DIY 3D scannning with Microsoft Kinect

Original link:

[Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]











What you need:
A good computer with a powerful video card
A Microsoft Kinect or Asus Xtion, used for gaming mainly with the XBOX 360!
ReconstructMe Console
MeshLab
A 3D CAD software, I use CATIA V5
I recommend reading trough ReconstructMe website before, especially the Installation and Hardware and Usage pages!

1. Install all the needed prerequisites (display drivers, motherboard drivers, CPU drivers, C++ Redistributables, Kinect or Xtion sensor driver).

2. Install ReconstructMe Console

In the ReconstructMe installation folder, you will found a few batch file (.bat). As it is a console application you need to start the program by lunching the appropriate batch file for your usage. You can also create new batch file and .txt configuration file to your own settings.

Here are the two batch files I used, for multiscan and for stitch functions.







3. Process to scan
3.1. To scan the chassis of a car, use the multiscan and stitch functions of ReconstructMe. It allows scanning the whole car at once, you still need to reset the scan as soon as you exceed de 1m3 scanning zone.
3.2. If your computer is not powerful enough to run real-time scan, you can perform an offline reconstruction.

4. Process the mesh in MeshLab
Once ReconstructMe have created one or more .ply files you need to import you files into MeshLab to clean the mesh and export it to .stl or other format.

First take a look at these basic tutorials about MeshLab:
Project: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]
Navigation: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]
Selection, part one: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]
Selection, part two: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]
Cleaning: Basic filters: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]

You can now clean the mesh using the “basic filters” and by manually deleting some zone.

If you used multiscan, you will need to re-align and assemble all you .ply files. ReconstructMe multiscan and stitch function create one file for every piece of you 3D puzzle and positioned them in the 3D space.

4.1. Alignment
Take a look at this video: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]

4.2. Merging files
Using Poisson filter, see this video: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]
Using VCG filter, see this video: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]

I personally used the Poisson filter and I have then deleted extrapolated zone.

Note: You might process to next step before, as those filters are pretty heavy on CPU calculation.

4.3. Simplification
To reduce the size of the file and make it easier to manage by your video card, use a simplification function and remove as much details as you can afford! Look at this video: [Tens de ter uma conta e sessão iniciada para poderes visualizar este link]

5. Export to your CAD software
You should now have a clean simplified mesh with only one layer.
In MeshLab, click File > Export Mesh As… and select you format. I use stl as it works well with most software.


Conclusão:

Disponibilizo o meu kinect para quem estiver perto de Aveiro e quiser fazer umas experiencias, desde que me ajude quando quiser fazer o meu carro