3D printing=Makerbot, 3D scanning=?

[kannaballistic]

I was talking about the Makerbot Replicator and 3D printing when someone asked me if I knew of companies that produce similarly affordable 3D scanners. I couldn't think of any, but does anyone have suggestions?

[Brad Luyster]

Autodesk's 123D Catch does an acceptable job for a lot of applications.  It's a free program.  Brian Harper has been doing some really good work with it: http://www.theopencrowdproject.com/

[Jeff Johnson]

From 2010 http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-08/laser-and-webcam-mate-produce-diy-budget-3d-scanner

[Brian Harper]

Thanks Brad.  I've been using 123D Catch with some pretty good results and I'm getting close with figuring out how to run Reconstructme on the computers I have - 3D scanning with an Xbox Kinect - although the quality of the scans doesn't seem to be there yet with Reconstructme.

Anyway, earlier this year, I experimented a little bit with Makerscanner - http://www.makerscanner.com/  I never had great results with it, but I also didn't spend too much time experimenting with it, so it might be worth looking into.  Basically its a system that allows you to laser scan with a line laser and a webcam.

Brian H