Scanything

[cindy carlisle]

LES you are awesome! What are some of the issues you have found in beta testing? Cool Tool for someone who doesn't want to draw in CAD. What issues have you run into while beta testing?

http://sheetcam.com/Scanything/index

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wlb6wgCgbY

http://sheetcam.com/Scanything/downloads

Very cool

[chattacuda]

I am excited about this application. I routinely need to cut larger custom aluminum panels for a customer that makes custom off road vehicles. He provides me a posterboard template usually with some intricate curves. My scanner is too small for the panels so i generally spend a lot of time scanning and piecing small scans together, ugh!! I downloaded the plugin yesterday and got it to jog my table ( mach3 and older CandCNC electronics). Today i hope to get a camera connected. The info i have found on several website searches is pretty sparse on setting up and configuring the camera in scananything. Les has a good video on the steps after the camera is cofigured. Hopefully it will be obvious. Does anyone on here have this sytem working? I will be glad to post up the details of what I learn on the setup. Looking forward to getting this working. I helluva lot better and cheaper than a large format flatbed scanner that still would not be big enough.

[Capstone]

I will be actively looking to set up this system since my setup is well suited for testing. I will report progress and results in the coming weeks

[chasxjs]

I have been playing with Scanything for about 6 months now. It can be a bit finicky to get the settings just right but like most things the more you use it, the easier and better it runs.

[chattacuda]

I got the camera installed and calibrated. Took a while to figure out a good focal length. Mine seems pretty sensitive to variations in light. In any case, I did my first trace of a small object. But when I tried to save it, I got an error message that I needed a license or a new version. It would not take my sheetcam license number. I checked the license section of the sheetcam site and saw the scan anything license fee. Still a lot better than buying a large format flat bed scanner that would still be inadequate. Making progress anyway

[chasxjs]

e-mail Les. He may be willing to give you a trial license that will expire in 30 days so you can try it out. That's what I did before I purchased a license.

[Capstone]

Great update and info. Got sidetracked, but this is on my list of things to do. :/

[chattacuda]

e-mail Les. He may be willing to give you a trial license that will expire in 30 days so you can try it out. That's what I did before I purchased a license.

Thanks Charles, good suggestion. Do you use a temporary camera mount? I just used a zip tie since i had no idea where to mount it to start with. Since I probably wont use often, recalibrating the camera each time is not a big deal. This is going to make my work so much easier on those big roll cage panels!

[chasxjs]

My camera came with a flexible mount (similar to what you would see on a microphone stand) that I attached to my Z axis.
When I'm not using the camera, I just bend it out if the way.

[chattacuda]

I got everything working with not much trouble. Scanned a few things just to see how it would work. I think it will be perfect for my application. Looks like I need to do a better job getting the camera x/y axis to match the table x/y to reduce the extra nodes, but I am still pretty excited about this.

[ggeh]

Im having trouble getting it calibrated. The camera locks on the green ring in the center, then the lower right, then the lower left, then a fast right, fast left and then it starts all over again. The progress screen in the lower left says

Starting calibration
1st calibration
Starting calibration
1st calibration

And it keeps repeting these two calibrations. Any thought on where im going wrong?

Thanks Gary

[Les Newell]

Are you using the parallel port or an external USB/Ethernet controller? Scanything only works reliably with the parallel port.

[ggeh]

I'm using a supereyes 005 camera it came with a usb plug. So if I get a USB to parallel port adapter would that work or did I purchase the wrong camera?
What camera would you suggest. Thanks for the quick response, Gary

[sphurley]

If you have the rotation of the camera not equal to the Left, right, Up and Down then it will do as you mention. You don't want to know how long it took to figure that out. I have a CandCNC ethercut system and the supereyes 005, works great.

[motoguy]

If you have the rotation of the camera not equal to the Left, right, Up and Down then it will do as you mention. You don't want to know how long it took to figure that out. I have a CandCNC ethercut system and the supereyes 005, works great.

This. I, too, fought it. Make sure the axes as viewed by the camera line up with the table axes. Blade runner Ethercut here, works well once I figured out the above.

[Les Newell]

I'm using a supereyes 005 camera it came with a usb plug. So if I get a USB to parallel port adapter would that work or did I purchase the wrong camera?
What camera would you suggest. Thanks for the quick response, Gary

Sorry, I meant on the Mach3 side. Supereyes cameras are reasonable. Another camera I have found that works well is the XBox Live Vision camera but it does need an extra light source and you need to remove the lens focusing stop to allow it to be focused in on close items.

@sphurley It is good to hear you have it working with Ethercut. The extra delay introduced by external controllers such as yours can cause issues for some people.