P after transformation,
rotation (R) and translation (T) matrices need to be known
 These are found based on the amount of partial overlap that
exists between views
 If no overlap exists, then registration is almost impossible
 Mesh Reconstruction

 The three issues to be addressed by mesh construction

algorithms are: topology, overlap, and missing data
 Surface Fitting

 If polygonal meshes are not an acceptable output of RE data

processing, then parametric/NURBS surfaces have to be
generated
Recommended Videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcnMoJYM9Yg
(SW Scanto3D convert an STL to solid, “pillow”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjzqWCfNfmQ
(SW Scanto3D, STL to solid, “plastic bottle”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y_iXMhUpr4
(SW Scanto3D, STL to solid, “hand”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYwF0J0Rejc
(SW loft through cross sections)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UOn_Db0600
(Geomagic Capture for SW)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCuOHFCnpuE
(SW Power Surfacing RE add-in)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFEyt9h_g24
(SW import STL option w/o Scanto3D)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G7dapOxjUI
(SW Scanto3D, HD video)
 Sample files

Point clouds and mesh files:

https://www.laserdesign.com/sample-files/
 SCAN TO 3D

floor_mat.asc floor_mat.stl
SCAN TO 3D FROM POINT CLOUD
SCAN TO 3D FROM POINT CLOUD

Point cloud
Mesh Preparation
Mesh Preparation
Mesh Preparation
Mesh Preparation
Mesh Preparation
Mesh Preparation

Mesh
Mesh Preparation
Surface generation
Surface generation

Preview
Surface generation
 SCAN TO 3D FROM MESH

Mesh

Note: point cloud file and mesh file come from different scans
SCAN TO 3D FROM MESH
 MESH FILES
STL (an abbreviation of "stereolithography") is a file format native to the stereolithography CAD
software created by 3D Systems. STL has several after-the-fact backronyms such as "Standard
Triangle Language" and "Standard Tessellation Language".

OBJ file extension is known as Wavefront 3D Object File which was developed
by Wavefront Technologies. It is a file format used for a three-dimensional object containing 3D
coordinates (polygon lines and points), texture maps, and other object information.

3DS is one of the file formats used by the Autodesk 3ds Max 3D modeling, animation and

rendering software.

WRL is a file extension for a Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) file format often used to
display virtual reality environments. 

PLY is a computer file format known as the Polygon File Format or the Stanford Triangle Format.
It was principally designed to store three-dimensional data from 3D scanners. 
SCAN TO 3D FROM MESH

Surfaces
SCANTO3D – more examples

Duck new engine – from STL

 SCANTO3D – more examples

Anya – from OBJ Anya – from PLY

SCANTO3D – more examples

Anya – from STL

 SCANTO3D – more examples

slug imported as graphics.SLDPRT slug imported as surface.SLDPRT slug imported as solid.SLDPRT

Cartoon Slug.obj
 SCANTO3D – more examples

Cartoon Slug.obj SCANTO3D

 SCANTO3D – more examples

Cartoon Slug.obj SCANTO3D

Mesh Edit
SCANTO3D – more examples

Cartoon Slug.obj SCANTO3D

Curve Wizard
SCANTO3D – more examples

Surface Wizard
SCANTO3D – more examples

Analytical surfaces available when

Guided creation is selected
Works poorly
SCANTO3D – more examples

slug solids with SCANTO3D surfaces extracted.SLDPRT

SCANTO3D – more examples
SCANTO3D – more examples

Vertebra.asc