Digitize to milling with Rhino and fusion

[suntravel]

It is stupid easy to generate point clouds with Centroids Digitizing, but what to do with the clouds to copy a part from them?

One easy way is to use the old Centroid MoldMagic (could be updated... )

Fusion will not read point clouds, like most other not too expensive CAD/CAM stuff.

So I used Meshlab Freeware to make a mesh from the clouds, but this is very slow and complicated.

Keith told me he uses Rhino, so I had to try this also : lol:

And yeah, he is right super-fast and easy to make a surface from a point cloud in Rhino, export it as STEP.

Open in fusion and make your toolpaths in minutes.

By the way modelling in Rhino is for organic shapes much faster and more capable than fusion too.

So now I have to spend another 1000 bucks

Uwe

[Black Forest]

So now I have to spend another 1000 bucks

Uwe

Just stop doing anything with organic shapes it will save you a 1000 bucks. Problem solved!

[Nigelo]

Very interesting Uwe. FWIW, FreeCad directly supports import of Point Clouds and is fully parametric / completely free. I use FC for all my 3D additive modelling but not for Machining - it could be a useful and (cost free) intermediate step for your processing. FC Points Import currently supports .asc /.pcd /.ply and .e57 files with 2D dxf / step export etc.

See link https://wiki.freecad.org/Points_Import

I have steered clear of FC beta releases but the released versions (currently v0.21.0) are usually stable although not without occasional bugs

[suntravel]

Jep, FC is quite common in the German DIY scene. I have used it a short time also, but not for point clouds, I found it not ok for my taste compared to fusion. Same with Blender compared to Zbrush. Rhino is well different, but blazing fast for designing products.

Here is an example of its real time rendering while working on a model...

Uwe

[slodat]

I have a middle range 3d scanner, Shining 3D Freescan Combo. I use QuickSurface to create parametric geometry from the scans. QuickSurface can work with point clouds from what I understand. I export a mesh from Shining 3D's software and use QuickSurface to model. It works well. Not cheap though. One seat is about $4500. It paid for itself the first project I used it on though.

Customer's sample part:

The scanner is perfect for this sort of thing. Scanned the part from two different angles and aligned the scans.

Final scan:

Opened in QuickSurface. The mesh data is used to create a sketch. What's nice about QS is you can reference the scan data while creating the sketch.

That's used to make parametric geometry in QS.

With the scan visible we can see how they look.

The comparison heat map tool is really helpful to see how the model is compared to the scan.

This step file is then brought into Fusion for refinement and making the parts.

The scanner / Quick Surface combo was perfect for this project. I cut the plate on the plasma and milled the features on the Tree CNC knee mill.

[slodat]

Turned both ends of the cold rolled bar and had this:

Welding went quite well. I snuck up on the fit between the shoulder on the shaft and bore in the plate. They stayed true. I was surprised how well the welding went. Turned down the weld with the Pacemaker.

Family photo:

[ShawnM]

I also digitize aircraft instrument panels with my probe using wall following and I can import that point cloud file into AutoCAD. This is all 2D stuff but it saves me a ton of time over my old school manual method. Adding this feature to my CNC router was a real game changer for my panel business. My probe cost me less than $80 and it has been working like a champ.

[suntravel]

I have tested FC for point clouds now. There is no automatic build in, most users get Cloudcompare to make a mesh, but this does not work well with uneven spaced points in height, like Meshlab.

Also, an STL mesh is not the fastest way to get to milling, till now Rhino makes in seconds a surface, that can be saved as a STEP file and works perfectly in fusion for milling.

Uwe

[EastMemphis]

Anything 2D can be "scanned" with a standard smartphone camera. That example provided by @suntravel would be perfect to digitize with just a photo.

The key is to take the photo from as far away as possible with grid paper (I use 10 to the inch paper) as a background, then bring the photo into Photoshop and correct for spherical aberration.

Once the picture is corrected, I bring it into Fusion 360 as a canvas and then calibrate it. From there, it's a simple matter of tracing the edges with a spline. The accuracy of such a method is quite impressive. I rarely have to correct the model.

The added bonus is that the camera is in my pocket and costs nothing to use. No point clouds to deal with. No anomalies buried in the model that have to be teased out. Simple and effective.