The MakerBot Digitizer - Horrible Quality?

[American 3D Printing]

I totally believe that was done with a Digitizer, but notice the image is from the Thingiverse software, not an actual picture of a printed object. That thing would have so much support it would take hours to remove it.

Rob I'll get something up on the Thingiverse by Thursday. I've been trying to get into a routine where I post something up there every Thursday.

[ImaginationProgress]

Here is another terrible one.
Orginal


And the scan


But here is one that didn't turn out too bad:

Original


And the scan


What is the factor that gives here? Why are we seeing some really nice looking scan, and then some really crappy ones?

[American 3D Printing]

Sure Jeff, if you get the chance to do that it would be fun to look at it. I do 3d animation for a living so I have lot's of high end software. I'd really like to bring one of your scans into my software and see how it looks.

Just send me a Private Message so I know that you are back.

Okay, it is Thursday, and as-promised I have uploaded a scan from our Digitizer to the Thingiverse:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:282642

[squadus]

Sheesh the quality of the Digitizer can't be this bad. You guys have to be trolling lol

[ChiloquinRuss]

Squadus - that is actualy a pretty good scan for a digitizer! It really is that bad! Russ

[American 3D Printing]

Sheesh the quality of the Digitizer can't be this bad. You guys have to be trolling lol

Nope not trolling. Frankly I thought that was pretty good quality for a $1k scanner. You want better than that then get ready to fork over $25-35k.

[ImaginationProgress]

Here's one I found today that looks to be really good quality. I don't understand why some of these scans are horrendous while others are really pretty good. Are some people just not using it correctly?


from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:283706

[BBR]

I would honestly like to know how to get that quality without more than 5 or 6 scans. I've been making scans of multiple things to include model cars and every time it comes out in a blob. How can something so simple come out so unrefined?

Here's one I found today that looks to be really good quality. I don't understand why some of these scans are horrendous while others are really pretty good. Are some people just not using it correctly?


from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:283706

[Hall_of_Famer]

I think the difference you see in some of these has a lot to do with small details. The Digitizer will have issues picking up on the small details on small items. It also has to do with the person not using the scanner correctly, even though that's hard to do.

[American 3D Printing]

Having done around 40-50 scans with the Digitizer, I still don't quite understand why some things scan fairly well and other things are a misshapen blob. I had a customer come in the other day with a small stuffed animal, The Digitizer instructions say that it doesn't do fuzzy objects, yet this stuffed animal turned out perfectly without even having to use multiscan. Alternatively, I tried to scan an HO scale diesel locomotive, and it was just a rectangular blob, even after using many multiscans and cornstarch.

I think Makerbot realized that these things were overpriced for their performance (plus they aren't a whole lot better than 3D System's Sense which sells for $400), so they dropped the price on the Digitizer to below what my wholesale cost was on the units I have in stock. Grrrr!