Industry-leading 3D hardware and software developer Artec 3D is delighted to announce that the metrology-grade wireless 3D scanner Artec Neo has been named in the D3D 30 2026 shortlist of game-changing technologies.
Each year, DEVELOP3D celebrates the products making the biggest difference to design, engineering, and manufacturing. Chosen entirely on merit, Artec Neo now sits alongside technologies developed by an illustrious group including Autodesk, Dassault Systèmes, NVIDIA, Siemens, and Stratasys, among others.
This year, Artec 3D has launched several products that push the boundaries of 3D scanning. As well as Artec Neo, the company has introduced the Artec Jet SLAM-based LiDAR 3D scanner for capturing any environment, and Artec Twins, a new software for working with massive, multi-scale 3D datasets.
Artec Neo combines metrology-grade accuracy with high-resolution, full-color 3D capture in a single device. Its hybrid mode supports scanning with or without targets, giving users full flexibility in how targets are applied to each metrology task. Limiting targets to key features with critical tolerances also reduces setup time — accelerating inspection and reverse engineering.
Unveiled at IMTS in Chicago, Artec Neo is the industry’s first tolerance-driven 3D scanner. Ordinary laser metrology requires targets across the entire part. With Artec Neo, users can place targets only on the features that determine fit and function.
In practice, targets serve as metrology anchors that deliver up to 0.001 inch accuracy, with geometry and texture used for tracking everywhere else. The result is a single dataset with the whole part captured in full color at up to 0.002 inch resolution.
This approach gives users full control over how they tackle each project. Targets can go across the whole part, around key features, or on surrounding fixtures when surfaces are delicate or worn. Artec Neo can also scan without any targets at all where metrology-grade accuracy is not required.
Wireless, with up to 40 minutes of continuous battery-powered scanning, the device captures data for reverse engineering and inspection, either in Artec Studio or advanced software like SOLIDWORKS, Geomagic, and PolyWorks.
Alongside Artec Micro II and Artec Point II, Artec Neo is at the heart of Artec’s growing presence in the metrology market. That push took a major step forward earlier this month, when the company’s metrology calibration laboratory in Luxembourg achieved ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation from OLAS, the Luxembourg Office of Accreditation and Surveillance.
Four years in the making, the laboratory calibrates Artec 3D scanners to VDI/VDE 2634 Part 3 standards in a temperature- and humidity-controlled environment using custom, high-precision reference objects. Calibration certificates issued by the lab carry the OLAS accreditation mark, which is recognized in more than 100 countries and regions through the EA and ILAC mutual recognition arrangements. Artec Neo will be among the first scanners to be calibrated there.
The 2026 D3D 30 launches today on the DEVELOP3D website, where a dedicated D3D 30 page showcases every entry and serves as a hub for DEVELOP3D’s social media campaign.
Each entry is written by DEVELOP3D’s editorial team, explaining how each technology works. The list also appears in print as a key feature of the October/November edition of DEVELOP3D Magazine, read by designers, engineers, and technologists worldwide.
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