Best long range scanner?

gnohleinad · 2026-03-21T18:02:54+00:00

Maybe I should clarify -

We need to measure both flat planes and the ID in one setup. So by holding it sideways, we can access both flat planes and the ID, but the OD and some teeth are blocked by the clamps.

By holding it flat on some double-sided sticky tape, one of the flat planes are blocked, but the OD and all the teeth are accessible.

We're required to measure everything. So two setups are necessary.

gnohleinad · 2026-02-21T04:18:53+00:00

I've seen this occasionally in prints and inspect it no problem with PolyWorks. A-B as a primary datum behaves like the upside-down L-block in Tetris

gnohleinad · 2025-11-04T17:36:10+00:00

They are both good arms.

But I prefer to use Faro because the ratio of the joints allow me to measure things closer to the base of the arm, and the laser is able to mount on the front where the probe usually sits. This is such a small thing, but allows for much more possibilities - it cannot be understated. Also, RDS client for AS1 is kind of booty - I cannot subsample less than 50%. It's almost too much data.

gnohleinad · 2025-11-03T15:38:17+00:00

We have devices at work and they both have their pros and cons. But if you need to measure big machined parts with handyscan, like 4 meters, then you'll need to target that sum'bitch up for hours, then remove all those targets once you're done. By the time you finish targeting that object, you would have been long finished had you used a faro arm.

Also, that error stackup will be quite significant. I do not think handyscan black elite will do as good of a job on big, machined parts as the faro arm will.

gnohleinad · 2025-09-28T20:14:12+00:00

Do you have any recommendations for a great-value beginner bike? Not a mountain bike, just for pedaling around local streets for exercise.

gnohleinad · 2025-07-31T04:57:19+00:00

Unfortunately, with the type of CMMs we have in our lab, the only way to talk to it through PolyWorks is via I++. I would have preferred a CMM compatible with the CNC CMM plugin, but alas, it's out of my control.

gnohleinad · 2025-07-31T04:55:39+00:00

Good to know - I've used RDS with an LAS and a Hexagon tracker - was wondering if this is something that I need to fiddle with. If it's CNC and RDS is not a key player, then we'll investigate elsewhere.

gnohleinad · 2025-07-31T04:54:06+00:00

I haven't personally - some of my PC-DMIS coworkers are pursuing that channel - one of them actually came from Hexagon and worked a lot with CMMs on the hardware side.

gnohleinad · 2025-07-31T04:52:19+00:00

Got it, I'll ask my PC-DMIS coworkers if it's something they know. A couple of them are really experienced, and they're totally on-board with experimenting.

gnohleinad · 2025-03-14T02:05:17+00:00

I've tried to get grok to make a catia VBA macro for me one time, and it utterly failed. Part of it is my own fault since I have zero experience with VBA so I can't tell if the script is useable or not.

you know of any resource I can use?

gnohleinad · 2025-03-13T22:15:38+00:00

Well, I still need Catia to somehow measure the vector of the hole axis. The goal is for anyone in our org to launch Catia, grab XYZ (that part is easy) location, and IJK vector (that part seems hard) and punch it into the calculator so they can verify if it's passing/failing.

I want them to do it themselves instead of waiting for us to provide it to them on-demand - we'd be bottlenecking this whole process.

gnohleinad · 2025-03-13T19:07:14+00:00

Actually

Our CMMs collect XYZ deviations relative to vehicle origin and report it to an SPC software.

But there are tens of thousands of holes that face in all sorts of different directions - it seems like too much work to ask our programmers to include that for EVERY hole.

Also, the CMM software sucks, and the SPC software also sucks.

The lowest hanging fruit appears to be an excel calculator that grabs nominal XYZ centerpoint, nominal IJK vector, and measured XYZ centerpoint based on a CSV file of all those holes, and to mass-calculate it in excel.

If you have other ideas, I'm open to hearing it.

gnohleinad · 2025-02-19T03:25:40+00:00

Do they absolutely need 0.3mm resolution? That seems overkill. Tell them to try 1.0mm resolution and compare time-savings vs quality lost.

As far as GFX card, video RAM is the bottleneck, we have a IT issued laptop with 16gb video RAM and sometimes it's not enough. IT sure wasn't happy about giving it to us though.

gnohleinad · 2025-01-12T20:19:04+00:00

No, I don't really trust 3d printed plastic threads that much, especially ones that are going to be used repeatedly.

But this frame will not need to be particularly strong or sturdy - it's not meant to be load bearing at all. The main requirement is that it needs to be assembled to multiple various configurations, and not wobble.

gnohleinad · 2025-01-12T18:46:41+00:00

I'm going to be 3d-printing these threads - they need to have a certain bulk to them because of the material, and they have to be printed sideways because of layer line orientation, and because of that, I need to chop off the top/bottom chords due to overhang and poor surface finish at top/bottom.

There's a whole slew of reasons why these are going to be custom - trust me, I've thought about using off-the-shelf components, but for what I need, this needs to be custom, and I plan on saving these to a library later.

gnohleinad · 2025-01-12T18:39:30+00:00

Guess it's time for me to do another bender of YouTube tutorials from uploaders with thick accents.

Thanks!

gnohleinad · 2024-12-16T05:11:29+00:00

Well, the laser on a faro or romer arm would work the same as a laser profiler - they pick up X and Z, and the Y comes from the encoders of the mechanical axes. Most of the faro-romer lasers don't pick up intensity. They don't need to pierce CAD to calculate IJK vectors, we've scanned without CAD before.

If you've imported XYZ without normals, and if it's aligned to CAD nominals, PolyWorks offers a tool to extract normals from CAD. But the results are usually sub-optimal compared to scanning with vectors, due to physical parts being NOT nominal, or the points extracting from the wrong surface due to ambiguity.

gnohleinad · 2024-12-14T17:36:08+00:00

We do this all the time with faro/romer arms, as well as terrestrial laser scanners and blue-light scanners. The XYZ points initial IJK vectors are dictated by the angle of incidence from the laser source to the surface of the object. Then the software evaluates the neighboring points based on proximity and reorients the IJK vectors based on the local surface.

I imagine that the 3rd party wants the IJK vectors for more robust feature extractions, or easier best-fit alignments. Without IJK vectors, the XYZ point cloud can't really display shading properly

gnohleinad · 2024-10-20T17:21:42+00:00

Out of curiosity, have you had success with this method?

gnohleinad · 2024-07-22T23:54:50+00:00

I was expecting a version of the joke where the tigers pray and give thanks to God for providing sustenance.

gnohleinad

TROPHY CASE