New 3D Scanning Map: Find the Nearest 3D Scanner!

Posted By Eole Recrosio on May 30, 2017 | 0 comments

The need for a 3D scanner can be motivated by many reasons: reverse engineering, industrial CAO, medical devices, tooling, etc… but often, buying a 3D scanner is not the adequate solution. A 3D scanning service has the technology and the skills to do a proper 3D scan. At Sculpteo, we created a 3D scanning map to help you find the best and nearest place to scan your object for 3D printing.

Why use a 3D scanner?

Combining a 3D scanner or a 3D scanning service to a 3D printing service paves the way to many uses and possibilities such as reverse engineering, industrial CAO, and medical prosthesis creation.

The reverse engineering process involves the study of an existing object to understand how it is designed, manufactured and how it works.

It is useful if you don’t have the time or CAO skills to create your 3D design from scratch, if you want an exact replica of an existing object, or as a starting block for a CAO design.

A good example of the match between 3D scanning and 3D printing: the medical sector

Since both 3D printing and 3D scanning developed at the same time in the medical sector, they are today widespread and gain more and more ground in the prosthesis and orthosis development. 3D scanning body parts give to the medical staff the exact dimensions of the prosthesis to send to a 3D printing service. Faster than traditional methods of making medical devices, 3D printing allows fine adjustments to perfectly fit the patient’s limb in a very short amount of time.

3D scanning spots

However, buying a 3D scanner will not be worth it for a single use and you may want to turn toward a 3D scanning service.

To help you find the closest 3D scanning spot, Sculpteo made a 3D scanning map that identifies fablabs, universities, professional services and 3D scanner owners open to sharing, all over the world, to give you a database of the main 3D scanning places near your location. These spots are verified by our team and will be updated regularly.

To learn more about how the scanning process is done, check our glossary page on 3D scanning and 3D model acquisition.

Once your model has been 3D scanned, you can visit our Learning Center and tutorials to know how you can turn your 3D scan into a proper 3D printing CAD file.

How to use 3D scanner map

The 3D scanner cartography tool is very simple to use.

When you arrive on the web page, you can see all the listed 3D scanning spots.

You can navigate on the map with your mouse or zoom in with the buttons in the top left corner.

From top to bottom: Zoom buttons, locate yourself, search for a location

The next two buttons allow you to locate your position and find the nearest 3D scanning places around you. To find a 3D scanner in a precise area, use the location button.

How to Add a 3D Scanner to the Map

As the 3D printing and scanning offers are growing every day, the map has to be updated. We are looking for 3D scanning spots all over the world and we add them regularly.

If a 3D scanning place is no longer available, you can send us a message and we will fix it right away.

Likewise, if you own a 3D scanner or you know a 3D scanning spot that is not on the map, just send us a message with its name, address, website page and contact information and we will add the spot on the map.

If you own a 3D scanner and want to tell us about it, please feel free to contact us on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.