I’m trying to understand the role of measurement in 3D printing. Can folks in the community comment on the need for 3D measurement in their applications:
• do you need 3D measurement for parts you will create a model for and what kind of resolution do you need for that?
• do you need 3D measurement for parts that you printed? what kind of resolution do you need for that?
• If you’re doing it now, how? With a ruler? With an optical tool?
Digital calipers are the weapon of choice for most 3d-printing purposes.
And the reason for measurement is generally that you want to attach to something else. So measurement is a way to get a 3D printed object to conform to some other object.
Also, measurement with calipers is a required machine calibration tool.
Do you see people using structured light instruments either to characterize objects after printing, or to create models from existing parts before printing?
There has definitely been work with structured light for 3d scanning, but they don’t seem to have the precision to be particularly useful for measurement and checking tolerances (at least not with the open tools).
What precision do you need?
Comparable to a digital caliper, somewhere on the order of 10 microns.