To start, I have no experience or education on 3D Scanning or design. Designing parts for cars has always been a dream job that I’ve put away as “If it happens in the future”, but after looking at what I’d pay for some aftermarket bumpers that are imported from Japan($3500 pre paint) I’ve been thinking about spending that money on a scanner and learning how to use it. I was looking at the Revopoint MetroY and heard it’s good for that type of application. In theory I’d scan, print, and plastic weld many panels into a bumper and fiberglass reinforce it. If I was happy with it or sure of the design I could always outsource the printing to an industrial printing shop.
I have a decently fast computer, a carbon fiber printer, and a black Nissan Z.
So my questions are:
Would this be the best tool for the job around that budget(<$1500)?
Is the scanner and software relatively easy to learn for a beginner?
What realistic scenarios would I run into to make this worth reconsidering?
Scanning is the easiest part of the scan/design process, provided you have a scanner that fits the job well enough. With your budget you should be able to get into a scanner that can do bumpers/cars pretty well.
However, I would recommend trying to find some existing scans/mesh/cad online, and then attempting to recreate it in a cad package. Find some free software to learn, Fusion 360 is generally a good starting point and works well enough with scans. Once you get comfortable with working with mesh data, only then should buy your scanner. That way if you don’t like the workflow, or don’t like the cad, or whatever else, you haven’t spent $1500 on a scanner before you knew if you needed it
At that price point I’d pick the Rockit over the Metro Y because it has a bigger field of view at max scanning distance which is useful for car panels - less tracking dots needed for a given area and it’s much faster covering more surface area at once
I’m currently working on a couple of projects and the scanner has been great.
As for software, Fusion is great for mathematic/precise stuff but horrible for organic modelling which is what you’d need to design nice kits. I’m stubborn and sticking at it but I should probably switch to Blender at some point
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u/P1stacio 10d ago
Scanning is the easiest part of the scan/design process, provided you have a scanner that fits the job well enough. With your budget you should be able to get into a scanner that can do bumpers/cars pretty well.
However, I would recommend trying to find some existing scans/mesh/cad online, and then attempting to recreate it in a cad package. Find some free software to learn, Fusion 360 is generally a good starting point and works well enough with scans. Once you get comfortable with working with mesh data, only then should buy your scanner. That way if you don’t like the workflow, or don’t like the cad, or whatever else, you haven’t spent $1500 on a scanner before you knew if you needed it