Photomodeler software.

Has anyone seen this software? It seems like it could be a great tool for the handibot 3D work. You use a digital camera and take pictures of an object. The software meshes if into a 3D dataset.

[www.photomodeler.com]

I had not heard of this one but Adobe has one that is up and running.

There is this one: 123D Catch

It does not always work, but when it does it is pretty slick -- and it's free.

Ted Hall, ShopBot Tools

I recognize this is not directly what the topic was about, but it's tangentially related enough to possibly be useful to some readers.

A lot of folks in the 3D printing community make 3D lithophanes (http://www.vectric.com/products/pvc/features/3d-lithophane.html) from standard photographs. A lithophane converts value (light/dark) to height.

There is a tool on Thingiverse (http://www.thingiverse.com/apps/customizer/run?code=7d14b4631fe1e9a942dea9386939d6e7) that will make an STL from a photo. There is a free tool (challenging UI, but very configurable,) called BMP2IGES (translated page http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://geisel.ba-bautzen.de/bmp2iges.htm&prev=search).

Both of these will create STL files (most common 3D printing model format,) and it looks like PartWorks3D will ingest these happily.

123D Catch takes some patience, but can produce amazing models. They are not always manifold (http://airwolf3d.com/wiki/manifolded-edges-how-to-check-if-your-model-is-watertight-and-ready-to-3d-print/ ). But this can frequently be fixed with the indispensible free version of Netfabb Basic (http://www.netfabb.com/basic.php)