MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner

With in a short time after opening the box, I made my first good scan. The key for a good scan is to have a non-reflective surface!! A few days before receiving the digitizer, I spray painted my items that I was going to scan with a flat ivory color. I've been getting perfect scans each time!

I purchased this as part of an engineering development group in order to better scan, modify, and duplicate handmade or competitor parts. The best operation I've managed to achieve so far is when the unit is 100% covered in a flat black foam board encasement. Otherwise, I get ghost-like dangling objects above and around the scanned part from ambient light. The qualify of the scan itself, when it works, is "iffy" at best. I can only scan one time before the program and/or the scanner freezes, requiring me to restart my computer because simply restarting the program or power cycling the scanner doesn't work. Compared to the ~$800 of this scanner, I would 100% recommend the ~$300 3D "Sense" wand. I purchased both at the same time, this one primarily for smaller items because the reviews on the Sense say it doesn't do well with things smaller than a basketball. The Sense has been infinitely more manageable and produces a far better output. It just doesn't really do small that well.

I was really hoping that this was going to be a fantastic product. I really wanted it to be. It's a great idea, but in reality execution is lacking. Nothing I did resulted in a clean scan of any object. This product needs a lot more work.Scans finished looking nothing like the original item. I attempted to scan a Lego mini fig and the result was something out of a horror movie. The closest usable scan was of a baseball, but even that was mediocre at best.Save your money for now and wait till the 2nd or 3rd version of this product.

I super stoked to get this item. however, when it arrived I began having problems with it immediately. I would attempt a scan, but with 3 minutes left in the scan, my read points would disappear, then the scan would say it finished, but could not see it. so, I tried to contact makerware. that's when I found out that just to talk to makerware, it would cost $100.00. I was worried about buying a makerware product because makerware has decided to make everything propriatairy, including their filament. should have trusted my instincts and went somewhere else, but fell for the "ohhh, shiny" aspects of makerware. find a better scanner, or pay way to much to maintain this one. don't believe me? go to makerwares website and attempt to talk to them. it will cost you dearly.

I played with this thing for six weeks and never got it to work. Tech support was worthless, they simply told me to do the things I already had tried (reinstall the software, for example).For that matter, the software seems to be an afterthought added to the MakerBot printer stuff. For the most part they want you to make an account and come play in their sandbox.I am disappointed, Maker has a very good reputation and this does not do justice to the company.

Works like it was designed to do. Everything was in very good condition.

I love MakerBot, I love my Rep 2 and was hoping to have the same experience here, but there are reasons that I can't get too excited about this scanner. I'm a 2D computer professional, and thought that buying this scanner would lift the burden of learning CAD programs, but I think that the later will happen long before the former. I was hoping to scan some small broken household parts and fix and print replacements, but that seems like a far fetched idea.It has limitations, I thought the size limitations would be restrictions for objects that are too large or heavy, but it really doesn't like small objects, or dark objects, or shiny objects....I've bought developers spray, hope that will help, but I think that it's biggest limitations can be fixed with software updates. I understand that the multi-scan has helped, but I'm still waiting for the software than makes this lose it's "experimental" status.

Tried to use this but kept getting either nice images that printed horribly...or horrible images that I was afraid to print (and printed horribly). Reviewed the instructional videos online, tried using a box to remove outside images, followed all instructions, but ended up returning the device. Was NOT using a makerbot 3D printer. Using an Afinia 3D printer. That might make a difference. However, easy to return and receive full credit for the device.