My Top App Pick For 3D Scanning: You'll Be Shocked!

We put 8 mobile 3D scanning apps to the test, evaluating ease of use, scan quality, PRICE, and more. Did your favorite expensive app make the cut? And just how BAD are the FREE options? The results were NOT EXPECTED!

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction
01:42 Widar
02:20 PolyCam
03:31 XOne
04:44 RealityScan
06:30 MagiScan
08:56 Qlone
10:03 Kiri Engine
12:25 MakerWorld AI Scanner
14:40 THE RESULTS!

[xingyechrishu]

As a KIRI Engine developer, I would say this is a very objective video. Good work! This video inspired us to make our App provide higher quality and make it more affordable in the future. And I believe with the technology growing, 3d scanning with phones will elevate to another level.

[ChrisMcLerran]

I almost skipped this video because of the "You'll be shocked" tag line. But it was really well done. Thank you for doing such good work.

[Hambs]

With that background music, I kinda want this guy to tuck me into bed and put me to sleep with stories of his past.
Great video! Tho we do have a handheld scanner and the scan quality is really good, that thing is very finicky and it's difficult to scan bigger objects. Deffinitely goona try out some of these. Thanks for showcasing both results and price, it really helps putting things into perspective.

[dillzilla]

from my experience KIRI is also really good for doing things like scanning inside an object as well. i have personally used it to 3D scan the interior of a car along with the frame and it is good enough to reliably make mount points for engine swaps. It is the only one that works much at all for this kind of application.

[getbent]

Years ago tried some photogrammetry software that didn't work out so good. Thinking Maker World AI might be my next option. Thank you for testing these out.

[TheoWerewolf]

The reason the print @4:42 looked great but printed lousy by comparison is the texture map. Most of these scanning apps are designed to make just a good enough model that when you stick the texture map it captures in it, it looks really good because the main use for the models tends to be digital assets in 3D visuals, VR or games.

[jackisbuildingkiri]

Great video, Eric! Really enjoyed watching this shoulder-to-shoulder comparison. 3D scanning has involved so much in the past few years. Although many phone apps can do 3D scanning, they don't always use the same 3D scanning methods. There's more than one way to make a smartphone do 3D scanning, there are photogrammetry (traditional but still gives the best mesh if done right), LiDAR (fast, but mesh is not so detailed), FaceID (Meh, not a great choice), NeuS (The tech that KIRI Engine and MakerWorld use, I believe) and the recent 3D Gaussian Splatting (Cool but can't generate mesh). But unfortunately, 3D scanning has always been a niche topic that not many people are aware of the pros and cons and the impact of different 3D scanning methods; it's so nice to see a great video on YouTube that toggles the differences between each 3D scanner app.

[VirtualAdrenalinePro]

Scanning still seems to be, not quiet ready but this is a great overview of what is out there. Thanks for the research. Keep up the great content.

[jtreg]

nice presentation, usually the people discussing 3D printing on YT are so annoying I can barely watch! Your video was easy to follow without annoyances... nice one, impressed, subscribed.

[gfdggdfgdgf]

It's not surprising the print size varies, without calibration the software has no idea of the size of the object.

[joeking]

Kind of despicable IMO how they use their payment schemes. I like the days where you could just buy an app and it's yours. Smh.

[AndrewAHayes]

I dont do a lot of 3D scanning but when I do I just take the photos and upload to Meshroom on my laptop, I have learned that very busy objects just don't look well in a scan or a 3D print, my best success was some brake/clutch levers I scanned and printed out in Nylon CF for a friend.
If anyone wishes to comment that this is dangerous, don't bother! the levers were tested and well, we couldn't break them.

[copper_knight]

Thank you for testing all these apps for us. I think this whole experience would benefit a lot from printing with a resin printer. The layer lines are so apparent that it's hard to discern what app got the sharpest details. Thank you for your research.

[mtzhp]

Thanks, used the advice here to make a discontinued part for my S2000 based on the mirrorred 3MF scan from the good part on the other side.

[apitheous]

Thank you so much. I haven't taken the leap yet on the purchase of a 3d scanner. Leaning toward a Bambu printer. Thanks again.

[owenrichards]

This is something I've wanted to get into for a while now. Thanks for giving a good overview on price and quality.

[melindarm]

Thank you for a very informative and balanced review. As a relative newbie to 3d printing your video really helps

[videolan]

Stumbled across this video on Youtube - excellent review and full of easy to understand info with great presentation. I'm now a subscriber!

[ArcadeCreative]

As a sculptor and new to 3D printing I’ve checked out what’s available for mobile apps and everyone wants us to subscribe for monthly fees. As much as I sculpt it’s far more cost effective to just buy a 3D scanner. Sucks but true.

[DonaldDrennan]

I tried the MakerWorld AI Scanner. It gave me very good results, however, it does not capture the surface image texture. The model is without color, which is fine for 3D printing, but not for photoscanning objects for rendering. For that, I've had pretty good results from MagiScan. I figured out a technique for improving models from MagiScan in Blender using the image texture as a displacement map, first subdividing, then displacing, and decimating to reduce the face count. It adds a lot of detail to the original scan. This can't be done with MakerWorld AI Scanner because it doesn't create a UV map.