Scan and 3D Print Outdoor Works of Art Around the KSU Kennesaw Campus
Disciplines
Geographic Information Sciences
Abstract (300 words maximum)
3D printing is an evolving idea within the past few decades, and it has turned into something that is now accessible to almost everyone in society. Today, anyone can buy a 3D printer for 200 dollars off of Amazon. The question is now, in what ways can we use 3D printers, whether it be for creating something useful or something creative. Additionally, Laser Scanners were not used by engineers until the late 1990’s, which is another technology that is becoming more accessible. The purpose of this project is to scan 3D art sculptures around KSU Kennesaw Campus and convert it to a .stl format so we can 3D print them. These printed sculptures could be used in countless ways, for example, like using them as game pieces for a KSU themed board game. By using the Leica Geosystems Laser Scanner, we scanned each piece of artwork and uploaded it to the computers in the Geography Lab. From there, we used the cyclone platform to register the scans, which means to align all of the scans, and then we cleaned all of the excess geography to leave just the statue. Once each sculpture was cleaned, we exported it to either CloudCompare or MeshLab to create a mesh to unify each point to create a printable sculpture, and then we exported it to the SD card to put in the 3D printer. During this process, the sculptures would not align correctly or would not export correctly, so multiple computer platforms were tested to see if they would fix the issues. Overall, multiple sculptures were successful during the 3D printing process, but some had to be re-worked. This is still experimental technology in today’s times, but it’s constantly evolving to where in the next decade, there will be no limits to our imaginations.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
RCHSS - Geography & Anthropology
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Uli Ingram
Scan and 3D Print Outdoor Works of Art Around the KSU Kennesaw Campus
3D printing is an evolving idea within the past few decades, and it has turned into something that is now accessible to almost everyone in society. Today, anyone can buy a 3D printer for 200 dollars off of Amazon. The question is now, in what ways can we use 3D printers, whether it be for creating something useful or something creative. Additionally, Laser Scanners were not used by engineers until the late 1990’s, which is another technology that is becoming more accessible. The purpose of this project is to scan 3D art sculptures around KSU Kennesaw Campus and convert it to a .stl format so we can 3D print them. These printed sculptures could be used in countless ways, for example, like using them as game pieces for a KSU themed board game. By using the Leica Geosystems Laser Scanner, we scanned each piece of artwork and uploaded it to the computers in the Geography Lab. From there, we used the cyclone platform to register the scans, which means to align all of the scans, and then we cleaned all of the excess geography to leave just the statue. Once each sculpture was cleaned, we exported it to either CloudCompare or MeshLab to create a mesh to unify each point to create a printable sculpture, and then we exported it to the SD card to put in the 3D printer. During this process, the sculptures would not align correctly or would not export correctly, so multiple computer platforms were tested to see if they would fix the issues. Overall, multiple sculptures were successful during the 3D printing process, but some had to be re-worked. This is still experimental technology in today’s times, but it’s constantly evolving to where in the next decade, there will be no limits to our imaginations.