AlignScan / Guides / Align in MeshLab
Guide
Align a 3D scan in MeshLab
MeshLab can rotate, flip and freeze transforms, and many people use it to level scans. It works, but finding the right numbers by hand is the slow part. Here is the manual route and when a measured approach is quicker.
The manual route in MeshLab
- Import the scan (File → Import Mesh).
- Open the transform filters (Filters → Normals, Curvatures and Orientation) and use the rotate/translate transform to turn the mesh by trial and error, checking each change from the orthographic views.
- Use the option that freezes the current transform so the rotation is baked into the vertices before export.
- Export with File → Export Mesh As.
Menu names differ a little between MeshLab versions, so check the filter list in yours.
Where this gets tedious
- You must find the correct angles yourself. Judging one degree by eye on a 200 mm part is hard.
- Three rotation axes interact, so fixing one disturbs another.
- Large scans (millions of triangles) make every try slow.
A faster way for the common case
If your part has flat faces or cylinders, they define the correct orientation and can be measured. AlignScan fits planes to the flat regions, finds the dominant directions and applies the single rotation that squares them, in your browser and without uploading the file. You can still finish in MeshLab for cleanup, hole filling or ICP registration.
Skip the manual work: drop your scan into AlignScan. It runs in your browser and the file is never uploaded.
Open the aligner → Try a sample first