3D scanning of ornaments in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Dmitry Zhamkov’s Art Workshop has once again applied to the Nizhny Novgorod branch of RangeVision. This time, our engineer had the task of scanning three wall ornaments in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Nizhny Novgorod for their subsequent manufacture on a CNC machine. The ornaments were not completed by another artist, so Dmitry Zhamkov was assigned to finish the work on them. It is difficult and time-consuming to do this manually, because the main goal of the customer was not only the production of ornaments, but also the most accurate repetition of the previous artist’s handwriting.

We have already solved similar problems before: by order of the artist Dmitry Zhamkov, RangeVision digitized a relief painting, hand-carved on a plastic board and later made on a CNC machine. Machining on CNC milling machines is used in many industries. Woodworking of decorative products is no exception. This saves time spent on the production process and reduces the cost of the final product.

3D scanning allows you to obtain the final 3D models with high detail, so that you can then write a program for a CNC milling machine and automate the production of missing carvings.

To implement this project, we used the new RangeVision Spectrum 3D scanner. The equipment and all necessary accessories are supplied in a hard case. The total weight of 10 kg makes it easy to bring the 3D scanner to clients' facilities and offices.

In order for the 3D scanning of the ornaments to be as accurate and stable as possible, we applied markers to them. It was enough to cover only one side of each object with labels, since the products were symmetrical.

We did not remove the carved slab in the photo above from the wall due to its large dimensions. In addition, it was quite low, which made it difficult to adjust the cameras and the height of the scanner. Digitization was performed in an upright position. The Spectrum 3D scanner coped with this task due to an adjustable tripod and a wide range of scanning zone settings.

The other two ornaments were smaller, so we took them off the walls and scanned them horizontally.
Post-processing of the data in the RangeVision ScanCenter program made it possible to combine the scans together to obtain highly accurate final models.

As our experience has shown, the Spectrum 3D scanner does an excellent job of digitizing objects that are in positions that make it difficult to scan.

The 3D digitization of the three ornaments took about 5 hours, and the post-processing and stitching of the scans took 2 business days.

Dmitry Zhamkov was satisfied with the result. The artist noted the high detail of the resulting 3D models and their accuracy. These parameters will allow you to quickly produce the missing carvings on a CNC machine, which means that you can complete the work you started on time.