Basic Post Processing in Geomagic Design X

After finishing a scan at one orientation, a window appears with options on how to proceed with the recently collected data. Select Mesh Buildup Wizard.

The mesh buildup wizard includes a step-by-step guide to converting scan data in point-cloud format into a mesh.

Toggle through the steps in the mesh buildup wizard with the arrows on the top of the window.

In the first step, select the scan data to process.

Note that each time a scan is started then stopped, it creates a new point cloud.

The bar on the bottom displays each individual point cloud.

Select scan data to process either with the menu in the mesh buildup window or with the check marks on the bottom bar.

Select all point clouds from a single orientation then hit the arrow to move on to the next step.

The second part of the Mesh Buildup Wizard is Data editing.

This step is to remove unwanted data captured when scanning, e.g. the table beneath the target object.

Highlight the unwanted data then push delete.

Choose the selection tool - lasso, circle, rectangle, etc - from the small toolbar at the top of the screen.

There is an undo button to return the deleted data.

Best fit aligning takes point clouds oriented to different coordinate systems and reorients them to properly represent the target object.

Since the Romer Arm automatically aligns each scan to a global coordinate system, as long as the object remained in the same orientation, this step is unnecessary.

When merging scans from alternate orientations, this step is necessary.

Step 7, Alignment, will describe the alignment process once we add a scan from a different orientation

Data Merging is used to combine the all the scans into a single point cloud.

It is recommended to use Mesh construction for combining initial scan results (See the first figure).

If the scan is still incomplete, don’t check the watertight mesh. This prompts Design X to automatically fill in any gaps to create a solid shape.

Only use HD mesh construction for a complete scan. Step 8 uses this option to combine scans from multiple orientations and create the final mesh.

Edit Tools enables the removal of noise generated by the data merging algorithm.

When finish, hit the check button under Mesh Buildup Wizard to complete the mesh buildup wizard.

The data merging will generate a combine scan result on the left window (See the first figure).

The scan data with the longest name is the combine scan from the data merging.

The scan results with shorter name are the scan results that are not selected for merging.

The unused scan results can be deleted by right click on them and select delete (See the second figure).

After processing the data from a scan at one orientation, change the orientation of the object and re-scan to capture any missed surfaces

Open the Mesh Buildup Wizard for the second scan.

In the Data Preparation step, deselect the point cloud from any earlier scans.

Follow the same process as described in steps 1 to 5 to process the scans from alternate orientations.

Multiple scan data can be aligned using Align Between Scan Data command in the home toolbar.

The Align Between Scan Data window has multiple approaches for alignment. The manual option, local based on picked points, leads to the most reliably successful alignment.

Select a static reference scan, and a moving scan that translates to align with the reference.

After selecting a reference and moving scan, two inset windows appear where each point cloud is controlled independently.

Select at least three common points between the reference and moving scan. Click on the scans in the inset windows to drop a point.

The view on the left of the screen previews the alignment.

Accept the alignment with the check mark on the Method window.

Ensure that the scans capture all surfaces of the target object, then proceed to final data merging. For final data merging, re-run the mesh buildup wizard (Under Polygon > Mesh Buildup Wizard)

Under Data Preparation sequence, make sure to select all of the scan data

Since the data is already cleaned and aligned, skip steps two and three of the mesh buildup wizard

Use “HD mesh construction” for the final data merging.

Set the Fill Holes option to maximum to create a watertight geometry

When finish, hit the check button next to Data Merging to complete the mesh buildup wizard

This runs the data merging algorithm but does not complete the mesh buildup wizard. If the resulting mesh does not look correct, hit Ctrl+z and adjust the noise and detail filters.

You should end up with one watertight result as shown in the third figure

To export the file, go to Menu > Export

Select the mesh you want to export

Select the type of output file such as stl, asc, obj, etc.