Hi,

Tried to keep it short but thanks for sharing all the advice and tips gents!

"I constructed the nose of a truck using the long range scan from the Focus3D as a modeling reference" - Do you have a place where you share pics? The Faro products seems very interesting! How many times did you need to move the arm's position for the measurements? How many days did it take?

"I actually use SolidWorks, but have been looking at Moi and Rhino for BETTER? surfacing tools" You are confusing me when you say this! :) Cos this --- http://www.raptor-aircraft.com/home.html --- made me believe Solidworks gives you everything in one package? Looks like SW do FEA calculations as well. Not too sure about the renderings but I believe Keyshot has this under control! :) We were talking about buying Rhino to handle the surfaces. I believe our next investment will be either Rhino or SW.

"If you have a concern over how faithful your CAD model is to the hand made form, then you also need a way to measure the difference." - At this time I have some freedom to make modifications to the original design. I had to cut the ribs for the hull with the CNC. (skeleton) My cut parts were spot on. This is where I spotted the small symmetrical differences.

"Perhaps there is another scanner or service that might." - A sales representative of 3Ds gave us a quote for a complete scan of the fuselage. He did some demonstrations with the Arctec and Sense 3d scanners. It might be an option for the future cos we wont be able to afford something like the Arctec (thats if we are really looking for reversed engineering tools). The quote is equal to 3 months my salary. So its better to continue with the data we already have for now. I did some turntable scans with NextEngine. The results were great! Its very handy for parts to be scanned by the table! But the accuracy is lost with single scans. Its quite an effort to assemble the single scans. And after the fusion the comparison were off by more or less 3% over a span of +- a meter. Didnt take me long to realize single scans wont work.

"having a lack of control over surface modification if you need to make a change would be brutal if you lofted that entire model". I fully agree with you on this! Making modifications in GMD is brutal! Because a 2mm difference in the guide curves makes a hell lot of a difference in the shape. Thats why I hope MoI will help us achieve our goals. We are talking about making a 4manned version and I would like to see if I could maneuver the lofts like Andrei did in his videos. His method seems good and the results of his rendered boat looks flawless. That way it wont be a hazzle to modify surfaces. There might be one problem and I hope Im not aiming of target here. My average control points through these profiles were about 22, which sounds like a lot? Will I need to make blue prints of the fuselage profiles and project them in MoI? Sounds like a lot of work but totally worth it if works.

Regards

 

 

 

 

Some related pics