Creaform 3D Scanners: Reverse Engineering the Death Star

Reverse Engineering the Death Star

No, I’m not on my way to becoming the next Emperor Palpatine, so no worries there.

Last Christmas season, my family found a Death Star Planetarium while shopping.  We had the idea of using it as a tree topper for our Christmas tree.  Our only problem was how to get it to stay.  It came with a stand, but it didn’t immobilize the Death Star. I could get calipers and other measuring tools out, but that doesn’t result in the best accuracy.  The answer came in using the Creaform 3D Scanners.  I have only been using scanners and their software VXelements for a couple of months, but already this entire process is quick and easy.  Using the HandyScan 700 I was able to scan the planetarium using my high tech base, my hot chocolate mug.

Using VXelements, the proprietary software for Creaform scanners, I cleaned the scan up.

I was able to create a reference frame, planes, circles, lines, and surfaces based on the mesh created by the scan.

I then transferred these entities directly into SOLIDWORKS.

From there I was able to create a base that the Death Star Planetarium would be able to fit on, and also immobilize it on the top of my Christmas tree!  Now that the concept has been created, the next task would be to create a prototype and test it out!

Creaform 3D scanners have already made a huge difference for many of our customers, whether in Reverse Engineering or in Inspections for Quality Control.  Please let us know of any questions you might have in how this can help you as well!

Chad Whitbeck
Application Engineer
Computer Aided Technology