How much do you want to pay for the program?

There are several "scan and build"  .... A few years back I picked up one from 3DWorld Magazine (d-scupltor).  Basically, you take a number of photos of the object, usually staged on a marked grid.

In the program, you carefully mask the object, and mark the numbered grid positions visible.

Once set up, the program generates a mesh (and maybe texured as well) and you can export the scanned mesh.

It's nice for rendering a "static"  object, but it does create a bit of a dense mesh.  One could, however, use that as a "template"  object over which to create one's own part.

Of course there ARE professional scan and render programs.

spitfire boy wrote on Sep 20^th, 2007 at 12:11pm:


My "how much do you want to pay"  is rhetorical.  Such programs/devices exist.  On the industrial/ high end, there are laser scanners that will digitize and object and then the output can be used to make a "practically exact"  duplicate.  This is useful, for example,  in the restoration of priceless relics/objects  where duplicate parts/replicas can be made without disturbing the priceless original.

On the low end, programs like d-sculptor are useful to create small meshes from real life objects.