The scanner works by using the opposing lasers to scan a vertical strip on the object, which the camera then records the reflections of.
Scanning software then creates a point cloud from the data which tracks
the object structure.
Once it records that slice, it rotates slightly and does the same for the
next area.
This carries on until it has done a 360 degree rotation, whereby the
camera and laser assembly raises up to the highest point that it scanned
and does another rotation.
The scanner does this until the entire object has been scanned.
The Matter and Form Scan software is fairly straight forward to use,
definitely helpful on the consumer end of the market.
You have 3 options when starting up, New Scan,
Calibrate and Scan Viewer.
These are pretty self explanatory, New scan
starts the scanning process, Calibrate does
what it says on the tin and Scan viewer allows
you to look at previously scanned items you have saved.
Upon your first time starting the software (by which you have to register an account on their website and feed in the serial number on the underneath of the scanner), you will have to hook up the scanner via the included USB cable.
It will then ask you to calibrate by using the bundled chequerboard pattern block by putting it
on the turntable and letting it do it’s thing.
Once that is out of the way, you can get to scanning whatever object you desire.
Simply centre it on the turntable, press the New Scan button and it will ask you whether the object is single colour or multiple colour.
If it is single colour you can simply start, but if it is different colours you are asked to pick a part of the object to scan that is the lightest and then part that is the darkest.
This allows the scanner to not get confused mid scan.
Scanning an object can be as quick as 5 minutes for smaller less detailed scans, but can take several hours if you ramp up the detail setting and use a larger object.
We would typically ramp up the detail and leave it going overnight or while we were away to get the best results.
When the scan completes you are given the option to Save Now or Save Later.
You are also given options to clean up the resulting point cloud via cropping areas out or automatically / manually scrubbing points.
Once complete you can save in a variety of formats, including — PTX, XYZ, PLY, and STL.
STL being the primary format for most 3D printing services.
During my time testing the Matter and Form 3D Scanner I had a lot of fun trying out various objects, it was tough at first to get decent scans but I quickly learned it was me making the mistakes and not the scanner. In most cases the scanner performed admirably and for the price, the space saving form, this scanner is in a realm of it's own.