Coming back to design (for myself now) after 10 years away and was on UG/NX as a contract product designer for GM and was mainly an interior plastics designer and did a lot of class A surfacing. I'm now playing with Fusion trying to make things on my 3D printer and using the revopoint pop2 scanner. I first saw a video by Making for Motorsport and he suggested your channel. This is my first video of yours I'm watching and I'm loving it. I'm so thankful for this content. Thanks for your efforts. Crazy that this software is free and so capable. I'm old..
Thanks Ross! Great experience there! I used NX4/NX5 many moons ago. I was working on a project for an OEM that was using NX and required I work with their system. Super powerful tool! I WISH we had Class A in Fusion but it is a very capable tool. Even at the retail price of around $400/year considering how deep something like NX or Catia goes. Great to hear how you find the channel also. Hopefully in the near future I will have some more full process vids for scanning/design in the auto segment. Stay tuned!
I do not normally give comments, but your video was great; just what I was looking for creating a part with a scan that was not perfect. This is real-world information.
I don't know how long you can keep putting out the content that you do, but it's a design engineer and fellow cad cam guy you are doing a fantastic job I wish I could articulate what I know the way you do. I've been in this game 35 minutes.
Thanks Erik. I have a long list of videos I want to cover. As long as I can find the time I will keep on :) I have at least 14 more videos/series on my todo list and more requests keep showing up every week....
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I used to love large Christensen who did a lot of fusion 360 stuff he was a great teacher and so are you I watch your videos just so I can understand how to talk to my employees fantastic work
"BOOM" lol I actually produce a lot of CNC content as well but mainly for Autodesk. from 2.5x through 5x and turning. I also used to produce content for Mastercam up until 2020. I think Titans have a TV presence for sure but my biggest problem with their content is around not telling you why they do something. Like their old CAD content would simply model with the origin based on where their WCS would be(even though you still have to set it and you lose all the benefits of symmetry in modeling). or they would set up their stock coordinate system off the finish part rather than raw stock, but not tell you why. I try hard to make content that explains the choices we all have to make as designers, engineers or machinists and not just tell you to "do it this way because". I find little value in that personally. I plan to maybe put CNC content out at some point. I honestly didn't think I could cover FORMS this many ways but here we are ;)
Really needed this video. Been a designer for years, but new to Fusion and my Mole scanner. Putting this all together wasn't the easiest thing so I will watch this whenever I get stuck. Thank so much, new sub, & will definately watch more of your "how-to's".
Thanks! More recently I have done a few more of this type of video in a bit more detail. Here are the playlists. ua-cam.com/play/PLBDfGh8A8kXWYEY9X4vJ5sKGh6TPzrr2h.html ua-cam.com/play/PLBDfGh8A8kXWa_eSWWPPZ5NevfWsDwJrj.html
I’m currently doing some body panels from a scan of a Lotus Esprit and your videos are great for helping me visualise the workflow. Just wanted to say a big thanks for taking the time to do them, such a good resource.
Absolute awesome video. It's time to study surfaces and work with them, and I was lucky to be the first to see this video. I’ll just try to reproduce a scan of a part of a similar topology for Renault. Lot of thx✌
Glad to hear it. There is a surfacing playlist on here. The surface tools in fusion are still evolving and not perfect but it should give you some tools to work with.
3 months ago I was thinking hard about buying a 1000$ range 3D scanner or an Ipad Pro with lidar to speed up my design work. Thinking this would be miraculous. I started educating myself, and although I would find decent results scans on YT, it was far from perfect. Then I tried Photogramettry for a month or so and it did not produce satisfying results either. After that UA-cam algorithm suggested your 'Hobby vs Pro scanner' video. The moment of truth when you showed that scanning was good for reference but you could not use the scan 'as is', even with an expensive scanner. Now, my expectations about 3D scanner are closer to reality. With these two videos, I know what I would get into if I bought a hobby scanner. I love to see how you reverse engineer these scanned parts. The way you made the interior ring with offset surface, ruled and trim is going to be used from now on in my designs. Thanks!
I am glad it helped! Most of the scan reverse engineering I have done on this channel has been with the hobby level scan data. I am planning to do some meshlab videos in the future and talk more about mesh processing and manipulation, just need to find the time ;)
Thanks. Yeah its a big difference in mesh quality and resolution but honestly so much of it is the mesh software. The hardware isn't too far off the mark...
following along in your tutorial helps me some. still learning fusion... my question is if you were to scan the floor of a car to model a speaker box is this the same principal? The oblect scanned isnt fully defined due to just scanning the floor. Do you have any videos leaning more towards this type of modeling? Thank you
Yeah i do have a few different videos from motor mounts to this dash piece to making speakers for door panels. ua-cam.com/video/6ayKg400sEg/v-deo.html I don't specifically have a floor scanned but it should be the same principle. use the mesh as a reference and attach/match it where needed.
Great video, I learned about tools that I didn't even know existed. Is there a trick how I can position my scanned model reasonably? It floats in free space and I would like to center it at the origin or align it to a straight edge.
Yeah there isn't a great way to do it accurately. It is best to do it in the scan software if it will allow. I do have a video talking about this with a more mechanical part. ua-cam.com/video/82vD7YSKIAo/v-deo.html
Great video, very informative, thank you. I am wondering is no way we can create a formed shape much quicker? Such as creating a form, creating a plane, subdivide it as many times as desired, and then get the vertex points to snap onto the mesh (in the one axis). This would surely help create a form of the mesh much quicker? I am very new to playing with 3D Scans / forms :)
Thanks. Forms are great at getting the main shapes down. Once you have to add details like the openings you need to go to sketch/surface for sure. This was a part a subscriber was trying to make and because it was going to have mounting details and features to fit the dash we just started with sketch/surface approach. but 100% you can chose the one that is right for you.
Ha!! Literally am doing a video right now on this exact subject, but using prismatic solids more rather than forms and surfaces… (I was planning on signposting to your channel anyway so 🤷♂️)… Great minds think alike!
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign cheers. it’s a suspension upright, gonna go on the mini eventually, but slightly modified and I want to have an easily modifiable model to do lots of iterative design (guess) work on… and .stl don’t do that! 😂
Yeah STLs don't like that :) Paramesh helps but not like you want. In case you didn't see it I did a "configurations" video using API to pull in data from an XML file and build versions of a part. Might be neat to design your points in a spreadsheet and spit out a dozen CAD files easily. Shoot me an email support@caducator.com if you want me to tweak the code for you.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I only understood about 50% of that 😂😫🤦♂️. And this is what I love about your channel, when I am smart enough to do what ever it was that you said, I know the video will be there! 😂👍🤷♂️. But seriously that’s probably a bit advanced for me, but I’m gonna check it out anyway! 👍
Thanks a lot for the wonderful videos. i'm looking to make side scoops for my car what do you suggest is the best way to get the 3d scan of the area where the scoop will be mounted.
Depending on the car, sometimes you can find/buy scans online if its really popular. There are places that rent high end scanners, at least here in the US. Often times they are rented for a week minimum and last time I rented one it was around $1500 for the week. Another option is to contact an engineering firm that can scan it for you. I have one that I work with located in Atlanta, GA. The last option, and the least precise, is to use something like an XBOX kinect sensor with Skanect software OR look at some of the off the shelf consumer solutions like RevoPop. The absolute last option is to try and do it with Photogrametry. Basically taking a lot of pictures of the fender and using software to try and create a mesh. This requires you use a good camera and have good lighting. Free versions of software often times will limit the number of pictures(usually around 50 I think), while paid versions allow for more. If you have an Xbox v1 or v2 kinect you can try Skanect for free for hobby use and see how it works.
How did u take it from mesh to designing. I have a mirror that I scanned the bottom of and I want to design a new body off the shape of mirror for a spacer. Howwwwwww
Depends on what you need/mean. I have a lot of videos on mesh based workflows. Sounds like you might want mesh section sketches. Week or so ago i started a new series doing mesh based design for an RC car part. might help.
When solidworks added the flatten surface tool in 2015 or so that was big. especially if you are designing parts and cutting composite fabrics. There are addins (exact flat) for Fusion to flatten faces but they are made mainly for fabrics..and it's not cheap You have to go through a lot of tools to get what you what, I hate that :) Curious why you use Rhino over SWx for surfacing? You could bring your scans right to SWx(not great with mesh data) and use PowerSurfacing to reverse engineering them then flatten. Might save a few steps.
I generally default to OBJ for this but there are some nuances depending on what you have. STL will be fine if you are talking about a scan because it is only going to be triangles. STL saves the points for each triangle. OBJ actually stores a vector so it can handle non-triangular faces. So if you are remeshing as a quad-mesh for example then you would want to use an OBJ. That is probably the biggest difference when picking. There are other mesh formats but generally their benefits show up elsewhere. Like 3MF can hold some 3d printing setup information where an STL is just a mesh. OBJ files are often used for rendering over something like an STL. hope that helps.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign i have tried scanning with my iPhone 14 pro max using scaniverse the scans turn out good on my phone but complete crap once exported to fusion.
yeah in some cases like this I handle users questions with their datasets but they don't always want to share. I have a few other reverse engineering series where I provide the datasets. ua-cam.com/play/PLBDfGh8A8kXWYEY9X4vJ5sKGh6TPzrr2h.html I plan to do more with my own scans in the near future as well.
The differences between a construction line and a center line are minor. Measuring from a center line to another line will default to a diameter measurement and not just a distance. So generally I use the Center Line type of I a modeling a revolved part. I think it might automatically select the center line when doing a revolve and it does auto select the center line if doing a mirror, but again if its not a revolved part I generally don't use it. You certainly can use it.
My current issue is that I’m working with a scan of a quarter panel that’s around 800k poly so I have to reduce it down for Fusion to even process it. I’ve tried both of these technics and it’s painstaking. I’ve been forced to just convert the mesh and edit the actual mesh… which takes forever.
The Tesla wide body I did was the highest density mesh I have used in Fusion. It had 10million facets on it. While it was slow it was usable. It certainly helps to isolate the area you need. I am happy to take a look and see how it performs on my end if you want to send me an email. support@caducator.com
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign That would be amazing! I’m very much an armature at this right now but I’m learning a lot. Once I get to my computer I’ll shoot an email.
There are companies working on mesh to solid conversion tools but in general the tools are expensive and the process is time consuming. If you just want to 3d print then you can take the mesh and do that. But if you want a CAD model made of solids or surfaces, that takes a bit more work.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Just that parts like this seemingly are like 90% parametric, and a ton of CNC / 3d printing / rev- engineering is going to be parametric. It also allows us to do minor and major changes in cases of material shrinkage- etc. I'd just like to see how the approach to parametric reverse engineering differs.
@@user-jk9zr3sc5h sure thing. Its not exactly the same but if you haven't seen this series I did (some) of the model 3 different ways, forms, surfaces, and finally parametric. ua-cam.com/play/PLBDfGh8A8kXWa_eSWWPPZ5NevfWsDwJrj.html
Huge yes to videos like this. Awesome work, I learned a lot of great techniques here. Thanks for doing what you do!
My pleasure! Never hesitate to send me video ideas you want to see or ask questions.
Coming back to design (for myself now) after 10 years away and was on UG/NX as a contract product designer for GM and was mainly an interior plastics designer and did a lot of class A surfacing. I'm now playing with Fusion trying to make things on my 3D printer and using the revopoint pop2 scanner. I first saw a video by Making for Motorsport and he suggested your channel. This is my first video of yours I'm watching and I'm loving it. I'm so thankful for this content. Thanks for your efforts. Crazy that this software is free and so capable. I'm old..
Thanks Ross! Great experience there! I used NX4/NX5 many moons ago. I was working on a project for an OEM that was using NX and required I work with their system. Super powerful tool! I WISH we had Class A in Fusion but it is a very capable tool. Even at the retail price of around $400/year considering how deep something like NX or Catia goes. Great to hear how you find the channel also. Hopefully in the near future I will have some more full process vids for scanning/design in the auto segment. Stay tuned!
Would you be abble to reverse engineer a grille design and do some modifications?
I do not normally give comments, but your video was great; just what I was looking for creating a part with a scan that was not perfect. This is real-world information.
Awesome, thank you!
I don't know how long you can keep putting out the content that you do, but it's a design engineer and fellow cad cam guy you are doing a fantastic job I wish I could articulate what I know the way you do. I've been in this game 35 minutes.
Thanks Erik. I have a long list of videos I want to cover. As long as I can find the time I will keep on :) I have at least 14 more videos/series on my todo list and more requests keep showing up every week....
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I used to love large Christensen who did a lot of fusion 360 stuff he was a great teacher and so are you I watch your videos just so I can understand how to talk to my employees fantastic work
I watch Titans of CNC for entertainment and I like the guy, but compared to him there's actually some meat in your potatoes.
"BOOM" lol I actually produce a lot of CNC content as well but mainly for Autodesk. from 2.5x through 5x and turning. I also used to produce content for Mastercam up until 2020. I think Titans have a TV presence for sure but my biggest problem with their content is around not telling you why they do something. Like their old CAD content would simply model with the origin based on where their WCS would be(even though you still have to set it and you lose all the benefits of symmetry in modeling). or they would set up their stock coordinate system off the finish part rather than raw stock, but not tell you why. I try hard to make content that explains the choices we all have to make as designers, engineers or machinists and not just tell you to "do it this way because". I find little value in that personally.
I plan to maybe put CNC content out at some point. I honestly didn't think I could cover FORMS this many ways but here we are ;)
Really needed this video. Been a designer for years, but new to Fusion and my Mole scanner. Putting this all together wasn't the easiest thing so I will watch this whenever I get stuck. Thank so much, new sub, & will definately watch more of your "how-to's".
Thanks! More recently I have done a few more of this type of video in a bit more detail. Here are the playlists.
ua-cam.com/play/PLBDfGh8A8kXWYEY9X4vJ5sKGh6TPzrr2h.html
ua-cam.com/play/PLBDfGh8A8kXWa_eSWWPPZ5NevfWsDwJrj.html
I’m currently doing some body panels from a scan of a Lotus Esprit and your videos are great for helping me visualise the workflow.
Just wanted to say a big thanks for taking the time to do them, such a good resource.
Glad to help. Also super cool car! I have only seen a handful of them in person (not on fire ;)) Very cool car!
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign thank you, it’s a wreck at the minute (hence needing the body parts…) but fortunately not on fire :) wish me luck!
Absolute awesome video. It's time to study surfaces and work with them, and I was lucky to be the first to see this video. I’ll just try to reproduce a scan of a part of a similar topology for Renault. Lot of thx✌
Glad to hear it. There is a surfacing playlist on here. The surface tools in fusion are still evolving and not perfect but it should give you some tools to work with.
Incredible video! Tons of good stuff here, just what I was looking for
Glad it was helpful!
3 months ago I was thinking hard about buying a 1000$ range 3D scanner or an Ipad Pro with lidar to speed up my design work. Thinking this would be miraculous. I started educating myself, and although I would find decent results scans on YT, it was far from perfect. Then I tried Photogramettry for a month or so and it did not produce satisfying results either.
After that UA-cam algorithm suggested your 'Hobby vs Pro scanner' video. The moment of truth when you showed that scanning was good for reference but you could not use the scan 'as is', even with an expensive scanner.
Now, my expectations about 3D scanner are closer to reality. With these two videos, I know what I would get into if I bought a hobby scanner. I love to see how you reverse engineer these scanned parts. The way you made the interior ring with offset surface, ruled and trim is going to be used from now on in my designs. Thanks!
I am glad it helped! Most of the scan reverse engineering I have done on this channel has been with the hobby level scan data. I am planning to do some meshlab videos in the future and talk more about mesh processing and manipulation, just need to find the time ;)
we need more videos just like this you are awesome thank yoou
Thanks! Happy to help.
As a scanning professional, for you to get results like that coming from a hobbyist scanner is not bad at all. I could easily work with that mesh
Thanks. Yeah its a big difference in mesh quality and resolution but honestly so much of it is the mesh software. The hardware isn't too far off the mark...
Thankyou for this video! just taught me alot!
Glad it was helpful!
following along in your tutorial helps me some. still learning fusion... my question is if you were to scan the floor of a car to model a speaker box is this the same principal? The oblect scanned isnt fully defined due to just scanning the floor. Do you have any videos leaning more towards this type of modeling? Thank you
Yeah i do have a few different videos from motor mounts to this dash piece to making speakers for door panels. ua-cam.com/video/6ayKg400sEg/v-deo.html I don't specifically have a floor scanned but it should be the same principle. use the mesh as a reference and attach/match it where needed.
Great video, I learned about tools that I didn't even know existed.
Is there a trick how I can position my scanned model reasonably? It floats in free space and I would like to center it at the origin or align it to a straight edge.
Yeah there isn't a great way to do it accurately. It is best to do it in the scan software if it will allow. I do have a video talking about this with a more mechanical part. ua-cam.com/video/82vD7YSKIAo/v-deo.html
Great video, very informative, thank you. I am wondering is no way we can create a formed shape much quicker? Such as creating a form, creating a plane, subdivide it as many times as desired, and then get the vertex points to snap onto the mesh (in the one axis). This would surely help create a form of the mesh much quicker? I am very new to playing with 3D Scans / forms :)
Thanks. Forms are great at getting the main shapes down. Once you have to add details like the openings you need to go to sketch/surface for sure. This was a part a subscriber was trying to make and because it was going to have mounting details and features to fit the dash we just started with sketch/surface approach. but 100% you can chose the one that is right for you.
Ha!! Literally am doing a video right now on this exact subject, but using prismatic solids more rather than forms and surfaces… (I was planning on signposting to your channel anyway so 🤷♂️)…
Great minds think alike!
Awesome! Something new for the Sierra!? I enjoyed the ITBs added to it!
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign cheers. it’s a suspension upright, gonna go on the mini eventually, but slightly modified and I want to have an easily modifiable model to do lots of iterative design (guess) work on… and .stl don’t do that! 😂
Yeah STLs don't like that :) Paramesh helps but not like you want. In case you didn't see it I did a "configurations" video using API to pull in data from an XML file and build versions of a part. Might be neat to design your points in a spreadsheet and spit out a dozen CAD files easily. Shoot me an email support@caducator.com if you want me to tweak the code for you.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign I only understood about 50% of that 😂😫🤦♂️. And this is what I love about your channel, when I am smart enough to do what ever it was that you said, I know the video will be there! 😂👍🤷♂️.
But seriously that’s probably a bit advanced for me, but I’m gonna check it out anyway! 👍
Next time you want to kill an hour here you go ua-cam.com/video/mxvQgpgOvzE/v-deo.html :)
Thanks for the video !!! Super informative!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks a lot for the wonderful videos.
i'm looking to make side scoops for my car what do you suggest is the best way to get the 3d scan of the area where the scoop will be mounted.
Depending on the car, sometimes you can find/buy scans online if its really popular. There are places that rent high end scanners, at least here in the US. Often times they are rented for a week minimum and last time I rented one it was around $1500 for the week. Another option is to contact an engineering firm that can scan it for you. I have one that I work with located in Atlanta, GA. The last option, and the least precise, is to use something like an XBOX kinect sensor with Skanect software OR look at some of the off the shelf consumer solutions like RevoPop.
The absolute last option is to try and do it with Photogrametry. Basically taking a lot of pictures of the fender and using software to try and create a mesh. This requires you use a good camera and have good lighting. Free versions of software often times will limit the number of pictures(usually around 50 I think), while paid versions allow for more.
If you have an Xbox v1 or v2 kinect you can try Skanect for free for hobby use and see how it works.
How did u take it from mesh to designing. I have a mirror that I scanned the bottom of and I want to design a new body off the shape of mirror for a spacer. Howwwwwww
Depends on what you need/mean. I have a lot of videos on mesh based workflows. Sounds like you might want mesh section sketches. Week or so ago i started a new series doing mesh based design for an RC car part. might help.
I use vx model to section my scans then rhino for surfaces then solidworks for flattening and export to cnc cut
When solidworks added the flatten surface tool in 2015 or so that was big. especially if you are designing parts and cutting composite fabrics. There are addins (exact flat) for Fusion to flatten faces but they are made mainly for fabrics..and it's not cheap You have to go through a lot of tools to get what you what, I hate that :)
Curious why you use Rhino over SWx for surfacing? You could bring your scans right to SWx(not great with mesh data) and use PowerSurfacing to reverse engineering them then flatten. Might save a few steps.
What is the best format to save a scan and export to fusion
I generally default to OBJ for this but there are some nuances depending on what you have. STL will be fine if you are talking about a scan because it is only going to be triangles. STL saves the points for each triangle. OBJ actually stores a vector so it can handle non-triangular faces. So if you are remeshing as a quad-mesh for example then you would want to use an OBJ. That is probably the biggest difference when picking.
There are other mesh formats but generally their benefits show up elsewhere. Like 3MF can hold some 3d printing setup information where an STL is just a mesh. OBJ files are often used for rendering over something like an STL.
hope that helps.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign i have tried scanning with my iPhone 14 pro max using scaniverse the scans turn out good on my phone but complete crap once exported to fusion.
Really helpful thanks!
Glad it helped! I have more scan to part content coming next week hopefully! Stay tuned.
It would be nice to have a mesh file so that it would be possible to do the exercises with you.
yeah in some cases like this I handle users questions with their datasets but they don't always want to share.
I have a few other reverse engineering series where I provide the datasets.
ua-cam.com/play/PLBDfGh8A8kXWYEY9X4vJ5sKGh6TPzrr2h.html
I plan to do more with my own scans in the near future as well.
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign It's already done :)
Is there a particular reason why you don't define your mirror lines as "center line" constructions?
The differences between a construction line and a center line are minor. Measuring from a center line to another line will default to a diameter measurement and not just a distance. So generally I use the Center Line type of I a modeling a revolved part. I think it might automatically select the center line when doing a revolve and it does auto select the center line if doing a mirror, but again if its not a revolved part I generally don't use it. You certainly can use it.
@13:29 i thought you were making Raphael the teenage mutant ninja turtle ! ;)
LOL. Looks like Raph got hit with a brick to the face :)
Currently doing this… it’s been a struggle.
My current issue is that I’m working with a scan of a quarter panel that’s around 800k poly so I have to reduce it down for Fusion to even process it. I’ve tried both of these technics and it’s painstaking. I’ve been forced to just convert the mesh and edit the actual mesh… which takes forever.
The Tesla wide body I did was the highest density mesh I have used in Fusion. It had 10million facets on it. While it was slow it was usable. It certainly helps to isolate the area you need. I am happy to take a look and see how it performs on my end if you want to send me an email. support@caducator.com
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign That would be amazing! I’m very much an armature at this right now but I’m learning a lot. Once I get to my computer I’ll shoot an email.
I drank shoot for every "again" of yours ... I made a mistake like never before
Since the shape is already scanned in, why can’t the computer make the mesh? It’s a computer, that’s what hey are for.
There are companies working on mesh to solid conversion tools but in general the tools are expensive and the process is time consuming. If you just want to 3d print then you can take the mesh and do that. But if you want a CAD model made of solids or surfaces, that takes a bit more work.
id love to see a parametric workflow for doing this
I do have some parametric reverse engineering videos. Is there something specific about this part you want to see? Or just the general workflow?
@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Just that parts like this seemingly are like 90% parametric, and a ton of CNC / 3d printing / rev- engineering is going to be parametric. It also allows us to do minor and major changes in cases of material shrinkage- etc. I'd just like to see how the approach to parametric reverse engineering differs.
@@user-jk9zr3sc5h sure thing. Its not exactly the same but if you haven't seen this series I did (some) of the model 3 different ways, forms, surfaces, and finally parametric. ua-cam.com/play/PLBDfGh8A8kXWa_eSWWPPZ5NevfWsDwJrj.html