Thor 3D announced several very intriguing new software features for their 3D scanning system.
The company produces a powerful and low-cost handheld 3D scanner that we reviewed in great detail. We found the two main advantages of the system to be the extremely lightweight handheld unit, and the powerful software suite, Calibry Nest.
Now the company announced a new release of Calibry Nest that includes several scanning features that are quite surprising.
For those that haven’t used a handheld 3D scanner previously, I can tell you that at first it can be challenging. Your body must learn how to move the scanner in ways that not only capture all portions of the subject, but also at speeds that allow the software to keep up and not lose track of the scan.
In other words, there is quite a bit of “muscle memory” involved in 3D scanning. Once you get the hang of it, 3D scanning can be done efficiently.
That will improve notably with the new release of Calibry Nest, which shifts to version 3.4. Let’s take a look at the most interesting new features.
Stereo-marker Tracking
Calibry Nest 3.4 includes a new feature that apparently increases the speed and accuracy of scanning with targets. Target scanning is typically used for more challenging subjects, but this feature will make it even easier to use.
Priority Mode
This feature allows the operator to “paint” particular areas on a scan to indicate criticality. Then subsequent processing will pay extra attention to those areas to ensure the highest accuracy is achieved.
Magic Clone Stamp
This is a fascinating tool that seems to originate with a problem when using target scanning. The targets themselves are scanned, yielding “bumps” on the scan. While Calibry Nest can already automatically remove the bumps, the texture of the target remains. Now the new Magic Brush feature can automatically remove those target textures with a click.
Bonus: The Magic Brush tool can also be used to touch up textures on any scan. Here we see the tool being used to remove a birthmark on a facial 3D scan. It can also be used to clean up areas where the texture is low quality.
Bridging
This could be my favorite new feature. The problem being solved is that the automated hole-filling algorithm sometimes guesses wrong, resulting in an incorrect structure. For example, filling in a missing armpit on a scan results in this:
But with Bridging, you can provide a “hint” to Calibry Nest by joining points across a gap to show the software how best to go about filling the hole. Here’s the “armpit problem” after filling with Bridging:
3D Mouse Support
I’m a big supporter of 3D mice, but very often encounter 3D software that doesn’t support them. That’s changed with Calibry Nest 3.4 because it now supports 3D mice.
Audible Alerts
For larger data sets there can be considerable time required to process the scan, particularly on the texturing step. The update now provides an audible alert when processing completes, which should more workflows more efficient.
There’s plenty more new features I haven’t mentioned that you certainly should check out.
I’m impressed with the new features and eager to try them out. All Calibry scanner users should consider upgrading their software to version 3.4 as soon as you can.
One more thing: this upgrade demonstrates the importance of software in 3D scanning systems. It’s now less about the hardware and more about the capabilities of the software. In that regard, the Calibry team at Thor 3D are certainly providing powerful updates.
Via Thor 3D
