I have downloaded another version previously, what will happen?

When you will install the newer version, previous installation will automatically be detected and two possibilities can occur:

• If the version has never been used (just installed) the previous version will be automatically uninstalled.
• Else the installation program will prompt you whether you want to uninstall or keep previous version(s).

What is the limit size of point clouds or meshes it is possible to load?

The software has no limit concerning the point clouds and mesh size. All the memory management has been completely optimized to allow big object handling. The limit is the memory of your computer. Memory saturation can occur in two cases

• If your memory size is incompatible with your object size. For example loading 100 million points with only 128Mbytes of RAM memory will not work !
• If you work a very long time in your session without clearing or deleting objects of the recycle bin. Do not forget that objects of the recycle bin remain available for undo processing and also use memory. Then, you must sometimes clear the recycle bin. If the memory of your computer is "limit" compared to your object size (for example you work with 20 million points with 512Mbytes), then it will not be possible to store many undo steps. In this case, it is probably better to disable the full undo (undo limited to one action). Refer to the help for more information.

I have just downloaded the software, but the menu is disabled. Is my license correct?

Don't worry, your license is correct ! Inside 3DReshaper^® Application, the menu and the icons are "contextual". It means that when you select object(s), 3DReshaper^® highlights the menu item(s) that can be used with this object(s) (and only it or them).

For example, menus 2D or 3D mesh are activated only when you select cloud(s). Sometimes, you need more than one entity type to enable the menu; for example, to enable "Chordal/Deviation error refine ", you must select one mesh (and only one) and cloud(s). Refer to the help to know which entity(ies) is(are) required inside the selection.

With 3DReshaper^® Application can we reduce a point cloud or a mesh?

With 3DReshaper^® Application you can reduce a mesh, but not a point cloud. However, with 3DReshaper^® Application, it is not necessary to reduce or simplify a point cloud to make a simplified mesh, because when 3DReshaper^® meshes, it chooses the most relevant points to obtain the best mesh. Then, inside 3DReshaper^®, the 2 steps that you can find with other software (reducing or simplifying the cloud and then meshing) are only one step here. This is highly more rapid and accurate.

Once you have obtained your mesh with the good number of points, aspect, accuracy, etc., you can, of course, extract the vertices of this mesh for further use or export, using the command "Cloud -> Extract / Merge".

My model is in millimeters and 50Km far away from origin. Can I handle big coordinates?

There is no problem and no accuracy loss if you work very far from origin because 3DReshaper^® Application works in double precision (64 bits; 15 digits). Also the graphic display as been especially designed to work with high values even if the graphic board only works in single precision (32 bits; 7 digits; like majority of the graphic boards).

If you work in millimeters at 50Km from origin, your coordinates will be something like 50 millions and the millimeter is the digit number 8. We only see following problems:

• When you enter a point or use the "Measure command", the window layout can change slightly in case of high coordinates and a part of the result is hidden. In this case, you just need to drag the corner of the window to extent the display zone and to display longer lines.
• If you export using binary STL, you will have accuracy loss because this format only supports floating points single precision numbers (32 bits; 7 digits). The 7 first digits will be exact and the 8th will be rounded. Then, with this format, the export accuracy will be something like 2 or 3 millimeters.

For all the other export format as well as for native .RSH files there is no problem because they support double precision.

How 3DReshaper^® Application demonstration version and registration form works?

Demonstration version is 100% free. When you will install 3DReshaper^® Application on your machine, the security system will be locked and you will not be able to run the 3D scanner software. A dialog box will display your machine ID. The machine ID is unique, i.e. each computer has a different machine ID. To unlock the security system, you must fill a registration form to tell us which machine is to be authorized and who you are. The form must be completely filled with exact information: name, Internet site, type of industry, application, etc. It is very important because it is the only way we have to better know who you are and how we can improve 3DReshaper^® to fit your needs. WE INSURE YOU THAT INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE WILL BE USED ONLY BY TECHNODIGIT AND BY ONLY AUTHORIZED PERSONS. IN PARTICULAR, YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WILL NOT BE GIVEN TO ANY OTHER COMPANY AND FOR OTHER PURPOSE. Your email address will be used to send you your authorization code and to send you a short newsletter about 12 times a year. You can unsubscribe to newsletter when you want.

When we receive your form, the authorization code generator will verify that information is coherent. For example, if your name is QWERTY, your company is Google, your website is www.google.com, your business email is toto@hotmail.com and the application for which you intent to use 3DReshaper^® Application is "to test"! There are many chances that your request will be rejected and you will receive an email reply to invite you to fill a new form.

Once your form is accepted, we send you an authorization code (password) that unlocks the security software. This authorization code delivery is 100% free.

Typically, with demonstration version you can save or export your work 25 times during one-month time. After one month time, the software will not expire but it will be still usable as a pure demonstration version (in no save mode), to display and mesh point clouds, etc. Only some of the features like color surface inspection will be disabled. At this step you can continue to use 3DReshaper^® Application as a 100% free 3D scanner software.

If you are interested in purchasing 3DReshaper^® Application or 3DReshaper^® Library SDK (which is the computing core system) to have a full version with all saving capabilities, just send us an email and we will contact you back to give you pricing conditions, etc

Is it possible to use 3DReshaper^® with a network floating license?

Yes, you can use 3DReshaper^® with a network protection license. For that, you have to purchase a network protection dongle and the corresponding license. You should contact Technodigit to get a commercial offer.

Technically speaking, you have to decide which computer inside your Local Area Network (LAN) will become the license server and have the dongle. On this particular computer you must have a program called "Sentinel Protection Installer with the minimum version 7.2.1". This program is divided in two parts:

1. The "Sentinel System Driver", which is installed automatically with 3DReshaper^® Application.
2. The "Sentinel Protection Server", which is in charge of sharing license(s) and not installed automatically. This part must be installed manually.

Two solutions are possible depending whether you have installed 3DReshaper^® Application on the server computer or not:

On the other computers running 3DReshaper^® and sharing the license with the server, there is no software to add. However, if your computer is running a firewall, you must authorize network access with 3DReshaper^®. We recommend you to read the next article for more information about network access.

Does 3DReshaper^® make Internet access during execution?

No, 3DReshaper^® does not access to the Internet but only to the LAN (Local Area Network).

However, your firewall (for example Norton Internet Security) may display a message saying that 3DReshaper^® tries to access to the Internet. This message is a confusion between the Internet and the local network.

The local network is accessed for two reasons:

• For network floating license sharing as discussed in the previous article. For this, network access will occur mainly when you launch the software to search for a license server.
• For printing and to make the list of all the printers available (some printers may be shared through the network).

We recommend you to authorize 3DReshaper^® to make network access. However, if you disable the access, 3DReshaper^® will work correctly except for these two features above.

What is measurement noise?

From the mathematical point of view, the best accuracy is obtained by keeping all the points of your cloud inside the mesh. This means:

• No noise reduction
• Null deviation error (equal zero).

Unhappily this is purely mathematic and theoretical, because in reality, most point clouds contain measurement error so that some of the points are over the real surface while other points are below the real surface. If you make a mesh keeping all these points, you will obtain many undulations around the surface. Most often, you will obtain a disappointing result :

• The number of triangle will increase dramatically, as well as the quantity of RAM memory that your model will require. If the number of triangle is really too high, you can get some errors.
• The size of the resulting file will be very big and probably difficult to treat by other software.
• The response time will become bad due to the number of triangles.
• The surface state will be very bad. The undulations of the surface is often called "noise" by analogy with sound wave oscillations.

How can we find a good compromise between number of triangles and meshing accuracy?

The goal is generally to create a mesh having the best quality as possible. The quality is a compromise between: The accuracy, The level of detail, The smoothness of the surface, The number of triangles. When the deviation error D decreases, the number of points N increases. A deviation error of zero means "keep all points". If the deviation error is high, the level of detail is low and the surface is roughly defined (See S1 on the figure). If the deviation error is too small or null, the surface contains many spikes (See S2 on the figure). Between the two extreme values, the goal is to find the optimum value of the deviation error, which provides the optimum quality Q.

When the deviation error D decreases the number of points N increases.The quality optimum Q is reached between D1 and D2. The best deviation error D to be used is the value that provides only a small noise effect. At this step, if we continue to decrease the deviation error, the result is getting worst.

The strategy to obtain the best result is to call the command "Mesh -> Deviation error refine" as many time as necessary until the noise of your point cloud begins to appear on the surface of your model. The first step is, of course, to start from a rough mesh that you can obtain with the command "Mesh -> 3D mesh creation". Let's assume that your measurement device, give you an accuracy of 0.1 (value provided by the device maker). You can use the procedure as follows and you must stop when a slight noise appears:

1. Select the mesh to refine and your cloud(s) and launch the command "Mesh -> Deviation error refine"
2. Select the option "Noise reduction" to keep only the best points.
3. Enter a deviation error of 0.1, which is the characteristic of your measurement device.
4. If the level of detail is not correct, reselect the model you have obtained in step 3 and restart step 1 again with a deviation error of 0.05, then 0.025. Note that you can enter a deviation error which is below the accuracy of your measurement device. This is because, as the "Noise reduction" option is selected, you will mesh only the "best" points having most probably the best tolerance.
5. At this step, if you think that the good level of detail is not reached, you must continue the procedure with all the points of your cloud and for that, you need to remove the "Noise reduction" option.
6. Select the mesh you have obtained in step 4 and your cloud(s) and launch the command "Mesh -> Deviation error refine".
7. Do not select the option "Noise reduction".
8. Enter a deviation error of 0.3. Note that we start with a deviation error really bigger than the accuracy of your measurement device. This is because the "real" accuracy is generally worst than the theoretical accuracy because the "real" measurement conditions are most often very far from the ideal conditions in a laboratory! Set the Aberrant points to 0.5, to ignore all the points that are too far away from your model.
9. If the level of detail is not correct, reselect the model you have obtained in step 3 and restart step 1 again with a deviation error of 0.2, then 0.1, then 0.05, then 0.025. At a certain time, if your point cloud(s) contains many points (several millions) you should see a dramatic increase of the computation time and the number of resulting triangles. If this happens, you must stop and perhaps you should make undo to retrieve the previous result, which is probably better.