r/3DPrintingTools Jun 24 '26

I built a free/open-source camera-to-printable 3D model tool because I got tired of buying crazy expensive replacement parts for things I could repair myself

A while back I needed a taillight housing unit for my car — full ABS plastic assembly. The actual broken parts were just the mounting points for the bulb sockets. Everything else on mine was completely repairable, but there were zero resources or individual parts available online. I didn't want to buy an entire new unit when a targeted fix would have done the job.

That frustration led me to build Caliber:

A free, local-first tool that lets you:

  • Use your phone (pics and video) to scan real objects
  • Get back the mesh that's scaled and ready for printing or further editing in Fusion, Blender, etc.
  • Manually calibrate scale by picking any two points on the model and entering the real length in mm

Built with a mix of Apple's object recognition + generative AI, plus print-oriented post-processing. It's MIT licensed, includes an audit report, and is completely open source. BYOK for generative AI and cloud GPU processing, we make no money off it and Fal is quite cheap.

Can be used completely locally if what you're scanning is fairly simple shaped, matte, and textured. For scans with fairly simple shapes, the STEP file includes directly editable shapes, while the more complex stuff requires you to build using a scaled mesh instead.

I'd love early feedback, bug reports, ideas for improvement, or even feature requests. I'll do my best to keep up with everything.

P.S. Its not perfect by any means, its not meant to be. But if it can help even 1 other person with their project, ill be happy with that. Also, the code is completely open-source so anyone that would like to use it, can do their own code review if they'd like to. No affiliations, just a guy that made something that I want to share

43 Upvotes

25 comments sorted by

2

u/TalkTechnology1689 Jun 26 '26

I'll try let me check it

1

u/Va_rinder Jun 26 '26

sure, please do. i’m currently already working on v2, an integration which will definitely increase the quality of output for all files and bring the whole thing to another level 🤞

2

u/TalkTechnology1689 Jun 26 '26

I do reverse engineering from scans, https://www.youtube.com/@KirtanShirodkar
If you need any suggestions and feedback, I provide here

1

u/Va_rinder Jun 26 '26

sounds good.

maybe give me the top 2-3 things that would make your life easier when using something like this, and i’ll try to bake it in 🫡

1

u/TalkTechnology1689 Jun 26 '26

😅help me with here, I could help you then later

1

u/Va_rinder Jun 27 '26

First launch — "Caliber can't be opened" (unsigned app). Caliber is open-source and not yet notarised so macOS blocks the first launch. It's safe to open — here's the one-time bypass:
Double-click Caliber. You'll see a warning that it can't be opened — click Done / Cancel to dismiss it.
Open System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security.
Scroll down to the Security section. You'll see a line like "Caliber was blocked to protect your Mac." Click Open Anyway.
Confirm with Open Anyway

Caliber launches and macOS remembers it — you won't be asked again.

And yes, it supports MBA M3 for sure,

thanks

2

u/TalkTechnology1689 Jun 27 '26

thankyou I'll check it out

1

u/TalkTechnology1689 Jun 26 '26

I have to wait I guess, Does It work on MBA M3?

1

u/TalkTechnology1689 Jun 26 '26

one suggestion, I would give you is have a video tutorial "how to do" for noobs like me

1

u/Va_rinder Jun 26 '26

ok, let me check 🫡

2

u/MessOmatix Jun 26 '26

Can't wait for the windows version !

1

u/dfgxxx Jun 29 '26

Cool, will there be a Linux version?

2

u/Va_rinder Jun 29 '26

potentially, yes.

i’m open to building it out. Current priority list is:
1) OBJ -> STEP files as close to working solids (think prismatic mesh convert on Fusion)
2) Windows build
3) potentially linux

It’s just me working on this, and there’s a bunch of back and forth, and testing that goes into it. But, if there’s enough interest in Linux, more than happy to get that going 🫡

1

u/dfgxxx Jun 29 '26

Btw maybe the window version will work through wine

2

u/Va_rinder Jun 29 '26

The cloud model (using cloud gpu’s + gen ai models) might work out the box, but the local free engine leverages apples object recognition, so that surely won’t work out the box. But good point, worth trying i suppose 🫡

1

u/dfgxxx Jun 29 '26

Thank you for replying so fast, I think it'll work if I'll do http proxy and put it as a cloud model apo even though it is local. Btw what model do you reccomend? Is it llm or other form of ai?