CMM's and faro arms

[MIG29pilot]

Has anybody (presumably with a makerspace handy) tried using a faro arm to make 3d models of cockpits? I am not sure how the faro arm software saves the models, but I'm sure it's quite possible to utilize this amazing piece of equipment!

[Johan G]

I would even say that using some kind of photogrammetry and a reference of known size (for example a folding ruler) potentially could be more useful (though maybe not fully as accurate). A good starting point could be the blog post Open Source Photogrammetry: Ditching 123D Catch.


Just some heads-ups:

• Some of the softwares have licenses and/or conditions that limit the reuse of the resulting models in a way that is not compatible with the GNU GPL license. These could for example be no commercial use or that they only can be used for educational purposes, etc.
• The resulting models can be a bit rough and require some handwork to look god.

[MIG29pilot]

In other words-Faro and Mitutoyo and all those fellows don't mind if you use their machines and software to measure stuff, or even to create models for private use, but they do mind if you use them for anything more *public*.

Also, they are certainly precise enough to make a good model; I've seen demonstrations of people scanning faces down to the last whisker, and my Dad uses one every day to inspect parts down to the nth decimal place (think 0.000001 inches of precision).

[LesterBoffo]

Like everybody is going to have a spare $17,000 to $24,000 around to purchase a 3D digitizer so they can add content to a freeware simulation.

Plus the fact that they often times produce such a huge amount of triangles for the simplest of objects.