Never Lose Tracking with These Magnetic 3D Scanning Marker Towers

When 3D scanning an object, it is critical that the scanner maintain tracking any time it is saving points. Poor tracking will result in noisy point clouds, distorted geometry, or total failure. To make great tracking convenient and easy to achieve, firstgizmo designed these 3D-printable magnetic 3D scanning marker towers.

3D scanners maintain tracking in one of two ways: by analyzing unique geometric features and using those as spatial reference points, or by looking for unique patterns of reflective markers to use as spatial reference points. In my experience, the former is so unreliable that it is almost useless. It only works well on objects with lots of unique geometry (like sculptures) and even then, the geometry often becomes distorted as minor tracking errors add up. A smooth sphere, for example, would be almost impossible to scan all the way around.

Markers are much, much better, but they’re a pain to stick on and then take off. They’re also tricky to use on thin things, like a sheet metal part, because the scanner can’t see both sides at the same time and doesn’t know how to merge the locations of both scanned sides.

These markers solve those problems. They’re available in several different sizes and shapes, but they all provide surfaces on which to play marker stickers. Print a handful of them, cover them in markers, and then scatter them around your part. Magnets in the bases keep them secure. Then, when you’re scanning, the 3D scanner will always have several unique marker patterns in view and will always maintain tracking — the geometry of the part itself is irrelevant.

After scanning, simply delete the markers from your point cloud before meshing. Easy!

I’ve been using a similar setup, with markers scattered on a scanning platform, but this is better because it adds verticality. So you won’t lose tracking, even when scanning tall objects from the side.