What Service Providers and Design Engineers Really Need to Know About 3D Scanning: wescan in an Interview with Marcus Risi

The Swiss company wescan gmbh operates at the intersection of 3D capture, CAD reconstruction, and additive manufacturing. It digitizes real-world objects using optical 3D scanners and prepares point clouds and meshes so they can be reused in standard CAD and manufacturing environments. The company relies primarily on scanners and software from the Artec ecosystem, combined with proprietary workflows for surface reconstruction and data cleanup.

A key focus is industrial applications: components are captured for reverse-engineering projects, existing plants are documented as as-built models, and replacement parts are reconstructed when no CAD data is available. Depending on the project, wescan delivers either raw formats such as STL or OBJ or constructive STEP models—meaning true CAD geometry that can be edited directly in common design systems.

In additive manufacturing, wescan positions itself as the link between data acquisition and production. When scanned data needs to become physical parts, the company coordinates suitable 3D-printing processes with partners, including polymer and metal technologies. This creates a continuous workflow from the physical object to a printed replacement part or prototype.

Interview with Marcus Risi

In the interview with 3Druck.com, wescan Managing Director Marcus Risi explains how 3D scanning projects evolve in practice from the initial capture to the final component and highlights the typical pitfalls that occur along the way. He also shares his perspective on how technologies, software, and workflows in 3D data processing and additive manufacturing are likely to change in the coming years.

You accompany projects from the 3D scan to the finished part. Where do you currently see the biggest hurdles in the reverse-engineering workflow, and what has improved noticeably in recent years?

Too often, the right questions are not asked before a scanning or modeling job starts—such as how the part will be used later, whether it will be reproduced physically, and by which manufacturing process. Each production method comes with its own tolerance requirements, and this must be considered from the beginning.

3D scanning today resembles the early days of 3D printing. At first, people were simply happy to get a printable result at all. Over time, accuracy, build volume, and material options became more important. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult for service providers to cover the entire market with a single technology. The same applies to 3D scanning. Initially, interfaces to different CAD systems were a major obstacle. With today’s professional scanning software, data can be prepared in a way that allows it to be imported and processed smoothly across different CAD platforms.

Where do optical 3D scanners show their greatest strengths today, and in which situations do other measurement methods still have the edge?

Optical scanners stand out due to their flexibility—especially mobile systems that work without a wired connection to a computer. They open up completely new use cases, such as scanning objects that cannot be transported and must be captured on site. Freeform surfaces, bodies, and sculptures can be digitized easily, and some systems now combine scanning with photogrammetry to create textured models. When very high technical precision is required, however, tactile measurement systems still offer higher accuracy, although capturing freeform geometry this way is far more time-consuming and often requires fixed installations.

You scan components, industrial plants, and cultural heritage objects. Which recent project was particularly challenging, and what advice would you give engineers who are starting with scan-based reverse engineering?

Every project is challenging in its own way. Spending days in a cleanroom with dim lighting, wearing full protective gear at high temperatures, is demanding both technically and physically. In such environments, machines are often shut down specifically for scanning, and the data quality has to be perfect—there is no opportunity to return later to capture missing areas. My motto in these cases is: the first shot has to be right. Other projects involve scanning historic machinery while suspended over water with fall protection. The range of tasks is wide and consistently demanding.

My advice to design engineers is to clarify the key questions upfront: What scan data will I receive? Which formats can my system import and export? For larger projects that may take several days, I often create a pilot dataset so the engineer can test the workflow in advance. It also helps when engineers are present at the start of a project to discuss details directly on site with the customer.

In your view, how will the 3D scanning ecosystem evolve over the next five years, particularly regarding automation, AI-based 3D data processing, and integration with additive manufacturing? What skills will service providers and users need to develop?

Automation and AI will continue to gain importance. Hardware will improve, and price-performance ratios will follow a similar trajectory to what we have seen in 3D printing. At the same time, software will become the decisive factor. Scanning software will increasingly split into tools for technical CAD reconstruction on one side and visualization on the other. AI is already being used for texturing scan data in combination with photogrammetry, and the results are impressive.

Service providers will need to decide which industries they want to focus on, while users should review where 3D scanning and 3D printing make sense within their internal processes. Only then can informed decisions be made about outsourcing versus investing in equipment, software, and trained personnel. In some cases, this may even lead to new consulting-oriented business models around 3D technologies.

Further information about the company is available on the wescan website.