Have been unhappy with the exchange between 3D CAS (Computer Aided Styling) and mock fabrication for a while. Very much so to the extent that it has caused me to be overly cautious in preceding to cutting a metal pattern. A solution to that has been to scan amendments that have been made in card. With COVID19 lockdowns this is somewhat tricky due to travel restrictions, and a private investment of standard equipment would be high (an Einscan 3D scanner has a £15,000 price tag). However, there are ways to gain similar very basic results that will allow a low level of reverse surface development. I found a handheld xyzprinting camera on the internet for around £150. The software that came with it was rubbish. However, I found a better interface from 3D Systems that runs the Intel RealSense sr300 software needed for the xyzprinter depth scanner. Pics below show the first ever scan from the xyzprinting scanner.

The scanner was pretty easy to use to be honest and the outputs reasonably accurate. Accurate enough to guide an artistic level of surface development. The aim won’t be to mimic the surfaces perfectly in areas of change but to use the rough mesh geometry to guide the construction of a new updated CAS model. An example of this process is exemplified in the pic below. For a while I have been unsatisfied with the 3D forms at the bottom of the top panel. In CAS it looks cool but in reality is looks wide and crudely formed from the front perspective view. So some time was spent tucking the surface in at the bottom in cardboard. Several mock models have been made so far to see what looks good in reality. Once a refined option was created my first scan of the card model was made. When comparing the CAS to the scan, you can see the CAS top panel is poking through the mesh scan at the bottom. I’ll remodel the CAS to get a close match to the scan, then cut out and fabricate a new CAD pattern from card to see how that looks. Hopefully it will be close to what I’m want to want. In general I’m finding the exchange between reality and 3D CAD comforting with regards to balancing design expectation against reality.