Smoothing rippled surfaces in 3D scanned files

[BGilson]

I have a file that was created from a 3D scan. The file arrived as a clean solid body, but some of the surfaces are rippled. I can delete the surfaces and manually re-create them, but this is very time consuming. I understand that Scan-to-3D may have some tools that can help, but I haven't tried it yet. What is the best way to smooth out rough/rippled surfaces in point cloud data?

Thanks in advance

 

[rfus]

What package where these point clouds surfaced in. Scanto3d gives you the ability to surface the point cloud too, but this can be time consuming as well. Can whoever created the surfaces from the scan recreate it trying to improve their surfacing.

Can you isolate the ripples with a cylindrical surface, trim them out, and then use a surface fill to fill this hole.

You could delete the face alltogether and then attempt to recreate it using a surface fill tangent to the surounding surfaces. You may want to use constraint curves, so do the fill after the delete face.

Recreating the surfaces with lofts and sweeps may be the way to go. Ripples are often created when you do a loft and try to maintain tangency to the boudary surfaces.
Creating a loft or sweep on its own to recreate the surface, and then using extend surface on that surface and all surrounding will help you trim them to one another. Then use fillets to smooth out the edges.

Just some thoughts,

RFUS

 

[Theophilus]

It's time-consuming, no matter what, since you're essentially rebuilding the surfaces (or at least parts of them). If the surrounding geometry is acceptable, I recommend doing what rfus said above--cut out what you don't like and do a Surface Fill. I really like that feature since you have lots of control at your disposal (especially in SW 2007) for surface continuity, etc. with relatively little effort.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.

 

[BGilson]

Thanks for the input. I do not know what package the data originated from and I am unable to get new geometry. My customer wants to add some alterations to the data and then create injection molds from this data. SO, it has to be very smooth and clean. Unfortunately, some of the ripples are on outside bosses, so the method of deleting & re-creating faces is very time-consuming.

As for the surface fill, it seems that no matter how many constraint curves I add, the filled surface is very rippled and frequently has large protrusions poking out in-between the guide curves. That's why I usually break it up into smaller lofts. How do you guys get a smooth surface fill on a curved surface?

 

[Theophilus]

Sounds like you may need to make a larger cut out of the surface. Don't let the software fill the surface automatically (within the Delete face command), but make sure you're using the true Surface Fill command. If you're using tangency relations on each side of your filled surface, make sure the surrounding surfaces aren't contributing to ripples. If they are, you'll definitely need to trim the surface back farther to prevent this.

And as with lofts, too many guide curves make a smooth surface more difficult to achieve. Use only one or two (one in each direction--X and Y), making sure the curves themselves are tangent to the edge surfaces. You can also uncheck the Optimize Surface box when creating the surface to see if that helps.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe trumps reason.