There are a lot of approaches. Yes there is software that takes two photos and let you reconstruct 3d. If you have a man-made object you probably don't want a g

There are a lot of approaches. Yes there is software that takes two photos and let you reconstruct 3d. If you have a man-made object you probably don't want a generic point-cloud building approach (like say http://www.photosculpt.net/ http://www.photosculpt.net/ ) - but rather something like Photomodeler that lets you select vertices and build up surfaces. There is also software that builds models from silhouette methods, that usually require you printing out targets which you place the model, so of like a manual turntable approach. I can't remember the name of software that does this at the moment, but its out there. Or you could work from video (just from a single camera) that you move around. That can be effective, not sure of the best software for doing this - it's called structure from motion, a quick google shows some source at this project site: http://phototour.cs.washington.edu/ http://phototour.cs.washington.edu/ There some code out there for a do it yourself laser scanner - this isn't what I was thinking of but it seems kind of cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK5eYhpBtQc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK5eYhpBtQc I've also seen some do it yourself structured light software (ie bring your own projector and camera), that seems to work ok. It kind of depends on what size and type of objects you want to scan - things like the surface properties could be important - also how long you can keep it still.