A couple of weeks ago, our trusted IT technician Henri Pill was leaving our company. Because of all the good work he has put into our organization we decided that it was only appropriate that we should make him a present.
We all agreed that a 3D printed bust sculpture of him would be the perfect keepsake.
To create the digital twin we wanted, it was not enough with the 3D printers and CAD software we have had access to for many years. We needed something new and ground-breaking, and luckily for us, we had just added 3D Scanners to our portfolio.
Our scanners
Peel 3d are entry Level scanners delivered by Creaform. These are easy to use scanners that comes with its own scanning software, to an affordable price and are perfect for product development and reverse engineering – in addition to creating digital twins.
See the Scanner here: The peel 3D Scanner
International Collaboration
We ended up using the Peel 2, as Henri is indeed larger than 0.5 metres. This scanner was at the time in my office in Norway – and Henri was in Estonia. We shipped the scanner to Estonia, and after 30 minutes of instructions my colleague (whom never had laid a hand on a scanner before) was ready to get the job done.
After finishing the scan, the raw data appeared in Peel 3D, the scanning software that comes with all Peel scanners. The data was exported and sent to me. Using Peel 3D I performed the final adjustments by removing spikes, holes, and performed other small changes. In the end I had created a model that was ready for the next step.
Import to SOLIDWORKS
There are a lot of different file formats to choose from when exporting from this software. We chose to export the mesh file as an OBJ file in order to keep the colour information.
We then imported the file to SOLIDWORKS, and used it as a reference to model a pedestal for the bust.
Once satisfied with the look of the pedestal, we saved the file, added the colour information and exported the data.
Ready to 3D Print
After working on the part in SOLIDWORKS, we exported the OBJ file and opened it in a software called 3D Sprint (delivered by 3D Systems), because the file needed to be prepared a bit more, we continued to slice and orient the figure.
Printing and post processing
We decided to print it using a 3D Systems ProJet CJP 660 Pro which is a 3D Systems printer using ColorJet Printing (CJP) technology – making it possible to print in full colour. We contacted Anders Bo Raahede Christiansen at IBA Nexttech who helped us produce the print. Our partner, IBA Nexttech, is a membership-based 3D printing competence center located in Kolding, Denmark.
Success!
Just like that, we had created the perfect memento for Henri to bring home with him.
