Where to start generating good car visualizations?

Please post any tips or advice you have in general relating to laser scanning either whilst onsite or office based.
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Lars
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Where to start generating good car visualizations?

Post by Lars »

Hi!
The company I work for uses 3d visualizations of car body parts.
These visualizations are now bought externally, and are only used by our customers for identification purposes (not for precise measuring or manufacturing). Still, the quality as visualizations are high.
However, since we have the cars in our possession, making these visualizations ourselves would make us less vulnerable, save money and process time.

My idea is to make an external 3d-scanning of the complete car body.
By using 3d Studio max, Maya or similar sw, cuting out a body part surface (polygon mesh), and extrude the back of it by eye.

- What type of equipment are needed (HW and SW) for the 3d scanning, what skills, and what procedure shall we follow to make visually good 3d scanning ourselfs?

- Is there any books/tutorials showing how this is done from zero experience in 3d scanning?

- Which equipment/scanning devise/SW would you recommend for such a work?

Best
L. Ahlgren
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Re: Where to start generating good car visualizations?

Post by stevenramsey »

The first big question is, are these finished cars and painted, if so you will find cars to be one of the most difficult subjects to scan and visualise. Is the geometry important or is it just a visual. What is the end deliverable.

Drop me a PM as I would love to talk to you about this.
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Re: Where to start generating good car visualizations?

Post by Mike Annear »

Hi Lars,
The finish of the car isn't such an issue, use baby powder mixed with water in a spray bottle on shiny surfaces.
I haven't used a Faro Freestyle scanner, but from what I understand it would be your best bet as far as hardware goes. I do have plenty of experience with Faro and Leica hardware and software.
Modelling Software... Rhino 3D, it can handle large pointclouds, and is already used by thousands of car/boat/aircraft designers. You can then import your NURBs or Poly model into Max or Maya for animation.
I can send you examples of past projects if you like.
The Rhino 3D Gallery is here - https://www.rhino3d.com/gallery
Ask your scanner salesperson for similar examples done with their products, and how it was done, step by step.
Better still, ask them to scan a car for you, then show you the entire modelling process.
CloudCompare is also invaluable for cleaning, clipping pointclouds etc...and is free.
Regards,
Mike.
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Re: Where to start generating good car visualizations?

Post by max72 »

Check that Mantis scanner.
It's insanely fast and is performing really well with this kind of target.
Great portability too.
There should be some car examples on the forum.
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ing. Massimo De Marchi - +39 347 32 17 049 - www.studiodemarchi.net
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Re: Where to start generating good car visualizations?

Post by Jamesrye »

If the accuracy that you want isn't insanely high, then you could do this with something like the Freestyle scanner from Faro, or even photogrammetry.

Even the level of accuracy offered by this solution might be good enough for your application?
http://www.123dapp.com/catch

I'll second Mike's recommendation regarding the use of Rhino3D. It's a brilliant program - and very affordable.
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Re: Where to start generating good car visualizations?

Post by Lars »

Thanks for all suggestions and ideas.

3D scanning a complete car is the first step in our future process.
The next step is to cut polygon surfaces from this 3D model, and extrude the back of them into 3D parts (e.g fenders, hoods, headlamps etc).
The use of these 3D parts is for identification purposes only, so I figure this backside-extrusion could be done by eye, based on the car brand spare part catalog 2D pictures.
By doing so, the 3D parts is just proximate visualizations not copies, which hopefully exclude us from claims of protection of designs.

In many cases the parts is just sheet metals (e.g a fenders) so a perpendicular extrusion of 1-2mm would very easily give a fairly good visualization of the part. In other cases (e.g head lamps) the 2D spare part list pictures (and some estimation) is necessary.
Still I think the external surface given by the 3D scanning of the car is the most important for the identification-purpose, and the back of it secondary.

The 3D parts needed are parts that could be damaged in a crashed car, profitable to be repaired. So they are judged being part of the car outer shell, and hence partly seen by the 3D scanning. Less visible parts like nuts and bolts that is not seen by the 3D scanning will have very low visual detail requirements and could be drawn by hand.

When generating 3D parts of sealing´s and gaskets I figure the adjacent 3D part surface could be used for generating a path, along which a sealing cross section is extruded.

Is there anyone succeeding doing a similar process and could share some experience?

Best
/Lars
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Re: Where to start generating good car visualizations?

Post by Oxbow »

Hi Lars,

send me a privat message, then we can speak about it. We have expierence in car scanning and modelling for different application, also for forensic stuff. Same of my customers are investigators and have same topics like you have it. This example was for body kit for a 900 hp lambo. It need high accuarcies. We have scan it and make the design of the parts with the ideas of customer togehter. They create mold from that, to produce cfk parts later.

regards.. ..Eric
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Re: Where to start generating good car visualizations?

Post by Matt Blackwood »

Lars, you can look at my website that has almost 100 scans of vehicles, some free that you can play around with. All these vehicles were scanned using either the Faro X330 or the Faro Freestyle without any spray used. The main purpose of these meshes is to be 3d printed so the resolution is decimated to be good enough for that - they are definitely not metrology grade scans and each one is different as far as quality.

Rhino would be a great start for extracting panels from your scans. Let me know if I can be of any help.

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Re: Where to start generating good car visualizations?

Post by Lars »

Thanks Matt!
My guess is that the quality of your models are conformed well with our needs.
From what I understand you consider the process of extracting panels into 3D parts as a manageable way to go.
As for today, when the 3D visualization parts are externally bought, we use 3D Studio Max (Autodesk) for the final touch up and adding some part textures.
What would be the benefit from using Rhino instead of 3D Studio Max for the 3D modelling and adding the texture?
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Re: Where to start generating good car visualizations?

Post by Matt Blackwood »

Lars,
Rhino is the program I am most familiar with and I'm pretty sure there is a way to do what you want to do with it. However I doubt if there is any benefit over 3ds Max if you already have it and are familiar with it.

Let me know if you need anything else, also I would love to see updates on your project!
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Specializing in Meshes, Textured Meshes, and 3D Prints of Automobiles from scan data
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