The CR-Scan Otter is Creality’s attempt at one scanner for everything: it claims to capture objects from a 1 cm cube up to about 2 m. Here are my first impressions, what’s in the box, and my first scan from setup to 3D print. (Creality sent me this unit; they didn’t pay for the video or see it before publishing.)
The short version
- Range: small to large objects with one scanner, using separate near and far camera pairs.
- Standout feature: a touch control on the back with a coloured LED that tells you if you’re too close or too far.
- One cable: USB-C for power and data.
- First scan: fine feather detail on the included test owl, printed at the same scale as the original.
What’s in the box
- A soft carry case with belt hooks and a handle
- Calibration board, black scanning mat and tracking dots (useful for large, symmetrical objects)
- Single USB-C power and data cable, adaptors, lanyard, cleaning cloth
- A small test object: a detailed owl in an egg
The hardware
It’s about three times the size of the CR-Scan Ferret. On the front: a projector, a near-range camera pair, a far-range camera pair, a colour camera and two LEDs. On the back, a capacitive touch control starts and stops scanning and adjusts exposure, and its LED changes colour to show your distance. That means less juggling a mouse while scanning. There’s a standard camera mount underneath; I use a tripod and a turntable for small objects.
My first scan workflow
- In Creality Scan, start a new scan and choose the object size, feature mode (geometry) and quality (high). Tick turntable if you use one.
- Centre the object using the exposure view, keep the distance indicator in the optimal range, and start. One full turntable rotation per pass.
- Lay the object on its side, resume, and let it realign before rotating again. Repeat to capture the underside.
- Clean up stray points: Shift + drag to lasso, then delete.
- Optimise the mesh (0.15 mm for small objects, 0.1 for more detail). It took about 5 minutes.
- Mesh with a high face count and hole filling on, then optionally apply colour mapping (better in a light box).
- Export as STL, OBJ or PLY and print.
The software autosaves, and you can step back to the point cloud or mesh stage to reprocess without rescanning.
First impressions
For a first scan straight out of the box it captured remarkable detail, right down to individual feathers, and the print matched the original’s scale. Colour capture was average in normal room lighting. Get the Otter from the Creality store.
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Want the full software walkthrough? My free CR Studio scanning course covers the same workflow in depth.
Need something scanned and printed, like a replacement part or a replica? Get in touch.