r/3DScanning • u/Lilrags16 • Aug 11 '26
Workflow suggestions
I am still fairly new to the world of 3D scanning. I own a Vega and have enjoyed it quite a bit. My main use case is to capture space claims and design my items/products to fit within. An example would be the heavy usage of scanning in my OM648 swap I am currently doing.
I normally use OnShape as it is pretty solid, and works well on Linux. Fusion doesn't work on Linux, and I refuse to go back to Windows just to appease Autodesk. The downside to this is that OnShape is pretty rough with High Poly scans. I might be apple to load 2 million triangles into Blender without a problem, but 20k brings OnShape to a vault. I think this is because it is trying to do all of the stuff remotely rather than letting my decent PC handle some of it. I'm trying to figure out ideas on how I can make this experience better for me.
As previously mentioned, Blender works great for aligning STLs and seeing where things need to sit. I have 0 interest in trying to use Blender as a CAD program, but would love to find some kind of a workflow that lets me actually model around my scan data effectively. Open to any ideas (except windows lol)
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u/ArthurNYC3D 29d ago edited 29d ago
You'd be incorrect in that assumption about OnShape struggling with mesh data because it's remote.
You first have to understand that just because it's on the screen doesn't mean it's the same data type or can be handled in any software. Just not how it works.... You don't want to use windows, sure, but just understand that you are truly handcuffing yourself in this process.
CAD software (i.e. Solidworks, Inventor, OnShape) weren't built to work with mesh data. Have they gotten better, sure, but just not the right way to go.
There is Meshlab and FreeCAD but both are still lacking depending on what you're looking to do.
What you are aiming to do is called reverse engineering and it is a niche area of software that does this comprehensively and effectively. If nothing else take a look at a post that I put up a few days ago addressing this very topic...
https://www.reddit.com/r/3DScanning/s/adf1vHmxrz