Hello Engineers!

Welcome to this new article on free apps for 3D scanning from smartphones. We all have a smartphone with a good quality camera and in this article we give you tips on how to use it, applied to the world of 3D Printing, to scan objects for your Online 3D Printing.
 

The Best Free Apps for 3D Scanning from Smartphone

Let's start with some vocabulary.

What is a 3D scan?

It is the digital representation of the object or person we want to scan in 3D. During the scanning process on a tablet or mobile phone, the application software captures the shape of an object (object, face or body of a person). The sensors on the individual device collect the shape, depth and colour data of the object being scanned in 3D and form the final 3D file. After the 3D scan has been converted into a 3D file, the result can be edited with a 3D modelling application. 

PolyD - 3D printing: 3D scanning of objects

Scanning can be done with a smartphone or tablet, if you want a more amateurish result, or with a device designed for scanning, in case you want a professional 3D printing result.

How to scan? 

The first step is to download one of the many scanning applications that already exist on the market.

More or less, depending on the application chosen, the 3D scanning procedure works as follows:

  • position the object or person to be scanned in such a way that it allows you to radiate the scanning object, i.e. to move smoothly around it.
  • start the scanning procedure as instructed by the chosen application. The sensors in your mobile phone's camera will collect all the necessary data.
  • when the 3D scan is complete, the application transforms the images into the 3D digital model. 

PolyD 3d printing : 3D scanning of people
3D scanning applications are easy to use and immediately provide guidance on how to proceed step by step; however, we at PolyD provide you with some useful tips for a successful 3D scan.

Tips for using Mobile 3D Scanning 

  • Make sure you use the right light, both inside and outside the object.
  • The light should be bright and evenly spread over the entire surface to be scanned, to avoid shadows and especially for night scans.
  • Always keep the same distance when scanning around the object, in order to obtain a uniform result.
  • When scanning take care to highlight the object from its background, so that the depth sensors of the 3D scan capture the volume of the object.
  • Transparent objects cannot be differentiated from their background, so they cannot be represented correctly by a 3D scan.

Smartphone 3D Scanning Software

We have selected some 3D scanning applications, all based on the photogrammetric method. Photogrammetry is a 3D scanning technology that creates 3D models from 2D photos. It works by taking overlapping photos of the object to be scanned in 3D from different angles; then the software generates the 3D model by combining all the images taken together. 

The APPs we have selected are:

  • KIRI Engine
  • Qlone
  • Scaniverse

KIRI ENGINE

It is considered one of the best 3D scanning apps for smartphones: in tests by HP Academy and Hackaday it came out as the most convincing of the phone apps. It is available for iPhone, Android and on the web.

  • with "Photo Scan" mode (photogrammetry) you take up to 150 photos around the object and the app rebuilds the 3D model in the cloud;
  • on iPhones with a LiDAR sensor you can also use LiDAR scanning, useful for rooms and large objects.

The free plan (Basic) includes unlimited exports in OBJ, STL, FBX, GLB and other formats, so you can go straight from scanning to 3D printing. The Pro version, by subscription, adds advanced features such as Gaussian Splatting and higher-resolution textures.

QLONE

It is a 3D scanning app for iPhone and iPad that processes the scan directly on the device, without going through a cloud platform. To use it, you print a black-and-white mat, similar to a chessboard, and place the object on it: the app uses it as a reference while you move around the object.

Scanning is free; exporting the 3D models, including in STL format, is paid, with a one-time purchase and no subscription.

SCANIVERSE

It is a free app for personal use, available for iPhone and Android and developed by Niantic Spatial. It processes scans directly on the phone and does not require a LiDAR sensor. Its strength is capturing objects and spaces, even large ones, with very realistic results.

It exports models as meshes in GLB and USDZ formats: for 3D printing they need to be converted to STL with a 3D modelling program or a converter.

 
Once scanned, you're ready to print! Try our fast Online Quote and 3D Print with PolyD.

Happy 3D Printing!