Desktop laser scanners

There are many talented Architects that design best with physical models. However, physical models are often discouraged by firms, because of the duplicate effort involved in order to document the design and the general lack of efficiency in creating a physical model. Trouble is, there is nothing more impressive than a great physical model.

One way to reduce the duplicate effort and to increase the efficiency of a physical model is to have a model scanner. Scanning a physical model takes only minutes and provides a computer model that is easier to translate and convert into working drawings.

Two of the great model scanners currently available are the Next Engine 3D Scanner and the Polhemus FastSCAN. The two scanners are very different. The Next Engine is more limited in scanning, but is much more affordable than the Polhemus scanner. However, for the large firms, that produce lots of physical models, the Polhemus is a wise choice.

The Next Engine 3D Scanner is about the size of a cereal box. It is about $3,000. It can only scan objects 8″w X 8″d X 12″H (metric Equivalent), but scans can be combined. It does have a variety of add on software packages. This scanner is for people who make a lot of small models or sculptures.

Below is a Polhemus promotional video that demonstrates how their particular laser scanning device works. Although some devices are hand held (like the one in this video) and others are stationary, the general concept is the same.