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The two gnomes together
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Gnomes support in PreForm software
Week three with the 3D Systems Sense scanner has also coincided with week one of the Form 1. Although printing in high-res stereolithography with scans from a $399 scanner may seem counterintuitive I wanted to print with the Formlabs machine again after printing a Honda concept car the day before.
If you have been following the blog you’ll realise that I have been trying to perfect a technique with the scanner and can say with confidence that I’ve pretty much just mastered the hand-eye-lap-swivel chair-feet coordination technique of scanning a model.
This technique involves placing a model on top of a white box that is about two feet high, sitting on an office chair with the laptop in my lap (funny that!) and scanner in my hand with my elbow perched on the armrest. I then swivel slowly around the subject and to be honest have found this lo-fi technique, for all the hanging with string and tripod mounting, produces the best scans.
The subject of the scan this week will delight all the MakerBot fans out there; it’s a gnome! Although frivolous, the scan is a challenge for the Sense as the handcrafted nature of this Manchester United football gnome contains plenty of nooks and crannies and textures plus the flat base will be idea for support.
So, armed with my new technique I set about scanning without colour turned on, in hi-res and object recognition on, I set about scanning the gnome. It took approximately three minutes to go around and up and down the gnome.
The final scan was without doubt the best scan yet, needing barely any cropping, erasing or touching up.
I have tried to upload the model to the Cubify site through the software but as yet it does not seem to appearing.
The PreForm software suggested the model needed repairing when placed into the build platform, but a simple click of the button and it was repaired. Time restraints again meant I had to print on low-res and scale down significantly. After printing and cleaning the model - a process, which took about 1hour 45mins - I was left with a fantastically detailed miniature of our bearded friend and better still without the Manchester United badge…
