Reverse modelling comes to lower budget applications

Reverse engineering and rapid prototyping technology used in the file The Lord of the Rings is being made available in the UK by Virtalis. The company is now the UK’s distributor for the new FastSCAN Cobra, a non-contact digitiser for fast scanning 3D objects, from Polhemus. 3D surfaces are instantly acquired by gathering measurements made by sweeping a handheld laser scanner over an object. The object’s image appears on screen, with overlapping sweeps combined during processing to speed up surface model definition. The system can be used with virtually any opaque object having low metal content, and 3D data is saved in industry standard formats for transfer on. Virtalis says it’s 50% smaller and 30% cheaper than its predecessor, and that it’s easy to use, with models being available in real-time as point cloud, wireframe or smooth shaded image.