Hyundai designs, 3D scanned

At the centre of a $30 million USD (£26 million GBP), 8000+M^3, state-of-the-art facility, 3D scanners from Creaform play a vital role. It’s Hyundai Design North America’s design and technical centre in Irvine, California. Here, designers, engineers and model makers come together to design new cars for the parent company based in South Korea.

As much as the automotive industry is at the forefront of technological innovation, the more artistic processes of designing new vehicles still employs some more low-tech techniques. Clay sculpting is widely used as a hands-on way for shaping and forming new designs, as is the case at Hyundai Design North America. But the modern world brings with it an accelerated time-to-market schedule, meaning design teams have less time to finalise concepts. Using 3D scanners to digitally recreate alterations made on a clay model vastly improves workflow and increases the speed that designers can work at.

However, the 3D scanners that Hyundai Design North America used for a long time, were overdue for an upgrade:

“The scanners that we were previously using were too bulky and difficult to manage. The scanning process and post-processing times were long and required most modelers to step away from working on the clay,” explained Rob Homer, Operations Modelling Manager at Hyundai Design North America. “This led to crucial time loss, especially when deliverables had hard target dates.”

Rob and his team began checking out available 3D scanners that fit their requirements. “We wanted a 3D scanner that was compact, easily portable, fast and accurate. It also had to be compatible with our CAD software.”

HandySCAN 3D: portable, easy, fast

“After looking into the various 3D measurement technologies out there, Creaform came on top for me with its HandySCAN 3D. It is a very good and reliable product at a very good price point,” Rob added. He was equally impressed with its ease of use and speed.

Hyundai Design North America was able to seamlessly implement HandySCAN 3D into its existing design workflows for real-time development. Training users on the software was completed in a day. “The experience from purchasing the scanner to training was incredibly pleasant and professional.”

First, a 2D sketch is made, which then gets milled out as a clay model. Changes and fine-tuning can be done by hand on the clay model, which is then 3D scanned to acquire the digital representation of the modifications. This allows the designers to compare the 3D scan with the digital model within minutes of scanning. Another benefit of the HandySCAN 3D in this application is that it allows sections of the clay model to be scanned, while sculpting on other parts does not need to be interrupted.

Richard Gillespie, Senior Digital Modelling Manager, says that the 3D measurements enable the modelers and design team to know exactly where the clay models are landed in comparison with design criteria and styling boundaries. They can quickly identify and correct discrepancies. Designers can come to decisions faster thanks to the efficiency and accuracy HandySCAN 3D offers.

One of Rob’s favourite aspects is HandySCAN 3D’s simplicity. “My modelling team can use it independently without having to wait for another expert to do the scans for them. That makes our services a true one stop shop.”