I am currently working on my masters thesis and part of my project is taking measurements off of a 3D scan and comparing it to measurements taken by hand. I have so far tried taking them in 3DS max and Maya with the measuring tools but they are giving me measurements that are way off compared to the hand measurements. Is there any known 3D software tools to take measurements off of 3D scans?
3dsmax has many tools to measure an object in real world units, but the key is to ensure your scan has been scaled correctly after import, and that your scene file is already set up perfectly using the same real world units of measure that you wish to take. In 3dsmax, there are two places in the UI where you need to change the settings to the units of measure you are going to use for your object. Create a new empty scene. Under Customize, go to Units Setup. Under "Dispaly Unit Scale", change the settings to the unit of measure you wish to use. Then, click the "System Units Setup" button. This is where you set the system scale to match the display units scale. Whichever units you picked in the previous dialogue, you need to set this area to use the same. So, for instance, if your display units are set to use millimeters, then the system units need to be set to millimeters, etc. Now, you should import your model, and adjust it to the scale you need, knowing your units are set accurately.