Artec 3D says its new handheld blue-light scanner delivers 0.025 mm accuracy at target-anchored features only, while capturing the whole part in color at up to 0.05 mm resolution. It scans tethered or wireless and debuted at IMTS in Chicago.
The Artec Neo. Image: Artec 3D.
Updated September 30, 2026. Artec 3D has since published a full specification sheet for the Neo, including the field of view, working distance, weight, target-free accuracy, battery count and list price that were missing from the launch release, and has announced ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for its test laboratory. The text and table below have been updated accordingly; the original open questions are noted where they have been answered.
Artec 3D announced the Artec Neo on September 14, 2026, from its headquarters in Luxembourg, with the hardware on show at IMTS in Chicago that week. The company calls it the first tolerance-driven 3D scanner, a phrase it has clearly spent some time on. The pitch is at least different from the usual launch-day arithmetic of one more decimal place. We have not had a Neo in our hands. Everything below is Artec’s own data, taken from the press release, one correction Artec issued to it, and the specification sheet Artec published after launch, and we say where that data still leaves a question open.
Targets as anchors rather than wallpaper
Conventional laser scanning workflows, in Artec’s telling, have needed the whole part covered in targets to guarantee accuracy. Targets, for anyone who has avoided them so far, are small reflective stickers. They let a scanner fix its position precisely enough for a manufacturer to guarantee a figure. They also take an unreasonable amount of somebody’s afternoon to apply and peel off, including on surfaces that nobody has ever put a tolerance on.
Artec’s argument is that this contradicts the way engineers already think. A drawing does not treat every face of a part as equally important. Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing exists to say which features control fit, alignment, sealing and function, and how tightly the machinist has to hold each one. The rest of the part just has to exist. Artec Neo, according to the company, applies that same logic to scanning. Targets go only around the features with critical tolerances, where they act as metrology anchors and deliver the 0.025 mm figure. Across the rest of the part, what Artec describes as AI algorithms keep tracking from geometry, texture and color. One scan and one dataset, in Artec’s phrase, with no switching between separate scanning technologies halfway through.
The idea behind GD&T is simple. Ultimate precision is not required everywhere; control what determines whether the part works. Artec Neo applies the same principle to 3D scanning. If you have a drawing, it tells you where metrology belongs. If you’re reverse engineering, you make that decision as you reconstruct the design.
Art Yukhin
President and CEO, Artec 3D
Artec offers four ways of working with this. Cover the whole part in targets and you get full-part metrology, the way it has always been done. Place targets only around the key features and you get dimensional control with far less sticker work. For delicate or worn surfaces, put the targets on a fixture around the part instead, which anchors the accuracy without anyone touching the part. And where nobody needs metrology at all, the Neo scans with no targets whatsoever at up to 0.05 mm resolution, deep features included, in what Artec calls true-to-life color.
The numbers Artec is quoting
The headline accuracy is 0.025 mm, with volumetric accuracy of 0.025 mm plus 0.035 mm per meter, a figure Artec corrected after the release went out. Both apply at the target-anchored features. Resolution across the full part is up to 0.05 mm.
Artec attributes the ability to mix the two to its proprietary blue-light optical system and to what it calls a single hybrid tracking architecture. That architecture, Artec says, is what lets targets and target-free tracking coexist in one scan.
When this article first went up, the release was silent on two things: there was no field of view, working distance or weight, and there was no accuracy figure for the untargeted, AI-tracked regions. Artec’s specification sheet, published after launch, fills both gaps. Without targets the Neo is rated at 0.050 mm accuracy, with volumetric accuracy of 0.050 mm plus 0.3 mm per meter. So the stickers buy you a factor of two at the point of measurement and nearly a factor of ten over distance, which is a useful rule of thumb for deciding which surfaces can safely go without them.
On handling, the Neo works at 190 to 300 mm from the part, with a field of view of 128 by 104 mm at the near end and 171 by 152 mm at the far end, a depth of field of 110 mm and a capture volume Artec puts at 1,800 cm³. Artec rates it for small to medium objects. It weighs 1.3 kg with batteries fitted and measures 187 by 156 by 118 mm, which puts it in the same hand-and-forearm class as the rest of Artec’s professional range rather than the pistol-grip end of the market. Artec quotes a reconstruction rate of up to 15 frames per second and data acquisition of up to 8 million points per second, with a 5 megapixel texture camera for the color.
Verified on a robot, one unit at a time
Artec says it tests every Neo individually in what it describes as its independent metrology and calibration laboratory before shipping. Each one leaves the building with its own verification certificate. The lab uses test methods per VDI/VDE 2634 Part 3, the German guideline for optical 3D measuring systems. Robots run the tests, which Artec says removes operator influence and keeps results repeatable across the whole measurement volume.
The launch release said the lab operates “according to ISO/IEC 17025 principles”, and we noted at the time that this is not the same as holding ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation. Artec has since announced that the laboratory is now formally accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, and its specification sheet states that the Neo’s acceptance test is carried out in an ISO/IEC 17025-accredited lab. That resolves the point for anyone whose quality system needs accredited traceability, and it puts Artec ahead of most handheld scanner makers, who rarely name a test method at all, let alone an accredited one.
One scanner for inspection and reverse engineering
The Neo runs on Artec Studio, the company’s own capture and processing software, which Artec says produces data ready for inspection and reverse engineering with the essential editing tools included. For the heavier lifting, it integrates with SOLIDWORKS, Geomagic and PolyWorks, and exports mesh in the usual formats, CAD as STEP, IGES and X_T, and measurements as CSV, DXF and XML. Artec still does not say whether the scanner comes with an Artec Studio license or whether you buy one separately. On professional hardware that is not a small line item. The software side is Windows 11 only, and Artec’s recommended machine is a current Intel Core i7 or i9 with an RTX 4070, so budget for a proper workstation if you have not got one.
The industries Artec has in mind are the ones where a few surfaces matter enormously and the rest is context. In automotive that means measuring flush and gap while capturing the surrounding bodywork. In aerospace maintenance, repair and overhaul it means measuring a critical interface while digitizing the wider build around it. For defense and industrial maintenance, the pitch is reconstructing legacy parts for which the drawings or CAD no longer exist. On most shop floors that means they left with whoever drew them. And in retrofit and installation work, the scanner captures connection points and interfaces together with everything they connect to.
Cable optional
The Neo works tethered over Thunderbolt 4 or fully wireless over Wi-Fi, with a quoted range of six meters from the host computer and 40 to 50 minutes of continuous battery-powered scanning per charge. Artec’s list of where that should get you runs to inside machinery, around large assemblies, at height, in confined spaces and on the factory floor. A cable helps with none of those. Four batteries ship in the box, which answers our launch-day question about whether 50 minutes covers a shift: with swaps, it should cover most of one. Artec describes a companion app for iOS and Android as coming soon, one that turns any smartphone into the Neo’s display. The wording suggests it is not shipping at launch.
Price and availability
Artec did not put a price in the launch release, which is customary for this class of instrument and mildly maddening for everyone trying to budget for one. It has since listed the Neo at US$38,600 on its own site, which is roughly €35,000 at current rates and squarely in professional metrology territory. The scanner ships with a two-year warranty and is available now through Artec 3D’s global reseller network; the company points inquiries to its nearest reseller or to sales@artec3d.com.
The Neo made its debut at IMTS 2026, which ran September 14 to 19 at McCormick Place in Chicago, where Artec showed it alongside its full scanning range. If the target-light tracking works as described, the demo will have been the more interesting thing on the stand.
Full specification
All figures are Artec 3D’s own, from the launch press release of September 14, 2026 and the Artec Neo specification sheet as published on artec3d.com on September 30, 2026. Fields marked “not published” were not available at the time of the last update.
Show the full specification table▾
If you are weighing the Neo against the rest of the field, our guide to the best professional 3D scanners covers the handheld metrology options shipping today. Now that there is a price to put beside it, the Neo is on the list for the guide’s next update.
About Artec 3D
Artec 3D develops and manufactures professional 3D scanning hardware and software from its headquarters in Luxembourg. It describes itself as a leader in AI 3D reconstruction, computer vision and digital twins, with customers in engineering, manufacturing, healthcare, science, art and design, and cultural heritage. More at www.artec3d.com.
This is an unpaid news item. 3DPrinting.com has not tested the Artec Neo. Specifications and images: Artec 3D. Published September 14, 2026; updated September 30, 2026 with Artec’s full specification sheet, list price and ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation.
