On Tuesday, I shared a tricky scan question about a shiny metal helmet. Today, let’s uncover why this type of object is challenging to scan and how to get better results.
Why are reflective surfaces difficult?
3D scanners project light onto the object and capture the reflected information to generate 3D data. However, reflective surfaces create specular reflection, where light is reflected in a specific direction instead of evenly scattering back to the scanner, and may not return to the scanner’s cameras.
As a result, reflective surfaces can be harder to detect and may cause sparse point clouds, spikes, noise, flying points, distorted geometry, and tracking issues.
Why is symmetry challenging?
Unlike reflective surfaces, symmetry mainly affects feature tracking.
During scanning, the software continuously tries to figure out where the scanner is and whether it has seen this area before. For symmetrical objects, similar features may confuse the tracking process, making it difficult for the software to determine the correct position.
Now that we understand why reflective and symmetrical objects are challenging to scan, let’s talk about how to improve the results.
In Tuesday’s poll, many users chose scanning spray, which is a great solution for improving data capture on challenging surfaces. But what if you want to keep the original surface? Here are some practical tips to try.
- Add extra feature-rich objects around the scanning area.
Additional features can help break the symmetry and provide more references for the scanner to track its position. With our built-in AI Tracking Navigator, even weak features can be recognized and transformed into reliable alignment references, helping maintain stable tracking on challenging objects.
- Turn on the Reflective Mode in scan setting.
Reflective Mode is designed to adapt to challenging shiny surfaces, helping reduce the impact of reflections and ensuring more reliable data capture on reflective objects.
- Change scanning angles during the process.
Different angles can reduce strong reflections and help capture more surface details from areas with less interference.
Besides these tips, keeping a steady scanning speed and smooth movement also helps maintain tracking stability and avoid misalignment.
If you have other tips for scanning challenging objects, feel free to share them in the comments!
