This week we are tasked with creating a 3D scan of a small item we have around the house using a 3D  scanning app. The first app I attempted to use is from the Google play store is called display.land. After looking at the tutorial on how to use the app I attempted my first 3D scans.

The first scan was of a small tub of pringles, something simple and with little detail as I have little experience with the app. It is safe to say that my first attempt and my second attempt did not go quite to plan.

A truly awful attempt at a 3D scan of pringles

I then attempted to use the app on a different item with more geometry, so I picked a playstation 4 controller. After scanning the controller and then waiting an hour for the app to process it could not process the scan. I decided to then give a different item a go. I decided to use car keys. Here is how these ones went:

Again, this went swimmingly. My friend commented on it “It looks like you’ve tried to iron your dog.”

It is safe to say that it did not go well. So I am going to try a new app and see if that has any affect on the outcome of the objects. The next app I am going to use is the 3D scanner app. After using this app on a couple of other items, it also did not go well and the models came out very messy and blurry. I figured I must be doing something wrong at this point so went back to the original app as I had more experience with it, where I attempted to scan my PS4 controller again. However Whilst waiting for it to process I decided it may be worth trying to scan the interior of my room to try something different.

The first attempt of scanning the room went significantly better than all previous attempts, here are some examples:

My bed and desk 3D scanned.

A birds eye view of half of my room.

These attempts came out much better than prior attempts, which has made me want to try another room and get a full picture. I may try the garden as that would be a cool image to see from above.

After attempting to scan a small part of the garden, this is the result. it took about 10 minutes to do, but the I think it is safe to say that the app does not like trees and bushes, as well as glare from the sun.

A part of the scan from my garden.

A wider shot of the scan of my garden.

An image of the part of the garden I scanned, the pond.

The app took around 3000 pictures and then comprised them to form the 3D scan. It was quite fun to do and came out fairly okay, but next time I think I should pick a room with less detail on smaller objects such as the tree and bush leaves.

The second part of the project is to design a part that can be 3D printed, I went with a previous project I have created. This is a TIE fighter model that came out really well for a first attempt.

My 3D printed TIE fighter model.

I went well enough that a second was printed as a display piece for the college I was attending at the time.

The two TIE models I 3D printed.

Although these went really well I believe, I did encounter a few issues whilst trying to print them. Due to the structure of the model, the centre of the model does not have any supports, therefore support material for the cockpit had to be made. This caused it to take significantly longer than expected origianlly, rough 5 hours a piece if I remember correctly. Another issue I encountered with the model is the smaller details, such as the wing struts and guns did not come out as well as they should due to the support material having to be removed and leaving small amounts here and there, reducing the detail. The final issue with it is that you can see the layers when looking closely.

When it comes to printing them next time, I would do some things differently. For example, in order to reduce the amount of time it takes for the it to print, I would print them in three or four separate parts, such as the two wings and the cockpit, possibly making the cockpit into two semi-spheres, and then glue these together. This would mean less support material will be needed, potentially even none at all. The only issue this would cause would be that you would have to manually put them together, but if the model is to be a childs toy like it was intended then this may not be a bad thing.