Learn ASCAND one verified step at a time
ASCAND Tutorials help you move from a prepared capture station to a reviewed digital result. Each tutorial owns one practical task and explains its prerequisites, ordered actions, expected result and important checks.
The overall learning path follows four stages:
Prepare. Record. Process. Create.
You do not need to learn every part of the system before beginning. Start with the task directly in front of you. If you are using ASCAND for the first time, begin with the shared setup and recording tutorials before choosing a reconstruction workflow.
Tutorials explain what to do. The Knowledge Center explains why the technology behaves as it does. If you already followed a procedure and something is wrong, use Troubleshooting to begin with the symptom.
Following a procedure improves consistency, but it does not guarantee that every object will produce a complete, accurate or task-ready model. Object geometry, visibility, surface behavior, capture conditions, reconstruction method and intended use still matter.
Understand the complete workflow
New to ASCAND? Start here
The first four tutorials establish the acquisition relationship shared by the ASCAND workflows.
1. Getting Started with ASCAND
Understand the physical capture system, the role of 3D-Scan.Online and the path from a rotating object to a processed result.
Use this when: You are approaching ASCAND for the first time.
2. Choose the appropriate turntable setup
Select a documented turntable configuration for the object and workflow. The support area, framing, coded reference, stability and available clearance all remain relevant.
Use this when: You are deciding between the standard setup and a documented expansion.
3. Set up the capture station
Establish the relationship among the steady phone, coded turntable, object, background and lighting. The turntable must remain completely visible in the recording, and the object must remain stable throughout rotation.
Use this when: You are preparing a new station, location or object.
4. Record a scan video
Check orientation, framing, focus, exposure, lighting, background separation and the visible coded reference before recording the source material.
Use this when: The station is prepared and you are ready to capture.
Prepare and record
ASCAND changes the visible side of the object by rotating it while the smartphone remains steady. This controlled relationship reduces the number of moving variables, but it still depends on deliberate preparation.
Before recording, confirm that:
- the selected turntable configuration is appropriate for the object;
- the turntable, phone support and object are stable;
- the phone is mounted vertically and remains fixed;
- the complete coded turntable is visible;
- the object remains inside the usable frame throughout rotation;
- the background supports separation from the object;
- illumination is stable and does not hide important boundaries;
- no person, cable or surrounding object interrupts the view.
These are shared acquisition responsibilities. Vision, Laser and Combo later use different evidence, but no reconstruction method can recover a view that was never captured or a surface response that was not observable.
Choose the turntable setup
Prepare the capture station
Record suitable scan material
To understand the acquisition geometry before changing the setup, read Why the camera stays still.
Create the scan that matches your evidence needs
Vision, Laser and Combo are not basic, better and best levels. They use different evidence and place different requirements on the object, capture and available equipment.
Create a Vision Scan
Use the verified Vision workflow to process appropriate capture material through the silhouette-informed reconstruction path. This route is comparatively independent of visible surface texture, but it depends on usable segmentation and cannot recover concavities that never affect an observed outline.
Set up the Laser Extension
Install and align the optional laser hardware using the verified instructions and applicable safety information before attempting a laser-assisted workflow.
Do not operate or align laser equipment from a conceptual explanation alone. The current setup procedure and safety guidance must govern the action.
Create a Laser or Combo Scan
Use the documented laser-assisted procedure when projected-line observations are relevant to the object and intended result. Combo coordinates complementary evidence; it does not automatically make two imperfect sources correct or complete.
If the evidence choice is not yet clear, compare Vision, Laser and Combo before beginning.
Review before you export
A completed processing job is a result to inspect—not automatic proof that the model is suitable.
Review the available representation for unexpected geometry, gaps, outliers, surface artifacts and regions that were not observed adequately. Consider whether the result contains a point cloud, a mesh or another representation, and choose an output based on the next application rather than on a familiar file extension.
Export does not by itself establish:
- complete object coverage;
- correct scale or dimensional accuracy;
- watertight geometry;
- suitable topology;
- printability;
- editability as CAD;
- fitness for the intended use.
Review, export and download a model
For the underlying distinctions, see the review and download stage and point clouds and meshes.
Extend coverage or prepare for the next task
Some projects continue beyond a single reconstruction.
Merge multiple scans
A second object orientation can expose regions that were hidden in the first capture. Multi Merge then relates separate reconstructions through registration and combination.
Additional scans need both new coverage and reliable overlap. More data does not automatically create correct alignment, seamless geometry or a complete model.
Prepare a scan for 3D printing
A reconstructed mesh may require inspection, repair, scaling, orientation and application-specific preparation before fabrication. A visually convincing preview is not enough to establish print readiness.
Prepare a scan for 3D printing
Read Multi-Scan and Multi Merge or From scan to 3D print when you need the principle before the procedure.
Choose by task—not by content type
Use this route when you are unsure where to begin:
- First time using ASCAND: Getting Started.
- Unsure which physical configuration fits: Choose the Appropriate Turntable Setup.
- Preparing the camera, object and environment: Set Up the Capture Station.
- Ready to capture source material: Record a Scan Video.
- Using the standard silhouette-informed path: Create a Vision Scan.
- Preparing optional laser hardware: Set Up the Laser Extension.
- Using laser-line or complementary evidence: Create a Laser or Combo Scan.
- Inspecting or selecting an output: Review, Export and Download a Model.
- Adding a separate object orientation: Merge Multiple Scans.
- Continuing toward fabrication: Prepare a Scan for 3D Printing.
- Trying to understand a principle: Use the Knowledge Center.
- Diagnosing a failed or unexpected result: Use Troubleshooting.
A procedural page should be used only when its steps match the current hardware, interface and workflow. Where a current action or safety requirement has not been verified, the site should say so rather than fill the gap with an assumed instruction.
Use the right source for the question
The ASCAND website separates different kinds of guidance so that each page can remain clear and accountable:
- How It Works shows the end-to-end system.
- Tutorials provide verified ordered procedures.
- Knowledge Center explains concepts and technical relationships.
- Support starts with symptoms and diagnoses problems.
- Products describe current hardware and platform responsibilities.
- Gallery provides documented examples and evidence.
Begin with the first tutorial that matches your next action. Move to Knowledge when you need the reason behind a step, and move to Support when the expected result does not appear.
Explore the Knowledge Center
See how ASCAND works
View verified examples