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Makerscan – 3D Scanning from MakerBot?

I was at the Detroit Maker Faire over the weekend.  It was quite a drive from Chicago, but well worth it.  The place was full of 3D printers.  Most of them were MakerBots and the others were mostly RepRaps (Darwins and Mendels).  It is great to see MakerBot Industries having success with an open source product.  I almost missed the actual MakerBot “booth”.  It was tucked behind a a few bigger displays.  They had a couple MakerBots printing away.  They were printing a lot of coin bottle openers. They have a slot for a coin that catches on the bottle cap.  …quick to print and a crowd pleaser.

I spent some time chatting with them about all of the DIY digital fabrication going on with printers, CNC machines, lasers, etc.  They mentioned that they had a project started to design and build a 3D scanner.  It makes a lot of sense because easily getting things into 3D format helps the whole movement along.  Below is a scan and print of Bre Pettis, one of the founders of MakerBot and Thingiverse.

When I got home I started to look into the Makerscan and 3D scanners in general.  Unfortunately the MakerBot people are just getting started.  They have a links page, a Google Group and a decent sense of direction and that is about it right now.  The links page has a lot of good stuff.  I have heard of the David Scanner for a long time.  They have a complete kit.

Grasp 3D looks pretty cool too.