Material Scanner Comparison

Below you can find the comparison of the 4 major material scanner providers: Vizoo, Xrite, Metis and colormass.

Continuos Development

In the last 6 years, colormass has developed multiple versions of scanners, with the current one being the fourth iteration, while continuously refining its technology.

The scanner you see in the background was the Generation v3 (the version right before the current one). This scanner version still had a dome shape.

colormass Scanner

The scanners listed below are compared against the following points:

  1. Whether they measure and calculate a BRDF (or inverse) fitting 
  2. Sample size that can be scanned
  3. Tiling and post processing toolset
  4. Cost

Probably the first point needs some explanation. In regards to what is a "BRDF fitting" and why does it matter. There are multiple ways how you can approximate the reflection properties of a material. You can simply take a camera and take a few images with 4 images in various lighting conditions and use heuristics to generate maps. This process is quite quick (1-2 minutes) and requires a simple algorithm to generate the final result. BRDF fitting on the other hand takes ca. 10-18 hours to calculate on a single PC but as a result gives back the ultimate reflection properties.

Scanners that don't provide BRDF fitting might be good for various design purposes where the exact look of the fabric doesn't need to be reconstructed exactly as it is in real life, but are not meant for purposes where the exact look of the material has to be reconstructed without manual retouching.

Vizoo

The first on the list is Vizoo xTex. Vizoo is quite popular in the fashion design industry. In many times used for prototyping. Vizoo provides two versions of the hardware:

  1. One that can scan ca. A4 28 x 20 cm (11 x 7.9 in) samples and
  2. another that can scan ca. A2 sample sizes 55 x 37 cm (21.7 x 14.6 in).

The capture time for each hardware is ca. 1-3 minutes. Vizoo provides a toolset for tiling your scanned materials called the xTex software.

Pros:
Cost: Budget friendly
Device size: Relatively small physical device.
Capture time: Quick capture time
Tiling toolset
Cons:
No BRDF fitting (relies on heuristics)
Sample size: can not scan samples above A2

X-Rite (TAC7)

X-Rite specializes in color measurement and material digitization with a focus on precise color matching. X-Rite is quite popular in the automotive industry. The dimensions of the hardware are 112 cm x 112 cm x 180 cm.

The scanning area is ca. 13cm x 13cm. The capture time is ca. 15 to 60 min.

Pros:
BRDF Fitting
Device size: Relatively small physical device.
Cons:
Longer capture time
Sample size: can not scan samples above 13cm x 13cm
More expensive

colormass

Next to X-Rite the colormass scanner is the only other scanner on the market that does BRDF Fitting. Compared to X-Rite the advantages of the colormass scanner is to be able to scan multiple surfaces at once. You can place up to 64 samples on the table (even large samples - up to 1.5m x 1.5m) and scan them in parallel.

colormass offers a complete tiling toolset that you can use to tile your scanned materials. An additional advantage of colormass is that it also offers a complete ecosystem to use the surfaces that you scanned (configurator, rendering platform, data exporter etc.).

The device and scanner area can be customized to the space where it is built.

Pros:
BRDF Fitting
Ability to scan multiple samples at once (high throughoutput)
Scan larger surfaces
Tiling and texture editing toolset
Cons:
More expensive
Physical size: the scanner hardware is not a small device

Metis

The Metis is different from the other scanners in a way that it also records photogrammetric data, to reconstruct geometry. But it is important to mention that Metis does not implement BRDF Fitting, meaning that the surfaces properties that it records are not the true reflection properties of the surfaces as it relies on heuristics.

Maximum scan area:

  • DRS 2020 DCS Plus: 200 x 120 cm (device dimensions: 295 cm length, 243 cm width, 238 cm height)
  • DRS 1500 DCS: 150 x 91 cm (device dimensions: 235 cm width, 185 cm depth, 222 cm height)
  • SURF 3D: 49 x 32 cm (device dimensions: 100 cm length, 71 cm width, 208 cm height)
Pros:
Larger scan area
Photogrammetric data
Cons:
No BRDF fitting (relies on heuristics)
Physical size: the scanner hardware is not a small device


Disclaimer: the comparison was written by colormass staff. colormass is also offering 3D scanning solutions nevertheless the comparison was made based on objective points and metrics to try to rely as much as possible on the real comparison between scanners.