Couple of Scanning Questions

[cnsranch]

Been there, done that, but I have a couple of Newbie questions.....

I'm some confused, because the software has changed a number of times, and I'm getting old.

First of my two questions:

I scanned some pistol grips over the weekend. Scan was pretty good, and carved pretty well (see pic of the exact type of grips, sorry, all else is at home).

Here's the deal - when bringing the scan into PE, the depth is around 1" - I suppose that's standard for PE, even though the total thickness of the grips are 1/4". Two ways to lower the scan - simply lower the depth from the scale showing lxwxd, but that's bad, because that just flattens the scan. Second way is to use the lower function - that allows for a good result, but changes the width and depth of the scan. Seems to me that shouldn't happen when the scan just drops off to almost an inch, when the "edge" should be about 1/16" - in other words, I'm not chopping away at the scan, just getting the depth right.

So, should I ignore the depth of the scan, and get it where I want it once I've made it a pattern, and placed the pattern on a virtual board, or get it where it should be? Waay back in the day, we had to make note of the original wxl of the scan, and re-set it to those numbers once we lowered it - I thought we didn't have to do that anymore??? Further, gettign teh w'l measurements back exactly is not easy.

Second question - once I bring the scan into PE, I'd also like to get rid of the checkering, and have a completely smooth grip - using smoothing and blurring only goofs it too far - is there another way to do that - I know I'm missing something. I know I can take the pattern into Designer, then outline the pattern and delete all but the outline, set my own contours, etc., but that just makes for resulting measurements that aren't as exact as I need them to be for this type of project.

Thanks.

[mtylerfl]

Hi Jerry,

If the scan was done at the 1/4" depth, then the result would/should be also. Sounds like you may have scanned too deep from the beginning. Best way to get back to your desired thickness without flattening the detail is to export the scan as an STL, then import the STL, slice off the top 1/4" and discard the rest of the slices. (Of course, you must own the STL Importer as well as PE to do all that.)

I'm not sure you'll be able to easily smooth the grip checkering perfectly using the PE, but Jeff Birt is the expert on that program. He may know of a way to make the job more efficient and quicker. I'm not using PE as regularly as I used to, due to my preference to use other products instead, so I'm not as much help there as I would like to be.

An Additional Note: Be sure you are using the latest version of the Designer software to get accurate dimensions of scanned objects.

[cnsranch]

Hi, MT -

I actually attached the grips on a narrow piece of 3/4" plywood, then attached the ply to the sled. So, the grips were 3/4" above the floor of the sled. I've placed items to be scanned directly to the sled, but the probe then shows a large flat area around the piece where it actually touches the sled. Getting rid if that is as easy as lowering a tad in PE, but I've been concerned with losing detail.

I did adjust the depth of the probe, but used a piece of wood that was only about 1/2" thick as the "marker", which allowed the probe to go down beyond the piece to be scanned, got rid of the concern over scanning parts of the sled, but it did result in a deeper scan than actual.

[eelamb]

Jerry I would have used another piece of wood the same thickness as the board under the grip, to mark the depth at. This would give you a air scan around the grip and not a flat area you mentioned.

Or another way is to use a feeler gauge to mark the depth when the item is on the sled surface. This too gives you an air scan above the sled surface.

[mtylerfl]

Hi, MT -

I actually attached the grips on a narrow piece of 3/4" plywood, then attached the ply to the sled. So, the grips were 3/4" above the floor of the sled. I've placed items to be scanned directly to the sled, but the probe then shows a large flat area around the piece where it actually touches the sled. Getting rid if that is as easy as lowering a tad in PE, but I've been concerned with losing detail.

I did adjust the depth of the probe, but used a piece of wood that was only about 1/2" thick as the "marker", which allowed the probe to go down beyond the piece to be scanned, got rid of the concern over scanning parts of the sled, but it did result in a deeper scan than actual.

OK, that explains the added/unwanted depth. Eddie's tip will help you avoid that in the future. Do you have the STL Importer? If so, export the scan as STL, import and slice it as mentioned in my previous post and save the "good" slice, then delete the "bad" ones. No loss of detail will occur and you'll get your desired finished depth.