Matter and Form V2 User manual
Matter and Form
3D Scanner
V2 User Manual
Table of Contents
Matter and Form 1
3D Scanner 1
Legal & Safety Stuff 4
Laser Stuff 5
Inside the Box 6
Before You Begin 7
The Importance of Lighting 7
Problem Materials and Surfaces 7
Preparing Your Object for Scanning 8
Download and Install 8
Setting Up Your Scanner 8
MFStudio 9
Starting a New Project 9
Calibration 9
Calibrating the Scanner 9
Scanning 11
Starting a New Scan 12
Regular Scan 12
+Quickscan 12
Geometry Settings 13
Picking the Best Laser Exposure 13
High Contrast Scanning (Regular scan) 14
How Do I Identify High Contrast Objects? 14
Setting High Contrast Laser Exposures 14
Texture Settings 15
Picking the best exposure for color 16
Scan Path 16
Scan Progress 17
Editing 18
Project Editor 19
Aligning Scans 19
Cleaning Scans 20
Noise Tool 20
Brush Tool 21
Crop Tool 21
Meshing 22
2
Save and Export 23
Saving Your Project 23
Exporting 23
Pro Tips 24
Positioning your laser 24
Symmetrical Objects 25
+Quickscan, then Regular Scan 25
Using other soware with your scanner 25
3D printing 25
3D Lingo 26
+Quickscan Purchasing and Activation 27
Purchase +Quickscan 27
Activate / Deactivate +Quickscan 27
Our Roots 28
Manual publication update: 05/14/2018
3
Legal & Safety Stuff
These instructions provide important information concerning
the proper operation of the product. Only use this product
aer carefully reading the operating instructions included
with the product and all warnings and labels on the product
packaging, including the manual and any separately included
sheets. Only use this product with the included accessories
and the included power adapter. Do not use this product or
any Matter and Form Inc. online services for purposes that
could infringe on the intellectual property of a third party.
Matter and Form Inc. assumes no responsibility whatsoever
with regard to the infringement of intellectual property
through use of the Matter and Form 3D Scanner or Matter and
Form Inc. online services. The Matter and Form 3D Scanner
comes with a limited warranty, in addition to any warranties
mandated by local laws. Details of the warranty can be found
at https://matterandform.net/legal
Matter and Form Inc.
243 College St., Suite 401
Toronto, Ontario
Canada, M5T 1R5
Please note the following important safety instructions:
●Do not operate this product if it is damaged, or if the
power cable or USB cable are damaged or if any of its
internal features are exposed.
●Only use the cables and power adapters provided
with the scanner. If you require a replacement, please
contact Matter and Form Inc. at
support@matterandform.net
●Do not operate the product when wet. If it should
become wet, do not turn it on. Disconnect it from its
power source and do not operate it until completely
dry.
●Do not touch the camera lens, laser lenses or laser
housing.
●If your product requires maintenance or repair,
contact Matter and Form Inc. at
support@matterandform.net . Do not attempt to open
or repair the product on your own, as it may be
hazardous and will void your warranty.
4
FCC Class B Notice
This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation
is subject to the following two conditions:
1. This device may not cause harmful interference.
2. This device must accept any interference received,
including interference that may cause undesired operation.
Note: This equipment has been tested and found to comply
with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15
of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide
reasonable protection against harmful interference in a
residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and
can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and
used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful
interference to radio communications. However, there is no
guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular
installation. If this equipment does cause harmful
interference to radio or television reception, which can be
determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is
encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more
of the following measures:
●Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
●Increase the separation between the equipment and
receiver.
●Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit
different from that to which the receiver is connected.
●Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/television
technician for help.
You may also find helpful the following booklet, prepared by
the FCC: “How to Identify and Resolve Radio-TV Interference
Problems.” This booklet is available from the U.S.
Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. 20402.
Modifications: Any modifications made to this device that are
not approved by Matter and Form Inc. may void the authority
granted to the user by the FCC to operate this equipment.
Laser Stuff
“Complies with FDA performance standards for laser
products except for deviations to Laser Notice NO-50, dated
June 24
2007. Class 1 laser product classified under IEC60825-1:2007.”
5
Inside the Box
Thank you for purchasing the Matter and Form 3D Scanner.
Included in your box, you'll find:
1. One (1) Matter and Form 3D Scanner
2. One (1)AC Power Adapter
3. Four (4) Interchangeable Power Adapter Plugs
(set of 4 international)
4. One (1) USB B Cable
5. One (1) Plastic toy for first time scans
6. One (1) Calibration Box or Card and stand
7. Set-up Manual
8. Electronics Documentation
The scanner also features a removable plug in the center of
the turntable bed. Removing the plug reveals a standard
camera threaded socket that users can use to attach a tripod
mount for holding objects in place.
6
Before You Begin
The Importance of Lighting
Scanning should be done in well-lit conditions. Diffuse, white
light from fluorescent tubes, incandescent or halogen bulbs,
or a natural light source is best. Be aware that incandescent
bulbs can add a yellowish tone to your final scan texture.
Lighting situations to avoid include:
●Spotlights or shining light directly on the object can
cause hot spots in some areas and shadows in others,
making it difficult for your scanner to see the lasers.
●Uneven lighting can cause uneven textures, especially
when aligning scans together.
●Bright direct sunlight can overpower and wash out
the scanning lasers, leaving fewer points recorded by
the scanner.
●No lights at all will cause missing and inaccurate data,
and textures will appear black.
●Variable lighting (lighting that fluctuates between
bright and dark during the scan) will affect the color
information that is gathered, making the textures look
striped.
For more up-to-date tips and tricks, visit our website.
www.matterandform.net/help
Problem Materials and Surfaces
There are some materials that laser scanners have trouble
scanning. Because the scanner works by capturing the data
that is made by the laser hitting the surface of the object, any
material that makes the lasers difficult to see will not scan
well.
Here are some materials you cannot scan without prepping
first:
●Objects with surfaces that are too shiny (i.e. metal,
jewels, mirrors etc.) will reflect or bounce the laser
away from the object. This can cause noisy looking
scans.
●Objects that are clear or translucent (i.e. glass, clear
plastic, flower petals, jello etc.) will let the laser light
pass right through the surface of the object. This can
cause scans that appear to have two layers.
●Objects that are too dark and absorb too much light
(i.e. black velvet, fur) will also absorb the laser light
causing an inaccurate scan. This can cause your scan
to appear empty.
7
Preparing Your Object for Scanning
Some objects (as listed above) will require a bit of prep work
to allow them to scan properly, or at all. Pre-treating your
objects with matte paint, foot sprays or baby powder will give
the best results. If using paint, a light grey color is best.
If you want to capture color data, be aware that any
treatment may alter the color as it appears in the final scan.
Download and Install
Download the MFStudio soware from
www.matterandform.net/download .
If you don’t already have an account you’ll be prompted to
register your email.
Make sure to download the appropriate soware for your
computer!
Follow the setup wizard and complete the install process.
Setting Up Your Scanner
Choose a location close to your computer that has even,
ambient light and a stable, level surface. The first step is to
connect the scanner:
1. Plug the USB Type A connector end into the
computer;
2. Plug the USB Type B connector end into the scanner;
3. Connect the power cable to the scanner and plug the
power cable into a surge protector;
4. Open the scanner on by gently depressing the release
button on the top of the scanner and swing it open,
revealing the scanner head and the turntable. Turn
the handle 90° until it locks in place as the scanner
leg.
5. Power the scanner on. To do so, push the MF logo on
the lower front of the scanner until it lights up;
Open the soware. The soware will search and
detect the scanner. Once it does, you’re ready to start
Before you perform
your first scan, you
must calibrate your
scanner. Go to
Calibrating the Scanner
for step-by-step
instructions.
8
MFStudio
Starting a New Project
To start a new project, click New Project on the MFStudio
homepage. Enter a Filename , select a Save to: location, then
click Continue .
To open a project, click the thumbnail of a recent project on
the MFStudio homepage, or navigate to Open from the File
menu.
Calibration
Calibrating the Scanner
Calibration is very important to getting the best out of your
scanner. From time-to-time or with brand new scanners,
MFStudio will remind you when it’s time to calibrate, but you
can calibrate whenever you need to by selecting Calibrate
from the File menu.
Calibrate your scanner when it gets moved or
your lighting changes drastically! The turntable
can shi when moved, causing the scanner to
scan incorrectly.
Click to select the calibration device, card or box, that came
with your scanner. Follow the instructions to assemble the
card, if needed.
9
Follow the instructions for Calibration Steps 1 and 2 in the
soware to calibrate you scanner.
The scanner turntable will rotatele and right, firingits
lasers and collecting a range of data. Be patient and do not
move the calibration card or scanner.
Step 2 will take slightly longer than Step 1 as the soware
compares the data between Step 1 and Step 2.
If your calibration is interrupted or fails, an error
message should appear. Make sure your lighting
environment is ideal and the scanner is properly
setup before trying calibration again.
If a step in calibration takes longer than 30 minutes, stop the
calibration and try again or contact
support@matterandform.net for tips and assistance.
10
Scanning
11
Starting a New Scan
Click +new scan to start a new scan. Clicking the tabs from
the top of the sidebar on the Scan Setup page will let you
choose between scanning modes:
Regular Scan
Regular Scan (10-15 minutes per pass) uses two lasers to
capture geometry with optional textures.
Regular scan uses a process called “Adaptive Scanning”, in
which the bed will rotate forward, but will also rotate back.
This is to capture extra data when the distance between new
and previously captured points is determined to be too great.
+Quickscan
+Quickscan (1-2 min per pass) uses one laser to capture
geometry. Click the Laser 1 and Laser 2 buttons under
Geometry Settings to choose which laser to scan with.
Laser 1 is farther from the camera than Laser 2. Choosing
Laser 1 may result in greater accuracy, but capture less of the
object (due to the shadow the laser will cast), while choosing
Laser 2 may result in less accuracy, but more coverage.
See the following sections for information about Geometry
Settings and Texture Settings .
+Quickscan is only available for purchase through MFStudio,
or at the time you bought your scanner. See + Quickscan
Purchasing and Activation for more info .
12
Geometry Settings
The Geometry Settings can be found at the top of the Scan
Setup sidebar. The slider controls the camera’s exposure,
making the laser lines visible for capturing an object. Laser
lines will bounce off different colours and object materials
differently, influencing how well it will capture information.
Changing the camera’s exposure can make the lasers more or
less visible.
One or two red lasers will be visible in the camera view. The
additional green overlay represents how the scanner sees the
lasers, ie. where your object is being detected. Adjusting the
Geometry Settings slider will change how easy it is for the
scanner to see the lasers.
To find the best exposure for your object, choose an
exposure where the green overlay is a sharp line, meaning
that it doesn’t have a lot of noise. Noise appears as fuzzy
static rather than a straight solid or nearly solid line. The
more defined and filled in the laser line the better the results.
If your laser line detection is poor at every exposure, adjust
your lighting environment.
Dark-colored areas need a bright camera exposure
and light-colored areas need a darker camera
exposure for the best laser line detection.
Picking the Best Laser Exposure
Hereisan
exampleofnoisy
laserlineswith
gaps.
Herethegapsare
closed.Thisisa
goodsetoflaser
lines.
13
When more than one exposure gives good results,
choose the lowest value, as this reduces total
scanning time and the capturing of noise points
from the scan bed.
High Contrast Scanning (Regular scan)
High Contrast Scanning is a method for capturing the best
data possible when scanning objects with more than one
color, particularly contrasting colors, like black and white.
High contrast scanning allows for improved laser detection
by tuning two different exposures, one for each contrasting
color.
Click the High-Contrast checkbox in the Geometry Settings
toolbox to turn on high-contrast scanning.
How Do I Identify High Contrast Objects?
Use high contrast If your object has
colors from both of these
categories:
1) Blue, Purple, Dark Green, Black
2) Yellow, Orange, Red, Grey, White
(and pastel colors)
Try High-Contrast, if the green visualization overlay for the
lasers in the Geometry camera feed does not achieve a
complete line when adjusting the Geometry Settings slider.
Setting High Contrast Laser Exposures
Somemodelscannotbe
scannedwithonlyonelaser
exposureduetotheirhigh
contrastcolors:greyand
whitebothcontrastwith
black.
Hereyoucanseethelaser
lineswhenadarker
exposureisselected.One
colorshowswell,butthe
otherdoesn’t.
Hereyoucanseethelaser
lineshowsupwellonthe
black,butisspottyonthe
white.
To set a different exposure for each colour, first adjust the top
Geometry Settings slider for Exposure 1 to capture clean
laser lines on the light areas of the object.
14
Check the High-Contrast checkbox, which enables the
second exposure slider.
Then, adjust the bottom slider for Exposure 2 until the dark
areas of the model fill in with a clean laser line.
Hereyoucanseethetwo
laserlinesshowingclearly
onbothcolors.
Changing exposures may take time to reflect in the
Geometry camera feed, so you may need to wait a
moment to see the results.
Texture Settings
Texturing captures color information from photos taken
during scanning and applies them to the generated point
cloud. Textures can be enabled for meshed scan projects,
and included when exporting/saving to MFPROJ or OBJ file
formats.
To capture textures, check Capture in the Texture Settings
toolbox. The Texture camera feed (displayed in color as a
thumbnail within the Geometry camera feed) shows the
exposure that will be used for texturing. Look at this feed
when adjusting the Texture Settings slider.
Adjust the slider until you find an exposure where an object’s
colors appear realistically. You want an exposure that shows
the colors on the object in a bright but not overexposed
manner.
Textures for a Regular Scan are capturing during the same
bed rotations as the scanning operation.
Textures for a + Quickscan are captured during an additional
bed rotation aer geometry is captured.
15
Picking the best exposure for color
Here are three examples for Texture Settings exposures:
This is underexposed.
Capturing textures with this
exposure will result in a
fairly dark object.
This is a good choice for
capturing color because the
object is evenly lit with
minimal shadows and hot
spots.
This is overexposed.
Capturing textures with this
exposure will result in hot
spots and uneven colors.
Scan Path
Adjusting the sliders in the Scan Path toolbox will restrict
scanning to only a portion of the object.
●Height: The vertical slider sets how high the camera
head will move - each block of the slider represents
another height at which the camera head will stop to
complete a bed rotation (or pass) to capture points.
If unsure of the appropriate scan path height for
your object, leave the slider full and cancel the
scan’s progress when your object is completely
scanned. It will load in the Project Editor as is.
●Degree: The horizontal slider sets the degree of bed
rotation for each pass (45° minimum). Moving this
slider will restrict the scan bed’s rotation in order to
scan only a portion of an object.
Click Scan when you’re happy with your settings.
16
Scan Progress
The Scan Progress window displays points as they are
captured during scanning.
Click the X icon by the progress bar to finish scanning at any
time. The scan will load into the Project Editor as-is.
You can interact with the point cloud while scanning:
To SPIN: Click and drag anywhere in the view window.
To ZOOM: Use the mouse wheel, or scroll, to zoom in and out.
To PAN: Right click and drag.
To RESET VIEW: Aer clicking the view window, press the "c"
on your keyboard.
17
Editing
18
Project Editor
The Project Editor is designed for working on multiple scans
of the same object simultaneously (though it functions the
same with a single scan).
Sometimes a single scan can miss a feature of an object, like
the bottom or top, that can be captured by performing
another scan at a different angle (i.e. with the object on its
side).
To add an additional scan to your project, click +new scan .
From the Point Cloud Control toolbox you can:
Click to turn on/off visibility. Scans must be visible
to clean or align them.
Click to delete a scan from the project.
Click to turn on/off alignment. Scans will align to the
first scan selected.
Aligning Scans
The most effective way to get complete geometry of an
object is to scan it from different angles and align the
resulting point clouds together in the Project Editor.
It’s a good idea to clean your point clouds before aligning
them.
Choose the point cloud in the desired orientation.
To begin the alignment process, click A on a point cloud in
your desired orientation. This scan will be used as the
reference for the next scan’s alignment. Subsequent scans
chosen for alignment will use all the previously aligned scans
as their reference.
Alignment may take a few minutes depending on the size and
complexity of the point clouds.
Occasionally the alignment algorithm identifies the
wrong key points for aligning scans together,
particularly with symmetrical objects. When
alignment fails in this way, try aligning your scans
in a different order.
19
Cleaning Scans
The scanner can pick up unintended points caused by
reflections off the surface of the object or captured
background movement. The turntable can also be captured,
especially if the object’s color is similar to that of the bed.
There are three options for cleaning tools in the sidebar of
the Project Editor: Noise, Brush, and Crop. Points selected by
any of these methods will be highlighted in red. Click Clean
to delete the highlighted points, or Deselect to keep them.
Undo , in the Edit menu, restores points that have been
cleaned.
All points can be removed, including good points.
Rotate the model to make sure only unwanted
points are highlighted. You can use the mouse
wheel, or scroll, to zoom in for a closer look.
Noise Tool
The Noise Selection tool automatically highlights points for
cleaning. Move the slider to choose how aggressive the
selection will be.
Points selected
with the Noise
Selection slider
set in the middle.
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