Artec 3D has announced the release of Artec Studio 11, the software used in concert with the company’s 3D scanning hardware.
For anyone who’s ever dealt with a 3D scanner before, they know that the process isn’t as easy as advertised. Scanning a model can be a painstaking and long process, and once the scan is done, piecing together separate meshes to create a full model can be even harder. What’s worst, in the end, even after all of that work, you can still wind up with an incomplete mesh. But Artec’s engineers say they’ve solved that little snag with one of Studio 11’s newest tools, Autopilot.
With Autopilot, Artec has made the process of stitching meshes simple by asking a few questions about the characteristics of the scanned object and what type of output is required by the user. After these questions have been answered, Studio 11 snaps into action, removing useless capture data (like background noise), aligning each scan with the edges of its counterparts and then converting the mesh into an appropriate 3D model file format. Of course, if you’re an experienced 3D scanner, you can always enter manual mode and use all of Studio 11’s features yourself.
Still, Autopilot stands out in this release because it gives novices the ability to use 3D scanning technology effectively.
“It’s virtually impossible to tell the difference between a 3D model created using Artec Studio 11’s Autopilot mode and one that was created manually by an expert user,” said Artyom Yukhin, president and CEO of Artec 3D. “By making the process more intuitive, we are making the integration of 3D scanning easier among various professional industries ranging from entertainment and medicine to manufacturing, design and historical preservation. With Artec’s advanced algorithms built into the system, users can create a professional-grade 3D model in a matter of minutes.”
In addition to Autopilot, Artec Studio 11 also features tight integration with CAD software like Geomagic Design X and SOLIDWORKS. Once a mesh has been stitched, users can directly import the file into Design X to do more work on the mesh or dump the file into SOLIDWORKS to begin modeling.
As someone that used a 3D scanner only a handful of times over the last year, I can say that one of the reasons I’ve been hesitant to really run with the technology has been the difficulty and uncertainty that I’ve run into while scanning and stitching meshes. If Studio 11 can remedy half of that problem, then I might pay 3D scanning a bit more attention. It is a pretty useful technology, especially when it works.
For additional information about the Artec Studio 11 release, visit Artec 3D’s website.