Romer Absolute Arm: Executing a Scan

Geomagic Design X is used to operate the scanning arm

Before starting the scan, make sure that the control panel software is closed otherwise an error will occur

In the Livecapture tab, select Romer Absolute from the device drop down menu

After selecting the device, click Device Connect

In the home tab, click LiveCapture to connect Geomagic Design X to the arm

This opens the window that controls the scan

Select the “Laser Scanning” symbol to start the scan

Remove the cap of the scanner

Turn the lock down to the green unlock symbol to allow for full rotation of each joint in the arm

Push on the red button that looks like a trigger on the scanner handle to start scanning

Push it again to pause the scan

The red dot and line need to align during the scan

Misalignment means the scanner is either too close or too far from the object

There is some tolerance, but try to keep the dot and line as aligned as possible

Keep the scanner perpendicular to the target surface for optimal data collection

Do not move the object during the scan!

The Romer arm uses encoders in each joint to automatically align anything it scans to a global origin point in the base. As long as the object does not move, all scans automatically align

You don't need to finish scanning in one pass as the scanner will automatically remove some of the scan data that's not accurate or has too much noise

You will need to re-scan those regions in a subsequent scanning pass

Scan data is shown on the screen

Any gaps in the captured point cloud data will need to be scanned again in a subsequent pass

Repeat scanning passes until all visible surfaces of the target object are captured from the current object orientation

Click the check mark when you are done scanning the object in this orientation

A pop up window will appear:

In the pop up window select Use Mesh Building Wizard to merge current data together

After completing post processing of the scans from one angle, scanning from a different angle captures the rest of the surfaces

On many objects, you need to scan the bottom surfaces that are not possible to scan in the first orientation

Be sure to support the object well since if it falls or shifts the scan data would have to be merged and another pass would be needed

Any misc. objects used to prop up the desired object can be removed in post-processing

Before starting subsequent scanning passes, you can hide previous scan data by right clicking on them in the left panel

Save the file before EACH time a new scan pass is started to help mitigate lost work

For alignment with the first scan, it is required to have a common scan area between the current scanning pass and previous scan data

In most cases, this means that at least 3 passes are required to scan an object in full

These scanning passes require post processing to make a complete and manifold mesh

Refer to Basic Post Processing in Geomagic Design X guide for more info

The scanner is not needed to do post-processing once all scanning passes are complete, so it can be shut down:

Put the cap back to the scanner

Turn the lock to red to lock the arm

Turn off the scanner