I am scanning some wind instrument mouthpieces for comparison.
They are solid black and I've used spray.
While my results are adequate for my application, I have noticed some slight abnormalities in the alignment. The notch in the back should be centered 180 degrees from the flat opening of the tip; And the tip of the mouthpiece is slightly deeper on one side. It should be a mirror image of the other side.
The shape is so amorpous that I'm wondering if adding artificial features (dots) to help with manual alignment would be helpful?
Hi Tom,
Adding some dots can help you match up the same exact spots in the manual alignment process. In the past when aligning symmetrical objects I've relied on the textures to to do so, but if your object is a also a solid color some stickers would definitely help.
Hey Tom, don't use markers - the software isn't set up to make use of them. However, if you add some "extra geometry" into the scan, it will help with alignment on symmetric pieces like this. My go-to is to use a small box placed under the piece, so that the scan does the box and the piece, and uses 8 to 10 steps on the turntable. That fixes this alignment issue.
Thanks!
I would think that putting some time and effort into "Staging" parts would pay dividends in the final result. In this case, 90% of the scan can be complete with the mouthpiece straight up. But, while there is little hope to get to all the hidden inside channels, it is definitely worth the effort to use angles to increase the depth of the opening behind the reed. This is the critical 'chamber' of the mouthpiece.
What I came up with is probably overkill. But, since my days are filled with color 3D design and printing it is logocal for me to try something where the position of the extra geometry retains its relative position no matter the angle of the mouthpiece is posed.
This is what I am going to try.
It's designed to be able to pivot at different angles.
It's based on some assumptions that may be wrong. For instance, I am assumming that the auto align likes edges and that color differential can help. I also assume that the different shapes will help the engine as I select points in manual align. But, I don't need color. Is shape, alone, enough? Or should I capture color information even if I will throw it out later?
