There is a couple of issues with the MakerBot digitizer, the most important as far as those terrible scans are concerned. When first trying the scanner the software AUTOMATICALLY tries to send the image to Thingiverse. If you aren't paying close attention you can send some really bad stuff and not know it. The other MAIN issue is there are no tutorials that have GOOD BEFORE and AFTER images. You are totally on your own. I too have moved into the closed in BLACK box for scans. The item MUST show contrast but NO reflectivity. The more accentuated the item (not subtle) the better the scan, but still not a photograph of the original. Most folks are expecting a photograph. I am disapointed in the lack of assistance from manufacturers in NOT providing sufficent documentation to at least give the user a jump start on scanning. In the posts above the anology was made to the early pc days that is a good one. However the majors like IBM and HP DID provide guides for making good looking documents, which fonts looked good together, etc,. The 3d scaning world has a very long way to go in this direction.

Jeff, your company has some great scans posted on your gallery page. How about you folks helping us all out with how those original pieces were tweaked, scanned, and processed. Pick one with some detail and then do a step by step.

OK I'm off my soap box. Russ