We held class this past week in the MakerLab working with Meshmixer, another CAD software by Autodesk which was actually developed by a UIUC alumnus, Ping Fu. We started the class off by taking scans of our heads, which would eventually become a digital bust, from either the handheld scanner connected to Meshmixer or the iSense scanner connected to the iPad, a process called reverse engineering. With the iPad, the process was simple enough, because the iPad approximated a lot of the texture of our faces, but the Meshmixer scanner was precise in capturing the images, thus scanning was harder and would not always work. This process was called laser triangulation. If a user did not have access to either of these scanners, there is an app available on smart phones called 123D Catch, which does the same thing.

After scanning my face and uploading it to Meshmixer, we could use the program to alter textures on our digital busts. After making all the changes, we transferred the images to Cura, which is compatible with the Ultimaker 3D printers. Some of the class was able to 3D print their busts, but some did not have enough time left over in the class period.

I always have believed 3D software is very beneficial in terms of efficiency, because it is not wasteful with anything physical. This type of software (scanning) can take an existing piece and then improve upon it.