Phone scan to 3D print: photogrammetry, a watertight mesh, and Bambu
TL;DR Phone scanners (Polycam, KIRI Engine, RealityScan) export raw geometry that’s sparse, has holes, and is non-manifold—not printable. First critical step: normalize scale. Scans export in meters and import at the wrong size. Fix this before anything else or Blender’s voxel remesh produces nothing. Blender’s voxel remesh rebuilds the mesh into a guaranteed watertight, manifold shell. Then decimate down to a slicer-friendly polygon budget. Export as both STL (geometry) and 3MF (units + compression). Slice in Bambu Studio and print. Watch for: voxel size mismatch, color loss after remesh, holes bigger than the voxel size, and X1C build plate limits (256×256mm). The Photogrammetry Gap There’s a seductive lie in 3D printing: buy a phone, scan something, print it. In reality, there’s a canyon between a photogrammetry scan and a printable model. ...