Scanning Detail

[CustomWestCoast]

I am debating on purchasing a scanning probe. I was wondering how small a detail the probe will be able to pick up. I have a jewelry pendant that I would like to try and scan. The pendant measures 1.25" wide by 1.50" length by 1/4" deep. I have included a pic of the pendant to see if anyone thinks the probe will pick up the detail of the pendant.

[ChrisAlb]

I am debating on purchasing a scanning probe. I was wondering how small a detail the probe will be able to pick up. I have a jewelry pendant that I would like to try and scan. The pendant measures 1.25" wide by 1.50" length by 1/4" deep. I have included a pic of the pendant to see if anyone thinks the probe will pick up the detail of the pendant.

Hi Custom,

The scanning probe has impressed me time and time again with how it picks up fine details. I always use it in "Best" mode which increases the scanning time but it's always worth it. The size of your pendant shouldn't take much time to scan at all. While I can't predict just how long it would take, I've scanned many roughly 4' x 4" (areas) and it's right around 1-1/2 hours. For yours I'd draw a 2" x 2" box around it so it should be about roughly half that time.

You'll need to mount it to a board or sled at least 10" long (just to stay under rollers). I'd probably just use a 10" 1 x 6 for this. Be sure to remove the necklace ring before scanning. (no loose parts).

Hope this helps in your decision making.

Chris

[CustomWestCoast]

Thanks Chris,

I just wanted to get a concensus before I dive in and buy the scanning probe. I have a few pendants that are relatively the same siz and detail. I didn't want to spend the $299 for the probe and not have it scan the small details.

[Dave-Carve]

Instead of scanning it ..
Why dont you just take it into your Favrate Photo editor and And Then import it into C/W and carve it ??
Its Not that hard to Do ;)!!!

Just A Thought :eek:

[Ron]

Ive tried a coin and wasnt impressed with the detail but,some posts of coins were very detailed.Maybe something is wrong with my probe??

[badger]

Having a probe and the dimensions you show, you would be taking a risk that it would pick up all the fine detail in your pendant.

The probe is nice and does do outstanding work but still has its limitations when you get that small. It will pick it up but it just might not be the detail you were looking for. It might help (like Dave suggested) to take it to someone that could draw it up for you.

[Dave-Carve]

Take A Beter pic of pendant send it to me ..
Ill See if i can get ready to carve !!!!

Or Post Pic here and Im Sure somebody will fixer up for a Carve :p

I Love A Challange

Esp Spelling (lol)

[ChrisAlb]

Not trying to step on any toes here but, It would seem you folks haven't spent much time in graphics apps huh? LOL

Having done both scan and draw a LOT, I'd LOVE to see someone (including myself) draw it or fix up a picture of it to get even close to the detail the probe would do in about 45 minutes.

Speaking from experience here, you'd better love a challenge because you'd have one here for sure.

[CustomWestCoast]

I will try and take some marco photos of the pendant. What you can't see in the photo that I posted is that the dragon head and tail are on top of the cross, the cross and wings of the dragon are on top of the heart.
This is why I thought that scanning probe would be more accurate than a photo.

[TIMCOSBY]

do a fair job but carving something that small probably won't look that great. even if you enlarge the pattern your probably not going to see the detail like you think. but someone may prove me wrong.

[J_Man]

So you can just take a scan and carve it? That would be great. I can go on the net and find a ton of images for things I want to do. I've worked with Photoshop for, well I guess it's been close to 15 years now (time flies). I'm a screen printer and sign maker, so I've been working with graphic programs since around 1987. If making a good carving is depending on how good you can work a graphic's program, this will be great. I guess I'll find out in the weeks to come after I get the machine.

[Jeff_Birt]

Well, you will want to clean up any scan with the pattern editor before carving; much like you would probably touch up a photo before printing.

[badger]

From what Ive learned and Chris can verify, its not just a matter of taking an image hitting grayscale in one of the many software programs and your carve is gonna come out perfect.

It takes alot of work to check out how each of the 255 gray scale colors are going to work. Each of those colors is going to tell the machine at what depth to carve it at. Most of your images will have many shades and not knowing what you are doing will make some of you mad when you see the results.

Thousands upon thousands of pixels are in each image. Blurring and smoothing sometimes help but not all the time. You will see you might lose alot of detail when you do this and thats where knowing how to go into the image and change your scale comes in. Just a couple wrong pixels here or there will give you the spikes you see in your designer. Looks good maybe by just looking at it but when it comes down to the carve thats when you see all the problems.



Not trying to discourage anyone but taking an image off the internet, transferring it to gray scale and upload it into designer will not always give you what you want.

I know Chris can verify that it can take hours to make an image come out the way you want it too. Now if all your looking for is a silhouette of something those can be pretty easy. But there is no harm is asking anyone here and if it wont take too long Id be happy to help anyone out with an image and send it back to ya.

Now dont send me images of the Sistine Chapel and expect me to come up with a perfect pattern :rolleyes:

[ChrisAlb]

Now dont send me images of the Sistine Chapel and expect me to come up with a perfect pattern :rolleyes:

Aw...come on now badger...where's your sense of ADVENTURE?? LOL

It does take a lot of work and can be VERY time consuming BUT, when you nail it right, all that work seems to fade away...a "little"...lol

Badger is right that just one mis-colored pixel can give you a peak or valley. The thing about "smoothing" is, it's smooth to the eye, NOT the CW. If you have a black line and you 'smooth" it, the smoothing creates "many" more varying shades of gray around the line and thus, the peaks and valleys come in.

The real trick is in knowing your graphics application inside and out so you can save a lot of wasted steps getting there.

[J_Man]

So long as there's actually a way to do something, I'll generally figure out how to work with it. Yeah usually anytime you deal with graphics programs, there's always a level of work to be done to get everything right. That's not a problem though, just a matter of time...

[badger]

Exactly, One big reason some might be confusing errors with the machine and making some comments about it. It takes patience and some just dont have it.

[Kenxxx]

I find that the scanning probe will yield a beautiful pattern with great detail, however, the tip of the probe is considerably smaller than the 1/16" tapered carving cutter. The cutter cannot reproduce the really fine details the probe has detected. Still, the probe is a great asset and I use it frequently. I currently have a scanned project of a relief carving of Santa at his desk and I may have to use a micro gouge and and a micro "v" tool to reach the original detail of beard and hair, but that is a minor step compared to the overall quality and ease of duplicating. We are talking a few 1000's of an inch difference.

[mtylerfl]

I find that the scanning probe will yield a beautiful pattern with great detail, however, the tip of the probe is considerably smaller than the 1/16" tapered carving cutter. The cutter cannot reproduce the really fine details the probe has detected. Still, the probe is a great asset and I use it frequently. I currently have a scanned project of a relief carving of Santa at his desk and I may have to use a micro gouge and and a micro "v" tool to reach the original detail of beard and hair, but that is a minor step compared to the overall quality and ease of duplicating. We are talking a few 1000's of an inch difference.

Hello Kenxxx,

Just curious if you are religiously assigning the Bit Optimization: BEST to your patterns before carving. I have found in every case, that pattern details carve very well if this step is followed. (Provided that the patterns themselves are done well in the first place - there's a lot of poorly done patterns out there.)

An Aside: Awhile back, there was some discussion about the bit optimization settings and a couple folks thought the "best" setting didn't look as good as "none" or some other lower setting on some of their carvings.

That puzzled me, so upon further investigation, I discovered they were carving internet clip art or photos on wood, and I theorize that the "best" setting revealed too much detail - in other words, with low-quality clipart or "noisy" photos, the inherent defects were masked somewhat when a low bit optimization was set.

For carving properly created, true dimensional relief patterns though, it will always yield a much better detailed result to use Bit Optimization: BEST setting on each pattern.

[badger]

I find that the scanning probe will yield a beautiful pattern with great detail, however, the tip of the probe is considerably smaller than the 1/16" tapered carving cutter. The cutter cannot reproduce the really fine details the probe has detected. Still, the probe is a great asset and I use it frequently. I currently have a scanned project of a relief carving of Santa at his desk and I may have to use a micro gouge and and a micro "v" tool to reach the original detail of beard and hair, but that is a minor step compared to the overall quality and ease of duplicating. We are talking a few 1000's of an inch difference.

Have you tried any of the tips? I find it gives a better yield to the pattern making it just the same size as the carving bit plus it works great on some of those delicate items you would be afraid to try it on.

It also gives you just a bit more reach in probing that you can amend later in the designer if it says the pattern is too deep.

[CustomWestCoast]

I am interested in purchasing the scanning probe now that it is on sale. I have one question concerning resizing a scan. Once you scan an object that is 3" x 3", can you enlarge the final scan so that you can carve it larger than the original scanned item such as 10" x 10" or do you have to carve the scanned item at it's orignial size?

[ChrisAlb]

I am interested in purchasing the scanning probe now that it is on sale. I have one question concerning resizing a scan. Once you scan an object that is 3" x 3", can you enlarge the final scan so that you can carve it larger than the original scanned item such as 10" x 10" or do you have to carve the scanned item at it's orignial size?

Hey Custom

YES, The probe scans an item and Produces a "Pattern Image" from that scan. When you get the probe you get the "Pattern Editor" software with it.

Simply take the card from the machine when it's done and put it in the reader. Open Designer and from the File menu pick "Download Scan". The "Image" then opens in the "Pattern Editor". Then you just save it to your pattern library and it's now a "pattern" with which you can anything you like with. Just like all other patterns.

[Tom.Kitten]

Not to be picky, but 2" x 2" is one quarter the size of 4" x 4", not half.

[TIMCOSBY]

make a pattern out of it and put it on a board in designer and make it as big as you want or as small as you want just like any other pattern.