[Tristar500]

Can anybody tell me if BC 23 can import a point cloud (from a 3D scanner ) and somehow end up with a usable tool path?

Thanks

[BurrMan]

I think you would have to join your points with one of the drawing tools or the join command. You may need a more specialized software if you want to automate the import and geometry creation from a point cloud.

Do you have a specific example? Whats the format of the points? text?

[Allen123]

BobCAD would not work with a point cloud directly.

What you would need is an STL file or IGES. Some 3D scanners will give you these files options after the scan.

If you scanner doesn't give you and STL or IGES then you will need to covert the point cloud to surfaces in order to machine in BobCAD.

There are some very expensive solutions for this and cheaper ones too.

Rain Drop / Rain drop geomagic will allow you to work with the point clouds and construct surfaces based off them.

If you don't have the money for that package 10,000+ You could use Rhino to convert the point cloud.

I hope this helps.