currently I'm doing my first successful scans.
Afer messing around with this thing, I sent it to Watterott. They changed the stepper motor, the lasers, the LED ring.
Sadly the MicroSD arrived broken - not able to boot, when the Fabscan arrived back at my place.
Just took a new MicroSD card and installed the latest image using the stock config. Then I printed an up-tpo-date calibration sheet (looks like mine has been outdated some time ago....).

My general testobject still looks bad - so I wondered if it's the object which is difficult to scan and used another object, which works quite fine.

Since I mounted an active fan some years ago, there were no sudden restarts or freezes anymore.
Last year my stepperdriver was broken - I repalced it with another one....but the guys at Watterott told me the stepper I was using was not approprirate for the Fabscan. They offered me changing components and calibrating this thing - and when it arrived back, it didn't even boot.
During transport the stepperdriver released in the package - maybe it damaged the MicroSD card. But after replacing the MicroSD it seems to work fine right now.

Now as I do get my first proper scans, I wonder if it's already possible to export colored models.
On the Fabscan interface I can load my colored models...but importing the *.ply files to blender it's just a 3d point cloud.

There are no options to download the file in another file format, are there?
Or does the ply-file already support color but importing in Blender doesn't support it?

I use MacBook as a result I have downloaded a bunch of softwares to convert ply format to stl l but no success.

When they convert the file size is near to zero and even in those cases which I succeed with the conversion, as I try to open it in another software I get the corrupted file message.

Any suggestions will be appreciated a lot .

Ist zwar für spezielle Scanner gedacht. man kann aber da auch unter Nachbearbeitung  Wolken einlesen und kinderleicht bearbeiten (wasserdichte Modelle erstellen, vereinfachen, glätten). Und der Vorteil, es geht rasend schnell. 

https://www.einscan.com/de/support-3/download/

The point cloud can be reduced with the function "Filters - Sampling - Poisson-disk sampling"
or better still without loss to a certain extent with the function
"Filters" -> "Remeshing, Simplification and Reconstruction --- Simplification: Quadric Edge Collapse Decimation".

========================================================

Wenn man einen Scan mit 100% Auflösung macht, dann ist die entstehende Punktewolke sehr gross,
welche sich dann auch sehr schwer bearbeiten lässt, da viele Programme, besonders CAD Programme
mit so einer Grösse (der Anzahl der Vertices) nicht arbeiten. Beim 3D Druck gehts noch, aber wer es auf ner CNC ausarbeiten will,
bekommt Probleme bei der GCODE Erstellung. Ich rede hier nur von open Source Programmen.

Man kann die Punktewolke durch die Funktion "Filters--Sampling--Poisson-disk sampling" reduzieren
oder besser noch verlustfrei bis zu einem gewissen Grad mit der Funktion
""Filters"->"Remeshing,Simplification and Reconstruction---Simplification:Quadric Edge Collapse Decimation" .

Here is a quick and easy tutorial that I know a lot of you will find useful. Creating a depth map from a 3d file!
This will allow you to do 3d engravings like the ones youve seen me post.

First you will need to download and install Meshlab. Its free and open source: http://www.meshlab.net/ 982

Next, import whatever file you want to make a depth map from. Im gonna use Han Solo in carbonite.

(if you dont have a 3d model, just google what you are looking for + “3d model”. Youll probably find one on one of the many 3d model sharing sites like thingiverse, yeggi, etc)

Youll see your mesh in all its glory!

Next go to

It should pop up this modal:

image.png1071×932 36.2 KB

Now you need to adjust your sliders to set the proper zMax and zMin. The zMin will need to be further to the right generally in order for the highest point to be white, which is what you want. Youll also need to set the furthest point in the back to be black so you have a good range of values to engrave.

Tweak these as necessary to define the range of what you want to engrave.

Here is what I set mine at for han:

image.jpg1009×990 101 KB

Youll see I have the full spectrum of grayscale values here.

Now youll need to save this to a file that we can use elsewhere. Before we do that though, make sure you resize the window so that just the model fits in it, without all the extra empty background, so you wont have a lot of empty space.

Now hit . I suggest using a white background. If you need it to be even higher resolution, just turn up the screen multiplier.

image.jpg788×1238 130 KB

Youll end up with a file that looks like this:

snapshot03.png626×1537 104 KB

Now its ready to be engraved. Take it into your favorite editor to trim off the white, or add any text and cutlines you need to get going. Happy engraving!

https://www.nchsoftware.com/meshmagic3d/

http://www.meshlab.net/#download

It seems that the Meshlab interface in 0.8.2 is still broken, has anybody been able to get it to work?

When I select it in the GUI the screen flashes, but no file is produced and I do not get the extra duck folder.

@Mario - I know that all the documentation shows that you made the changes so it should work with the new Meshlab version. 

Thanks for all the help.