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It’s Father’s Day tomorrow and what might be a great gift idea? How about a 3D scanner to complement a 3D printer?
Most Fabbaloo readers have at least one 3D printer on hand, but far fewer have a 3D scanner. A 3D scanner is a surprisingly useful device that can open up many new possibilities for creating 3D printable content.
Creality is one of the leading suppliers of low-cost, high-performance 3D scanners, and they currently offer eight different devices with differing capabilities. Let’s look at three specific devices today, the Ferret Pro, Otter, and Raptor.
CR-Scan Ferret Pro
The Ferret Pro is the lowest cost of the three, and perhaps of interest to the most readers. It’s a handheld 3D scanner that attaches to your smartphone (Android and iOS), as shown at top.
Anyone who’s used a handheld 3D scanner will know that stability is really important during scanning. The Ferret Pro solves much of the issue by including an anti-shake technology that dramatically increases the success rate of scans.
The Ferret Pro is able to capture 24-bit color images as it scans a subject, and these textures can be incorporated into the 3D model generated by the device’s software. You can get a fully colored 3D scan easily with this device — with 0.1mm accuracy.
Like most 3D scanners, the Ferret Pro will have challenges with difficult subject materials that are highly reflective or very dark. For these it is still easy to capture them by using a scanning spray that temporarily makes them opaque.
We were able to see a test scan of the Ferret Pro and were quite impressed with not only the ease of capture but the processed results. The Ferret Pro could be an ideal first 3D scanner, especially at the current price of US$429.
CR-Scan Otter
The Otter is a step up from the Ferret Pro, and provides significantly greater accuracy: 0.02mm. Like the Ferret Pro, it also provides full 24-bit color textures on scanned models, and includes the anti-shaking feature.
Unlike the Ferret Pro, the Otter is far more capable of handling dark or reflective objects due to its four-lens stereo vision system.
The Otter is able to handle objects between 10 and 2000 mm in size, which will cover many applications. This is a professional 3D scanner that could be used in industrial settings. It’s available today for US$809.
Hold on, Creality is offering a ten percent discount on the Otter if you purchase it with this code: OTTER100. Now could be a good time to pick up an Otter 3D scanner.
CR-Scan Raptor
The Raptor is Creality’s flagship 3D scanner, the model with the most features and capabilities.
It matches the Otter in accuracy, at 0.02mm, but can handle objects as small as only 5mm across. That’s quite unique in 3D scanners, as many devices are simply unable to resolves such tiny objects.
The Raptor includes anti-shaking and full color capabilities like the other two 3D scanners, but offers a faster scanning speed: up to 60fps. This is quite important as this enables faster and smoother movement of the operator during scanning. In other words, it’s a lot easier to use.
One reason for this is that the Raptor includes 7 blue parallel laser beams and near-infrared beams for scanning. The combination of these technologies are able to resolve the tiny details and handle most objects.
To give an example of Raptor capabilities, it is possible to 3D scan an entire human body in less than two minutes using the Raptor. That’s quite impressive, as I’ve spent quite a bit longer scanning people. Creality also includes a special “face mapping” algorithm in their processing software that is able to capture additional details.
The Raptor is priced at US$1499. That’s more than the other two, but quite a bit more functionality is provided. Like the Otter, Creality is also offering a ten percent discount, but you must use the special code RAPTOR100 when purchasing.
