Importing 2D Foot Images for Designing Bespoke and Custom Shoe Lasts

In this post I’ll explain how to import 2D foot images into 3DShoemaker for making custom and bespoke shoe lasts.

The first step is to press the ‘Import’ button in the side panel. You can choose a foot tracing or 2D foot scan. Then follow along with the prompts to select the various landmarks. Once that is complete, you should edit the the foot by pressing the edit button and then selecting the foot image and right clicking or pressing enter. This brings up a form with various inputs including for the girths and measurements pulled from the image you imported. The initial girth measurements are approximated based off of linear measurements. It is best to measure girths with a tailor tape and replace the approximations. Heel height and toe spring of the foot can also be set. When you press done, the new measurements are set and the image is bent to reflect approximate adjustments of heel height and toe spring for visualization purposes.

Importing 2D Foot Scan into 3DShoemaker

Once you are satisfied with the foot images and measurements, press the ‘Build’ button to bring up the build form. Here you will see the basic foot and shoe last measurements. The shoe last measurements are equal to the foot measurements plus allowances. Allowances can be viewed and edited by pressing the ‘Show Allowances’ button. The shoe last template fields should be populated with appropriate shoe last templates for the imported foot. When satisfied, press the ‘Build’ button to generate a shoe last.

Edditing Foot Measurements in 3DShoemaker

The shoe last generated should have the basic measurements necessary to yield a shoe that fits the imported foot. And picking appropriate shoe last templates in the first place should help ensure a good result. That being said, some editing of the shoe last may still be required. This can be done via techniques I’ve described in other tutorials.

Designing Bespoke Shoe Lasts in 3DShoemaker

Circling back to the importing of foot images, I should explain a bit more about the 2D scanned foot image landmarking. You’ll see that two landmarks are required for each of the first and fifth ball joint sides. The reason for this is that conventional 2D scanners (CCD type recommended) have a single camera that moves centrally along the length of the foot. From that central position, it cannot see the sides of the foot. So by placing a dowel on the scanner glass butted up against the side of the ball joint, the true side of the ball joint is captured. The software will stretch the image from the apparent to the true ball joint side. Also, there is an option to scale the image to an object of known length on the glass, such as a ruler for instance. This is necessary if the scanner has been altered such that the height of the glass has changed from the original (this alters image scale).

That’s all for this post on importing 2D foot images into 3DShoemaker. I also suggest checking out my post on importing 3D foot models given the shared theme.

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