Makerbot digitizer price


The software walks you through the process, in which you calibrate the camera first, then the turntable. The easy-to-use software is touted as a two-click operation. This is almost true, after setup is complete.

The software has a few presets, which aid in its use. One of these presets gives the choice of light, medium, and dark, which allows you to adjust your material based on how difficult it will be to scan.

The aforementioned cancel button allows you to cancel scans when they go horrendously awry. Keep in mind some of the standing rules for almost every 3D scanner, like using a non-cluttered background and staying away from certain types and intensities of light.

Doing these things and others can help keep your scans from being blobs of mesh. The camera can only do so much, and the software steps in to help it out. Sometimes, however, it gets it right and impresses you with a clean object.

For those unique scans, a cleanup will have to be accomplished, but will have to take place in a third party program, since Makerware for Digitizer does not support such actions. For many scans, however, it is often best scrap it and try something else out.

Of course, it would have been foolish of Makerbot to not make the files work seamlessly with the Replicator 3D printer. The coolest part of the Makerware for Digitizer software is its MultiScan technology, which allows you to make multiple scans of an object from many angles.

This allows you to find and scan hidden parts that would not be available to the scanner otherwise. Then, you can merge different scanned views, creating a full-object scan. With some polishing, this software has the guts to make 3D scanning superbly easy for consumers and hobbyists.

Overall, the Makerware Digitizer is a great product for consumers, yet lacks some of the features of other 3D scanners on our list. The most excellent feature is its ease of use, not its scanning abilities. Its simplicity in scanning could definitely be the starting point of a product that, with improvements, could take the consumer and entry-level market for its own.

Yes, add me to your mailing list. Posted September 8, by iReviews in 3D Scanners Author Users Value 3. Summary rating from user's marks. To scan you simply load up the Digitizer software — an excellent, intuitive system that should be a model for all 3D printer and scanner makers — and, once you calibrate the system using an included, laser-cut object, you press Digitize.

Nine minutes later you have a scan. The system interpolates missing information which can be good or bad, depending on the lighting, and then asks if you want to take a photo of your object. You then slide away a filter over the camera to reveal the bare webcam, shoot your, photo, and then share or print your object. The process is addicting. When you put one object on you want to put another and another. It will be amazing, then, when we get to the laser printed version of object teleportation.

Are the scans perfect? Because of vagaries of materials, reflections, and ambient light a perfect scan is impossible. This scan, for example is far from a perfect replica of the original statute.

The Digitizer is like a mimeograph machine rather than a true scanner. It grabs only the important parts of an image and reproduces the rest the best it can.

I was able to scan the lens by turning the camera on its side. Take a look at this statue scan. I printed it fairly small just as a test but it grabbed a certain amount of detail on the statue but elided quite a bit more.

In the end I created an approximate, not an exact, copy of the statue. Or take this beer stein for example. The handle sort of disintegrated but I suspect I could have gotten a far better scan if I dusted it down in baby powder.