Workflow with a 3D scanner

3D Printing
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Hey all,

I recently bought the Creality Ferret Pro 3D scanner. My intention is to scan an object (lets say a game controller), and then model a stand and do a boolean operation to cut the scan from the stand.

Foolishy, I assumed this would be easy. I use the free version of Fusion 360, which doesnt allow conversion of mesh to solid (paid version does).

Does anyone have a workflow of free software which would facilitate this?

Thanks in advance.

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FreeCAD is certainly capable of converting a mesh to a solid and then doing boolean operations, but probably only for a manifold (fully closed and not self-intersecting) mesh.

I know of at least two open source software packages with which you can heal and otherwise manipulate meshes, including at least some boolean operations:

  • Meshlab you can install on your computer, and it’s very powerful. I’ve also found that I have to refer to documentation for every operation when I run it; I haven’t found it super intuitive.
  • Mesh:Tool, which is relatively new, runs in your browser and is relatively new. Here’s the initial documentation. I think that it uses the manifold library.

With a manifold mesh, @MangoJellySolutions has some potentially relevant tutorials:

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Thanks Michael.

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Depending on what “free” means in this context, there’s also Meshmixer which has a bunch of mesh fixing tools. Sadly, it’s only “free as in beer” (not open source), only runs on Windows, and Autodesk is letting it rot to try to force people to use Fusion. So, a sad end to a good tool but it’s still available for now.
https://meshmixer.com/

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