Update from Eric:
"With the camera closer and a smaller calibration printout the detail is showing up much better now. Still not completely satisfied though. I may go pick up a better webcam soon, and try to get a better laser."

When my friend Eric Lagman does something he does it 150%.
I sent an email around with my rough scan and he went ahead and purchased the David Scan Software and relayed his setup.
This is his experience:

"The web cam and laser I already had. The calibration panels are white melamine, but gator board would work also. Those panels can be scaled to as large as a plotter will print. One guy scanned a boat hull by painting the pattern at the corners of a warehouse wall. There is a free version of the software, but you need to take it into another free software called meshlab to merge all the scans from rotating the object. The software that comes with the scanning software does such a good job of merging that I went ahead and just bought it.

The better the camera and laser the higher resolution scan you can get. Better camera=higher resolution at high frame rate. Better laser=Thin as possible and bright as possible. This guy has done some amazing scans of toy action figures that are extremely detailed.
http://www.david-laserscanner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=681&highlight=figure

Here is his equipment.

Camera = 890.00 http://www.theimagingsource.com/en/topics/firewire-cameras-at-the-imaging-source/

Laser = $234.00 http://shop.david-laserscanner.com/

But there are guys like this getting nice scans with a $100.00 webcam and $100.00 laser http://www.david-laserscanner.com/wiki/user_page/magweb
I would be happy with the level of detail he got.

I will be scanning a Ren model of the Ridigid 12v that had clay patched onto the handle area to fine tune the comfort of the grip area. This can then be taken into Solidworks so that the existing parametric model can be adjusted to fit over the “tracing mesh” that the scanner output. I will let you know how it turns out with the current equipment I have at home."

Recent interview in Design Perspectives. Pretty cool.

Awesome example of a scan from David Scan



First scan with an old SLA model. I was surprised that it even scanned considering that the program was a free 2MB download. . Pretty freakin awesome.Used a Leica red laser level, and a Microsoft webcam. Background was mounted on foam core, and I will definitely have to mess with the capture and camera settings.

(Repost because the image was not showing up for some reason)

David Scan- I am definitely going to try this out.

Testing out issuu.com. Online document publishing site. Could be interesting.

So- take this with a grain of salt because I am in a bad mood because of a Solidworks crash at an inopportune time.
This is my suggestion for improving Solidworks Customer Feedback:
Every time Solidworks crashes- someone in Solidworks Corp should get an electric shock, (Eric Cartman Style). That would make Solidworks stable in no time.

ILoveSketch from Seok-Hyung Bae on Vimeo.

www.ilovesketch.com

Wow- looks a product designer wrote the software too because they really seem to get what it is that I wish software would do. Ilovesketch really fills the gap between 2D and real 3D sketching.

Any one of those innovations in there- intuitive save, flipping pages, autoconnecting tangencies would be awesome. And the sketchy reference lines- this should be a display mode in Solidworks. The "draft" realview material in Solidworks is a joke BTW).

I am a little depressed though because you know that this is going to go into some high end auto design software, not in an "affordable" sketch software like Photoshop or Painter.

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

I'm a softie- the story is a little flimsy, but it has such a great visual style.

 
 
 
 

Creases diving into scoops seems to be the "in" treatment at the latest shows.

 
Interesting and visually successfull application of a solar panel as a grill on the Pininfarina B0- a skeuomorph if you will.

My friend Chris Lewis has awesome words of the day.

Skeuomorph

PRONUNCIATION:
(SKYOO-uh-morf)

MEANING:

noun: A design feature copied from a similar artifact in another material, even when not functionally necessary. For example, the click sound of a shutter in an analog camera that is now reproduced in a digital camera by playing a sound clip.

John Piper- pretty respected writer and preacher. Interesting motion video.

Design Failures

This has been a pretty interesting read. I love books like this. Open it up to any page and it provides intutive implementable ideas, many applicable to the ID process. One of the interesting items in here was that firefighters had better reactions in the field when they were trained with negative case studies- what happened when things go horribly wrong. This was something that really resonated with me. We drink our own Kool-Aid if we think that all applications of ID are bound to succeed. We can learn far more from our failures than from our sucesses. Admittedly it is very difficult to talk about failure. Most people close to me are pretty aware of my personal failings as I am pretty candid about them (that and my shortcomings are readily apparent :)), but talking about design failure brings up the reputation of your entire team and that gets tricky.

Peter Day did a very interesting interview of the Arbor Strategy Group who has a library of "zombie brands" -innovative brands that failed and are ripe for resurrection. This was an interesting analysis as the market had already defined whether the product had succeeded or not....well not. Anti-viral tissue was an example.


Kleenex antiviral tissue that was the right product at the right time. Apparently there was a precursor in the 80s that was a failure because it was viewed as unnecessary and dystopic. Afters SARs and the bird-flu the market was ready for antiviral tissue.

Failures are really interesting because they start to teach us the subtleties of product development. We need to have more analysis of failures in our design education. You get the wrong idea looking at case study after case study of design success after design success. You get the impression that the design process is bullet-proof. Simply plug the user analysis tab into the fast prototype slot, screw in some innovative materials and manufacturing methods- and out comes pre-ordained market success...yawn

A deeper understanding of design failures, beyond the Edsel and the Aztec will help us. Then our award shows might not be littered with as many market failures.

This is why I love British comedy. Really prescient analysis 2 years before the meltdown.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/fiction_rule_of_thumb.png
I only post this because I read "Brsingr"

The ID work on this project was done by Thomas Wong and Ryan Harrison. Ryan did a bunch of work on the handle section, and hand finessed a series of models for optimal feel. Don Erich, Clemson University a friend we met at a Solidworks World Conference, helped us to 3D scan the best hand made model.

I can tell that this project was a success, because it was the most stolen item from Home Depot :)

Should be fun. I'm planning on attending

Some development images of the X3 Tasklight, and in-use photograph.

http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/system404s_portfolio/default.aspx
Steampnk Star Wars- Sweeet