This week we were finally back to the MakerLab in BIF doing a 3D scanning workshop. 3D scanning & printing is kinda like a reverse engineering for what we had been doing so far, and its current major application is more on the medical field I assume.

First we were divided into groups of 2 people, one person hold the scanner to get the meshes picture of the other’s head. There were 2 scanner we used, one is plugged into an ipad and one is connected to a pc, and it turned out the ipad one actually worked better and was more convenient. Second we moved the file from the ipad to our computers and open the file in Meshmixers, which is also a software developed by Autodesk. Meshmixer’s function is quite similar to Fusion 360, which allows you to make adjustment to the scanned image. In my case, I want the exact scanned model so I didn’t make adjustment. The third step is just the same as in any 3D printing. You just open the file in Cura, select the appropriate size/printing speed and everything and then import the data to Ultimaker machine to print the object.

I think 3D scanning technology can make a lot of difference in the medical/surgery treatment. There are car accidents everyday and people lose their arms/legs because of that. By using this technology, people can get artificial limbs that matches better.