3D Scanner Tutorial

Artec Eva Videos

It is strongly recommended that you watch the videos from the link below before proceeding with using the Artec Eva. 

Doing so will increase your productivity with the scanner and reduce the number of questions that you may have. 

Scanning Tutorial Videos 

Plugging in Artec Eva

Two cords are needed to plug into the Artec Eva:

• The first plugs into the Artec Eva towards the bottom of the scanner, and it screws in. This goes into the battery pack or other power source. 

• The second cord plugs one side into the side of the Artec Eva and the other side into the computer via USB. 

Scan your object

1. Place the object you intend to scan on a flat, non-reflective surface. The object should be at least the size of a baseball.

2. Connect the scanner to a power source, then connect it to the laptop through USB. 

3. Open Artec Studio 12. If the program doesn't detect the scanner, first maker sure the scanner is plugged in before opening the software. After you have verified this, try closing and reopening Artec Studio. 

4. Click "Scan" in the upper left hand side of the screen. The scan settings window will pop up; make sure the "enable automatic base removal" option is selected. You are now ready to begin scanning your object. 

5. Press the top button on the scanner once to begin a preview of your object. This will allow you to check the distance of the scanner from your object and verify that the scanner is working properly. On the left side of the preview, you will see the distance meter. This indicates the distance between the scanner and the object; for best results, try to keep the meter indication as close to the center of the meter as possible. 

6. Press the top button on the scanner again to begin scanning. Press the bottom button at any time to stop scanning. Remember: green is a good distance, red is too close, and blue is too far. 

7. Capture multiple scans, and scan from all angles to capture every visible surface on the object. Be sure that you capture overlapping areas among your different scans. This is so that you can "stitch" the scans together by selecting common points later on while processing your scans. 

8. Keep the scanner pointed at the object the whole time, and try and keep the distance correct to not lose focus. Losing focus will result in more additional scans, which will later make processing your scans more difficult. 

9. Scan your object until enough data is collected, making sure that there is enough overlap between the scans. 

10. When enough scanning data is collected, remember to press the bottom button to stop your latest scan. 

Editing your scan

1.  If there is an unwanted surface that you scanned, look at the latop screen. Select the editor icon on the left side, and then select eraser. 

2. Select the type of eraser you want to use (2D selection, 3D selection, etc.).

3. Click and drag to "paint" over what you would like to erase from your data. 

4. The eraser is automatically set to go all the way through the object. 

5. Use the mouse wheel to make the eraser circle bigger or smaller (Control+Shift+Mouse Wheel).

6. Undo mistakes using the Undo button or Control+Z.

Aligning your scans (skip if you are only using one scan)

1. Option A: Use auto align by selecting it and clicking on "apply" 

2. Option B: Manually align (use if auto align does not work correctly)

• To rotate a scan, left click and drag. To move (separate) scans, right and left click, and drag. Using two scans at a time, select at least 3 common points to align. Then click apply. An example of this is in the image shown below.

  • • Unregistered scans will appear as a green dot on the left hand side (Example: Eva Scan 2 in image below).

    • Registered scans will appear as a blue dot on the left hand side (Example: Eva Scan 1 in image below). You can change this at any time by double clicking the dot. 

• When manually aligning, only have one scan unregistered, and have the scans that you want to remain where they are and align with registered. 

Tools

Global Registration 

1. Select "Tools" on the left hand side of the screen. Select "Geometry" to greatly increase the speed of this fine tuning process. 

2. Look at the max error numbers in the upper right hand corner of the monitor under "Max er."

• These numbers should range between 0.3-0.7 for rigid objects, but could climb to 1.3 for people because of body movements. 

• If the max error says warning, double click on warning and delete the frames that say "failed."

3. Apply the Global Registration. If the max error is too high, you may need to rescan your object.

Fusion

1. Still under the "Tools" icon on the left hand side, click "Fusion." It is recommended that you select the "watertight"  feature before applying a fusion. Making an object watertight is crucial to having a model that can be 3D printed. 

2. For most objects, use sharp fusion, and click apply. For people, use smooth fusion, and click apply. 

3. Always make sure that the resolution number is greater than or equal to the worst max error in your scans. 

4. The "Small Object Filter" should be used after every fusion. This will keep the smallest object only and deleted unnecessary "noise" in your fused scan. 

Mesh Simplification 

1. Still under the "Tools" icon, click "Mesh Simplification."

2. To quickly simplify the mesh, use "Fast Mesh Simplification." This works well for many objects, but does not work well for objects with fine detail. 

3. Most computers cannot process the number of polygons produced by your scan. Reduce the number of triangles to approximately:

• 100,000 for an object such as a bust

• 500,000 for an object such as a full body scan

4. Click "apply." 

Fix Holes

Hole Filling 

Click on the "Edges" button on the left hand side of the screen. If necessary, use the hole filling function to hill any obvious holes left in your scans. These holes would be due to poor scans without overlap or improper alignment. If your object does not have any holes at this point, you may skip this step. 

Watertight

To make your model watertight for 3D printing, go to "Edges," "Watertight," and "Apply." If you selected the "watertight" feature during the fusion process, this step is not necessary.

Export

1. To properly save your file, go to File -> Export -> Meshes, and save it to an external flash drive. The Makerspace laptop will periodically delete projects to save memory, so save your work to an external device. 

2. Save your file as a .STL for Makerspace 3D Printers. 

3. Save your file as a .OBJ or .VRML 2.0 for color to carry over.