Frequently Asked Questions

You need a 3D-slicer software to produce GCODE-files for your 3D-printer from the STL-files we provide on our download page.
While a STL-file is 3D-printer agnostic and can be used with any 3D-printer, the slicer translates it into machine specific GCODE.
While there may be good slices out there, CURA is a great choice that is freely available.
A short and great comprehensive tutorial can be found here.

Yes.
Please go to our download area where you can either download STL-files of individual xplicator:ASCAND 3D-components or download a ZIP-file that includes all STL-files for all xplicator:ASCAND 3D-printable components.

You can get them at your favorite local store, at AMAZON™ or (as a pre-packaged set) on our website. Click here for information where and how you can purchase the laser, motor and other metal / electronic parts you can’t 3D-print (yet).

If you have a well-sorted and wide tool assortment of a hobby-craftsperson, you most likely need only to purchase the parts of the xplicator:ASCAND Essentials list below. Everything else you should probably already have in-house.

xplicator:ASCAND essentials are:

No	Article name	# of items for one ASCAND 3D-scanner
1	Elenxs 5mW Line Lasermodule focusable (4,5 – 5V). long-life	2
2	608 2RS Wheel bearings	4
3	3V - 6V DC 3mm shaft Mini Metal Gearwheel Gear Motor	1
4	Low Voltage DC 1.8V 3V 5V 6V 12V 2A Motor speed controller PWM 1803B B1	1
5	USB Type B 4 PIN PCB DIP 90° Female Jack Socket Connector	1

xplicator:ASCAND online shopping list

• Germany
• Austria
• Canada
• France
• India
• Italy
• Mexico
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• United States of America

PLEAE NOTE: THESE LISTS ARE PROVIDED FOR YOUR COMFORT AND REFERENCE ONLY. AS THESE LISTINGS CHANGE FREQUENTLY, WE CANNOT ASSUME ANY RESOPONSIBILIY OF THEM BEING ACCURATE, ERROR FREE, OR HELPFUL.

The 3D-printable STL-files are available for immediate download. For the parts delivered by your local dealer or AMAZON™ you probably know the answer.
If you order from our site, all components are shipped via air-mail from Europe and should not take more than 5 working days to arrive.
If in doubt, just google for “air mail shipment time Germany your country goes here”.

Shipment is included in our prices. Import duties, tax, or whatever your local authorities might charge or regulate, is yours.

That depends on your country and where you buy them, where you source them, and if you already own things like nuts, bolts, and screws.
In most countries you should be able to get the non-printable components for $50 or less.
Our prices for the pre-packaged components can be found here.

Our intention is to make Basic Plan available to everyone at no charge.
The Basic Plan is limited to non-commercial use and requires you to share your scans under a Creative Commons license that allows others to freely use and enhance them.
So if you have your electronics, print your scanner on a local 3D-printer, and use it to produce non-commercial stuff – we don’t take your money and it is completely free for you.
Other plans are available for commercial and other applications.

The xplicator:ASCAND is technically on-par or better than most products that are costing 100s or 1000s of dollars.
The most expensive pieces of an advanced 3D-scanner are the cameras and the computing power it takes to process the scan.
Since the xplicator:ASCAND is using the advanced camera of your smart phone and the computing power provided by the cloud, it takes out the most expensive parts of the equation.

For rough indication on 3D-printing details of all xplicator:ASCAND 3D-printable components, please see tables below.
But, please consider in particular that every 3D-printer works with different print settings and first of all you should work with the print settings that work best for your 3D-printer.

3D-printing details for Ultimaker 2:
Download components list

You can print the xplicator:ASCAND with any filament (such as PLA, ABS, or PET) your printer reliably supports.
We recommend printing the xplicator:ASCAND components with PLA filament as it is cost effective and easy to handle.
The xplicator:ASCAND is designed to be printable on build plates large enough to print 190 mm (xy) objects with a minimum height of 50mm (z). Most 3D-desktop printers are fulfilling this requirement.

In the web you find numerous blogs, videos and websites that provide 3D-print troubleshooting guides.
One great example is All3dp.

You can 3D-print the xplicator:ASCAND scanner components in every color or multi-color of your choice.
But, we strongly recommend to print the turntable in a non-glossy and, preferably, gloomy color as this improves the scan results.

Please watch the video tutorial in our LEARN section on how to assemble the 3D-printed components of your xplicator:ASCAND.

Please watch the video tutorial in our LEARN section on how to assemble the electronics and put them into the xplicator:ASCAND.

No.
All STL-files listed on this website www.xplicator.com are exclusively licensed under the Creative Commons-Attribution license.
By downloading any STL-file from this site, you agree to abide by this license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Non Commercial-NoDerivates 4.0 International.

Yes.
You are allowed to share, i.e. to copy and redistribute, the material as long as you follow the license terms of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Non Commercial-NoDerivates 4.0 International.

Please go to our download area where you find download-links to the Apple App Store (for IOS) and Google Play (for Android).
Alternatively, you can select to have an email with the download link sent to your mobile device.

You need to have an account with xplicator.com to get the free sleeve and use the xplicator scanning services.
To download the sleeve (pdf-file) please log into your account. Then go to My Account/Files where you find the pdf-file of your sleeve.
You need a PDF Reader Software to download and open the file. Print the sleeve document on your laser or inkjet printer.
Please see the Video Tutorial on how to print and affix the sleeve to your xplicator:ASCAND printer table.

You can use any iPhone that runs on iOS9 or later, or any Android Phone that runs on Android 4.4 or later.
This requirement is fulfilled by more than 90% of all smart phones on the market.

The xplicator App is automatically selecting the optimal image quality of your phone camera.
If you want to take a recording with a specific setting you can take a video with your video application at the desired setting and upload it through the Gallery Upload Button in your xplicator App.

With the following steps you can improve the scan quality of your object:

• Calibrate your xplicator:ASCAND 3D-scanner. See the video tutorial for details on the calibration process.
• Ensure a smooth scan of your object by
  • not moving scanner, camera and object during the scan process;
  • by minimizing direct light, reflection, glare. In practice a black IKEA DRÖNA drawer (33x38x33 cm) is a good solution.
  • Choose preferably a non-glossy and gloomy color to print your xplicator:ASCAND turntable.

Please complete the form to get in touch with xplicator.

Yes.
After successful payment we will submit an invoice to you which you can find in My Account under Subscription Management.

The xplicator:ASCAND is a combination of a laser turntable with some massive logic split between the freely available iOS/Android Apps and the backbone that does the number crunching and is hosted in the Cloud. It uses the camera of your smart phone and uploads the preprocessed imagery to your account on the xplicator site for further processing. The point cloud files are added to your account after processing. You can then download the files for further processing.

The xplicator:ASCAND generates the widely used 3D-point cloud format PLY. There is a myriad of viewers and converters for this format. Tobias Wittwer has compiled a great list. And as always Wikipedia is a great source of information. One of our favorites is MeshLab

Most 3D-printers require a so called GCODE as a definition for a print file. In order to generate a GCODE file you need to “slice” it from a STL-file. Our favorite slicer these days is CURA. In order to convert your point cloud (PLY) to STL-format our favorite tool is MeshLab.

As long as we don’t come up with an easier way, the easiest thing to do is to perform 2 scans - one upright, one sideways - and combine them through MeshLab and YouTube has some useful tutorials on this. Look for “meshlab point based gluing”.