It’s almost the end of 2020! If we’ve learned anything about the pandemic this year, it’s that we can evolve during these uncertain times and adapt to whatever comes our way.

We thought now is the best time to feature the best new 3D scanning technologies to help you make plans for 2021. They can give your work life a major boost. Our team always researches, tests, and only recommends hardware and software that are the best value we can find in the market.

We divided them into 4 categories:

1. 3D Scanner
2. 3D Scanning Accessory
3. 3D Inspection
4. Reverse Engineering

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3D Scanner

AI-Powered Artec Eva / Leo Handheld 3D Scanner

Artec: Trailblazers in Combining 3D Scanning and AI

It’s been a long-standing ritual that Artec releases one major update every year for Artec Studio. The company’s proprietary 3D scanning software works with all of its handheld, desktop, and long-range 3D scanning systems. This year, Artec made an exception with two announcements. The team made a major breakthrough in combining 3D scanning with the power of AI called the HD Mode for Artec Studio 15.1.

What So Special About the HD Mode?

With the HD Mode, now you can get both high-quality scans with the convenience of a handheld 3D scanner.

Exclusive to the Artec Eva and Leo, the HD mode doubles the resolution of these handheld 3D scanners and produces substantial improvements in scan quality. The new algorithms are now capable of extrapolating more information with the same amount of 3D capture. All you have to do is enable the HD mode on the 3D scanner. You get richer quality and detailed 3D scans with less noise.

Scan Density

With the power of the HD mode, what this means is the scan density per frame is no longer restricted by the hardware. You can see how much more information is captured with the HD mode compared to the SD mode (refers to previous standard definition mode).

Major improvements also include the ability to:

• scan different types of challenging surfaces
• get cleaner scan data
• get the nitty-gritty details of an object
• widen the spectrum of object size these two handheld 3D scanners can scan

What This Means For New and Existing Users

For users who purchase a new Artec Eva or Leo, this means that you are getting a great value, capturing amazing 3D scan quality for the price of the scanner.

For existing users who already have an Artec Eva or Leo, if you upgrade to the latest version of Artec Studio 15.1, you get these types of results! All the work is done with just a software upgrade. No extra work is required. It’s like getting a new 3D scanner!

Interested in upgrading to Artec Studio 15.1 to get better results? Contact Us →

See It In Action

Using the HD Mode, there’s no change to the way you scan. You just scan as you normally would while Artec Studio does all the heavy lifting work. The results are so spectacular that our motorcycle wheel scan captured with the Artec Eva was selected by Sketchfab as their Staff Pick!

Learn More

For more details on the AI-Powered Eva and Leo with the HD Mode, check out our product page.

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Accessories

AESUB Vanishing 3D Scanning Spray

Solving An Industry Problem

Traditional powder 3D scanning sprays cover the object but they don’t necessarily do a good job in adhering to the object’s surface. As a result, the powder spreads everywhere causing a real mess. For example, it’s extremely difficult to handle or move the object after it has been sprayed. This can be a pain to cleanup.

Traditional 3D Scanning Spray – Before AESUB Blue

Great inventions are typically borne out of real problems that you can’t find an adequate solution in the market. This is what happened to AESUB Blue Vanishing 3D Spray Founder, Fredrich Schlott, a mechanical engineer who was running his own 3D scanning service company. He was looking for a 3D scanning spray that doesn’t cross-contaminate by spreading dust to the 3D scanning systems, technicians, and its surroundings. Hear about why he started AESUB in his own words:

What’s So Special About AESUB Blue?

You might think AESUB Blue is just a 3D scanning accessory but you will be amazed by the 3D scanning results you get simply by spraying the part with this product.

What’s different about AESUB Blue is that it’s a vanishing spray. Once you spray it on an object, it will disappear after a certain amount of time depending on temperature (usually within a few hours) so there is no mess and no cleanup!

The Result: You don’t contaminate yourself, the 3D scanning system, or the working environment. Best of all, it provides a consistent coating that makes it much easier to scan dark, shiny, metallic, clear, or any hard to scan surfaces.

AESUB also offers a permanent 3D scanning spray when you need to scan an object over a few days.

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3D Inspection

Geomagic Control X Essentials

The Demand For Low-Cost 3D Inspection Software

Product quality and reliability matter more than ever. Companies are producing more manufactured goods to meet customer demands. As a result, they need to be absolutely sure that every product that comes out of the production line is consistently good.

Product quality ultimately has a direct impact on the company’s bottom line. It affects:

	Good Product Quality	Poor Product Quality
Customers	Boost customer loyalty (trust)	Customers not happy with the company (lose confidence)
Post-Sale	Fuel positive reviews, word of mouth (boost marketing and sales)	Negative reviews and complaints (bad publicity/press) Replacement and return (more costs + work and headaches)
Profitability	Boost revenue and reduce cost	Lost sales and higher costs

This is not just a problem for large corporations. Small to medium-sized businesses who might not have as big of a budget as global brands are also looking for affordable ways to implement a quality control system. When manufacturing in volume, companies need assurance in their product consistency. It’s also about getting accurate and easy to understand reports to pinpoint and fix the source of quality issues—fast.

What’s So Special About Geomagic Control X Essentials?

The two new Geomagic Control X editions use the same platform as the professional edition at approximately half of the price!

Tailored to companies with a smaller budget that want to get started in quality inspection, 3D Systems introduced Geomagic Control X Essentials.

This is great news because the entry-level Essentials packages provide the best value as general-purpose 3D inspection systems that are feature-rich without a high price tag. Not all organizations need advanced features like automated inspection or engineering analysis. If your operations expand and require additional quality inspection features, you can always upgrade to the professional version.

Here’s a comparison chart to better understand which version would be the best fit for you:

See It In Action

To give you a better idea of what Geomagic Control X Essentials offers, here’s a quick demo:

For more information on Geomagic Control X Essentials, please visit our Geomagic Control X Software Essentials Page.

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Reverse Engineering

QUICKSURFACE 2021 Scan To CAD Software

Demand For Low-Cost Reverse Engineering Software

Similar to 3D inspection, more and more small to medium-sized companies are looking for low-cost reverse engineering software to help speed up the product development process. QUICKSURFACE is a low-cost standalone scan to CAD software set out to change the reverse engineering industry. It has comprehensive SCAN to CAD tools that are simple to use. As a bonus, it’s almost substantially more affordable compared to similar software on the market.

The new QUICKSURFACE 2021 has just been released. It includes new exciting new tools to help you to make the reverse engineering of 3D scans even easier.

Here’s a list of new features and improvements [with video].

What’s So Special About QUICKSURFACE?

QUICKSURFACE opens up reverse engineering in a way that is both approachable and accessible. The workflow is straightforward. It cuts through all the hassle typically associated with the reverse engineering process to get you the end result fast. At an affordable price, it spreads the use of the technology so more people can benefit from using scan data from a 3D scanner as a basis for design.

The standalone reverse engineering software gives users a versatile toolset to create parametric and freeform CAD models while making sure accuracy and design intent are intact.

With QUICKSURFACE you can do:

1. Parametric Modeling (History-based Modeling): Parametric modeling is a key feature of QUICKSURFACE. The best part: You can easily modify and make changes to the parameters from solid bodies even at a later time. You can directly transfer a parametric history tree to SOLIDWORKS® for mechanical parts.

   

2. Freeform Modeling (Automatic Surfacing + Manual Surface Modeling): Great for reverse engineering organic or complex surfaces, you can do it instantaneously with a click of a button or have total control to manually adjust the resolution and position of control points of the created surface.

   

   

3. Hybrid Modeling (Combining both Parametric modeling + Freeform modeling): Real-world mechanical parts can have a mix of both organic and prismatic shapes. Starting with freeform and basic primitives, you can build a complex CAD model by trimming them and can later change the surfaces based on the design intent.

Try QUICKSURFACE For Free

If you are still unsure if QUICKSURFACE is right for you, the best way is to test it out yourself.

Start a 15-day free trial and test drive it to see if QUICKSURFACE is a good fit for you.

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Get Ready for 2021

We hope that article will help with your planning into the New Year. As we’re getting really close to the end of the year, you still have time to get ready for next year.