Á Measuring a feature with a hand-held vProbe from API. The API Omnitrac2 in the foreground sends a laser beam to a prism in the hand-held unit to orient it in space.


software and the skills to use it. It also points to the ques- tion: What’s the ultimate goal? Strand says one of the most common customer misconceptions is the belief that they need a CAD model. “Too many assume that CAD is what makes everything


work. But there are many possible deliverables that can be manipulated to meet various needs. An STL file is the most important example, and they’re much easier to cre- ate than a CAD. For example, an STL file is all you need for prototyping and 3D printing. You can also do inspection from an STL if you have the right software. And an STL is a more direct representation of the part, because when you go from a point cloud to a CAD you have to do some interpretation. When you’re just triangulating points, you’re just one step away from raw data. The only disadvantage of an STL versus a CAD is the file size, since a CAD file is generally much smaller than the STL for the same object, depending on the level of detail.” Naturally the relative ease of creating an STL results in much lower costs. Strand said, “Most scanners will scan


straight to an STL. So if you go that route you’re already at your deliverable after a little clean up. Depending on your scan time, clean up is a tenth to a fifth of the time, depend- ing on complexity. But if you need to create a CAD file, you would need anywhere from scan time to four times scan time. All those hours cost money. You also need a trained operator to do the work of going from STL to CAD. The software doesn’t do it automatically.”


One of the most common customer misconceptions is the belief that they need a CAD model.


Strand said when people think they need to go from point cloud to CAD, or point cloud to CAD with the addi- tion of 2D drawings, they sometimes consider hiring “Joe Blow with a laser scanner in his trunk” in order to cut their costs. “But if you just explain the functionalities of the dif- ferent deliverables, you can get them what they want for much less money.”


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