Height adjustment from scan

[jgilb8]

I have scanned a violin top using Jeffs CBPE software. When I place it on the board in the carvewright software the height is set at 100, and the depth at .25. Is there a way to duplicate the original violin arch without a trial and error. I will be using a 3/4inch board, the original arch is .614 inches high at the highest point.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim

[ChrisAlb]

I have scanned a violin top using Jeffs CBPE software. When I place it on the board in the carvewright software the height is set at 100, and the depth at .25. Is there a way to duplicate the original violin arch without a trial and error. I will be using a 3/4inch board, the original arch is .614 inches high at the highest point.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim

Sounds like a question for Jeff. I've never used his software but have done MANY scans with just the CW and they always reproduce the heights accurately.

[mtylerfl]

I have scanned a violin top using Jeffs CBPE software. When I place it on the board in the carvewright software the height is set at 100, and the depth at .25. Is there a way to duplicate the original violin arch without a trial and error. I will be using a 3/4inch board, the original arch is .614 inches high at the highest point.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim

Jim,

Try this procedure...

After you make the scan, you open it in the CW pattern editor. Now, immediately view your pattern settings (click EDIT/Pattern Settings at the top menu bar). Write down the depth that it shows and exit the window. This is your original depth of your scan - you'll need this info later.

At this point you should immediately save it as a ptn file, with no alterations made to it (no smoothing/no raise-lower/ no blurring).

Then, start up CBPE and open the ptn in it. Click on the "LIFE SIZE" button (making sure you have the resolution radio button properly selected - i.e., if you scanned on "BEST" then be sure the "B" radio button is selected in the CBPE before clicking on the life size button). Make no other adjustments.

Now, save it as a ptn from the CBPE (do NOT save it as a png)

Start up the CW pattern editor, open your ptn in it. At this point, click once on the "Round Edges" icon (the one that looks like a square with a corner cutoff). What it does is make sure all outside edges go to the "floor" of the total depth of the scan. (you can see the effect it has if you first move the scan to an edge view - click the round edges button and you'll see what it does. If you are viewing the scan straight-on, you will not see anything happen, but it did!).

Now is the time to do any cleanup editing to the scan (erasing stray dots or overscanned bits, etc. using your eraser tool). When completely done with cleanup, you can apply some global smoothing/blurring with the Blur Filter and Smooth Filter, if needed (use sparingly! - I suggest a blur value of no more than 1 or 2, smooth value of 1 or 2). If you overdo it, the scan will be altered too much.

Now you may notice a slight "outline" around your scan as a result of any blur or smoothing you did. Click the Raise/Lower arrows to get rid of the outline (using "lower" of course). Again, don't go crazy with large values - you want to stop when you see that the outline is just barely cleaned up - usually a value of between -2 to -7 is sufficient - keep the numbers as low as possible, otherwise the depth/details of the whole scan is negatively affected.

Enclose your scan with the Rectangle Selection tool and go to Edit/Crop in the menu bar. Make sure that the rectangle selection just barely touches all edges before selecting crop (you can freely move the lines of the rectangle by resting you mouse on a line - the cursor turns into a double arrow - click and hold the mouse button and move the line(s) to each edge - you may need to zoom in to see exactly where you are positioning the lines). If you don't crop the scan tightly, then if you rotate the pattern in Designer, it will distort.

After cropping, click EDIT/Pattern Settings at the top menu bar again, and look at what the Depth value is now. You will see it doesn't match the original depth value you wrote down. It won't be off by much since you were conservative with your modifications to the scan. Type in the original depth now and click OK so it will reset it to the original depth.

Save your work as your final ptn file, import the ptn into your Pattern List, and you should be good to go with the arch matching the original.

[Jeff_Birt]

Couldn't have said it better myself Michael!

Also, the newer version of Designer/Probe software actually have a different type of 'Life Size' in them. When you download your scan it the probe software/CW pattern editor will recognize what resolution the item was scanned at and keep things at full size.

[jgilb8]

Thanks for the help. I'll give this a try. I'll let you know how it goes.

Jim