Artec EVA Handheld 3D Scanner Review

The Artec EVA is an old, but very capable 3D scanner that is still, 8 years after it launched, still selling strong.

The handheld 3D scanner is one of my personal favorites, and have been in my toolset for over 5 years during my time at Creative Tools. This review is based on doing tons of consulting work with it, educating, selling and supporting this 3D scanner.

The scanner and technology

Artec EVA is a structured light, handheld 3D scanner that uses two cameras and a projector. The projector sends out structured light (light pattern) which you can read more about here. One of the cameras (in the center) has a RGB-sensor and a flash-ring to capture color data as well.

The scanner fits well into your hand and the handle design gives you good control. There are two buttons where you thumb go, so you can start/stop/pause the scanning.

You use USB 3 and a power cord (battery solution is available). The connectors are a bit sensitive, but nothing a careful user will ever have to worry about.

Unfortunately the scanner is quite tall, and it’s center of gravity makes it quite difficult to “stand” up without risking it to fall over even if you just look at the wires.

Compared to most scanners, it’s not really heavy with its 0,9kg weight. That means you can scan for long hours without too much pain in your arms.

Technical Specifications

• Formfactor: Handheld

• 3D Point Accuracy (up to): 0.1mm

• 3D Resolution (up to): 0.2mm

• 3D Accuracy over distance (up to): 0.3mm/m

• Tracking modes: Textured/geometry (and combo)

• Scanning distance: 0.4-1m

• Color scanning (texture): Yes, 24bpp colors

• Scanning speed (up to): 16 FPS

• Data acquisition rate (up to): 18 000 000 points/s

• Interface: USB(2.0/3.0) to computer

• Software: Artec Studio (only)

• Supported OS: Windows 7/8/10 x64bit

How it 3D scans

The Artec EVA is very fast to setup as you don’t need any markers or preparations for optimal objects.

Note that reflective, transparent or dark objects need preparations.

You start the software, preview your scanning (to see distance from object, plan your movement and see that you have enough geometry/texture to track) and then you’re scanning!

You can set it up with something called “Real time fusion” which creates a mesh as you go, which is great to see where you’ve captured. The “normal” scanning mode can be a bit confusing as it’s overlaying scanned frames, to cover your object.

The non “real time fusion” workflow lets you mesh with different settings on the same “raw” scan data, which is why you see it as frames instead of mesh during scanning.

Scanning capabilities

Artec EVA is actually very nice to scan everything from a shoebox to an engine bay with, larger or smaller objects are possible, but will require a bit more planning from the user.

Using the texture/geometry hybrid scanning (should be on by default) you’re also tracking much easier for most types of scanning. Note that dark objects are a bit harder to track, since they might not get the same contrast textures that help tracking.

All handheld structured light scanners that don’t user markers have similar difficulties to track objects that are semi-smooth and lack features. But the EVA have some benefit with it actually tracking texture. Artec have made some nice demos scanning a wooden parquet floor that is completely flat, just by using texture tracking.

Due to the large field-of-view, the Artec EVA handles most objects very well. It can cope even if you’re scanning over holes or along thinner edges, since it cover so much more. Scanning a bare car chassi with loads of “missing” areas is actually quite possible.

The structured light does have it’s drawbacks though, and it’s visible when you try to scan hair or fur, or shiny/slightly transparent objects. This is where you want to use a contrast spray.

Scanning large objects

Thanks to the large field of view and relatively low accuracy loss per meter (0.3mm/m) you can actually get good results on large objects, if you accept and understand the error that builds up. So, scanning distance is both the total length of your object, but also the total length the scanner has travelled. If you only scan a line, it’s quite easy to calculate the error per meter.

But if you scan inside a van, the error can be reduced a bit thanks to overlaying data. At some point, you will hit a “barrier” where you can’t meet 2 ends of a scan (for example around a bus, where the overlap is too far away to connect).

So in summary, scanning larger than the inside of a small van, or around a small car is difficult, but possible.

Scanning small details.

Since the scanner has a quite big field of view, scanning smaller objects than a shoe box also gets “tricky”. At least when we’re going below 5x5x5cm. It is possible, but you have to consider how you track around the object, as the object will be too small compared to your field of view, to be considered a desired mesh/object.

Usually, scanning a small object on a turntable with some geometrical markers is enough to capture enough data around the object, to get all the data you need and then cut away everything but the object.

Artecs HD mode makes scanning smaller objects (and particularly details) much better. If you look at their examples, you’ll quickly understand why this is an amazing feature to have.

Scanning Busts

This 3D scan of my head was made a long time ago, by my colleague and is a good example of a medium quality scan.

We only used “2K” texture, and tried filling all holes within Artec Studio software.

This was made in an older software, so texture mapping has become better! But you can still zoom in on the texture to have a look on this fast scan.