Creality CR-Scan Ferret 3D Scanner for 3D Printing by 3IDEA | Upgrade Handheld Scanner with 30 FPS High Scan Speed | Dual Mode Scanning, 0.1mm Accuracy for Andriod Phone PC Win 10/11

The media could not be loaded. I finally pulled the trigger and bought the Creality 3D Scanner "CR-Scan Ferret". I had several projects that I thought this scanner might help me complete more quickly.I am in the habit of using Fusion 360 to produce a model of a part I want to print on my Creality 3D printer (CR-6SE). Usually this involves repeated measurements using a digital caliper and trial prints to get the fit just right. This still leaves the problem of getting the geometry right. If it is something simple, like a cylinder, that's not too difficult. Complex shapes can take hours to dissect and reconstruct using the available tools. This is where the 3D scanner comes in, if it accurately captures the size as well as the geometry of the scanned part.It sounds simple, but obtaining a clean scan of a part is as much an art as a science and can involve expensive equipment, some costing tens of thousands of dollars. That's far out of my budget. To lessen the risk-reward ratio, enter the Ferret. I caught mine on sale in the Sainsmart store on Amazon. It is a great piece of equipment.It has a battery built into the handle, a holder for an Android phone, can be connected to your Windows PC or Mac. It comes with the two cables that your likely to need (one for using your phone, the other for your PC). A word of caution, you'll need a USB 3.0 interface on your PC/Phone if you want this to work. Also, you'll want a fast PC or Phone. I have a Samsung S21, it works great. The faster your phone, the happier you'll be, since it uses the phone's processor in addition to the custom ASIC chip for processing the scanned "dots" into a mesh of triangles. The mesh file is what you import into Fusion 360 or your preferred Mesh editing software (like Blender).My experience was initial frustration at getting a clean scan of the parts I wanted to work with. But, with perseverance, I was able to eventually get some usable scans. My only hint is to not be afraid to try the various settings in the software before you give up. Small objects are best scanned on a turntable (lazy Susan) with the scanner in a fixed location. For larger objects, you will want to mount your phone in the handle, making the scanner portable, and manually passing the scanner around and over the project. It takes a while to get the hang of watching the screen while you scan.Once you complete the scan, the included software allows you to optimize the scan and convert it into a mesh. You also get to add color to the faces. And, you can use the same software to perform simple edits to delete distractions from your scanned models. There are some minor bugs in the software when it comes to editing. In the version I was using when using the rectangular selection mode, it kept resetting to the "lasso mode." It took rechoosing the lasso mode, then the rectangular mode again to do another selection. This was in the PC version of the software. The android version allows you to erase points with your finger on the phone's screen and doesn't have the selection tools.This brings up the point that there are two cameras in this scanner: One is InfraRed, the other is RGB. You'll see both displayed as you scan. You can adjust the intensity of the IR light, which is important if you are trying to scan difficult objects with IR reflective surfaces.Once you get past the frustration of learning a lot in order to be able to do a little, this is a great, inexpensive 3D scanner.The video simply documents the unboxing. Everybody does one of those. 🤣

I bought this specifically to scan miniatures. When I hooked it up to my phone, the app would crash every single time before ever starting a single scan. I uninstalled and reinstalled the app and made sure my phone met the prerequisite specs. No luck. When I hooked it up to my computer, the program refused to scan anything. I double-checked to make sure my computer had the requisite 8 gigs of RAM, which it did. No luck. The camera refused to recognize any object besides the platform the figure was on. I adjusted the settings, tried different focal distances, messed with brightness and exposure levels, nothing seemed to get it to work. When I did some troubleshooting online, the official website indicated that the problem might be that the object I was trying to scan might be too small. WTF? I'm not trying to scan a gnat's eyeball. I'm trying to scan a miniature.Luckily I was able to return the scanner for Amazon store credit. Other people seem to have had better luck than I, but $300 is a lot of money to spend to find out.

Takes some trials and errors to get good results. Still trying to get good results.

I got this to start printing replacement parts for some of the things I work on. In reality, most of the stuff I want to print wouldn't nessesarily work via PLA but I can print nylon, abs, and even polycarbonate but I am only at the point of just making more than household items and trinkets. This has more possibility than just printing though, as you can profile with this 3D scanner and do more in programs like Blender. I have only a few things scanned, like my face, a toy rocket, and a plushy my son had requested I scanned. I quickly found out though that a turntable would be better than poking at it with my hand and editing out the artifacts that occur from that. You can use things like cake turntable for frosting. As a side note, I read that covering it in something black helps prevent it from being picked up on the scanner.For my testing, I actually hooked this directly to my PC, but there is a phone app and even a phone holder than you can clip a phone into. The phone option would help with more mobile scanning, but expect artifacting in the scan if you are doing it by hand. This scanner is for larger items, not that you can't use this on smaller things, there is just a trick to zeroing in on it and you really really need something like a turntable with smaller items as you need to maintain that distance once zeroed in and you need to be steady with the scan of I knoticed more artifacts. (Failed my benchy scan which was not a successful scan because I did not have a turntable at that point so it was not added to my list of scans. But you can zero in on it.)Using this was easy though, and the rest seems to be tweaking the right length or height for scanning. I found that it tracks faces well, and understands when you change direction of the face and perspective of the face and adds the details in while you scan. It was crazy how fun I found the whole process, and I really look forward to more things added and more crystalized knowledge on how to interact with those scans. The PC app was very intuitive, though I have nothing to say about the mobile app because I did not test with that.Price wise, this is a very competative scanner. There are options out there, like the Revoscanner or 3DMakerPro in similar price points, but you really do have to spend much much more to get something better. There are 800 dollar options that are arguably better, but really use the same tech as the Ferret does. To get better you may end up spending 1, 2, 4,or even 8 thousand dollars from what I looked up.I can absolutely recommend this, it does cost about as much as a decent 3D Printer, but enables more people to print more customized parts or things.

It doesn't pick up small objects as well as I would like. But that also could be my inexperience with a scanner.