This Quick Start is not intended to be a complete resource for information on the use and operation of CyDir nor of CyScan, but only an introduction and guide through a basic, multiple-scan digitization process. For more complete information, please refer to the CyDir User Guide and the CyScan User Guide.
For this example we will use as the subject a small straight-blade screwdriver. For ease of scanning, we have painted it with a white, matte color tempera paint. It is approximately 90 mm in height (blade pointing up) and 35 mm in diameter at its widest point.
The basic procedure for scanning this object will be as follows:
Position the subject onto the motion platform as near as possible to the middle of the turntable. For the purposes of this tutorial, position the subject so that the blade is pointing up (as if you were turning a screw in the ceiling).
For scanning sessions that involve multiple scans to achieve the most complete and accurate model, the CyDir environment should be used. To start CyDir, simply double-click its icon.
This action will open the CyDir Control Panel as illustrated below.
This directory will be used to store all of the scan files of this orientation, and to be a general work area. Click the white arrow in the smallest window to open the extended Control Panel.
Select the "???" and enter a name for the new directory. In the example below, we have chosen "set1."
The scanning process involves several setup steps, such as opening the directory in which to work, launching the scanning software, and configuring the software to capture the best possible data.
Click the white arrow to the right of the directory name to open that directory in preparation for scanning.
Press the green Scan button in the small set1 directory window to launch Guee, the scanning software.
Adjust the Script, Color On/Off, and Scans entries in the Guee Control Panel:
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Press the Open button in the Guee Control Panel to launch CyScan, the software that drives the motion platform and processes the scan data.
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Set the appropriate scan properties in the CyScan Control Panel; Width, Pitch, Surface and Texture.
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To begin scanning, verify that all of the settings have been entered in the CyScan and Guee Control Panels.
Press the Scan button to begin the digitization process:
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At this point, the user may be presented with a dialog box requesting to perform the home movements. The user should choose to home the platform by clicking Yes when prompted.
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Although this step is optional, it will greatly reduce the clutter on the desktop and make the remaining steps much more easily understood.
In the next step, the user should open the CyPie software, which provides convenient access to the editing functions normally used to process the scanned data and to the scan file merging process.
In the small set1 window, press the green Merge button. This will launch CyPie and read in the scans that were just taken.
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The editing processes will ensure that each dataset contains the most accurate data and will create the highest quality final model.
For the purposes of this tutorial, we will perform the Void and Despike editing functions only.
This editing step will allow the user to remove any unwanted data points from the scans. Each scan file will be read into the program successively, allowing the user to perform the editing step. After selecting the unwanted data points using the cursor, and painting the unwanted points red, the user simply clicks the Continue button. This action will perform the editing function, save the resultant scan file, and read in the next scan file.
To void portions of a scan, select Void from the CyPie window, then press the green All button.
Please note that the display of the scan files in CyEdit may be distorted. This distortion is due to the display algorithm that is being used to very quickly display the scanned data.
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The despike editing function will automatically search through each scan file successively, eliminating any spikes that it finds. Any number of factors can cause spikes, however, if the user notices many spikes in the scans, it is probably due to an improper Surface setting.
To begin the despiking process, simply select Despike in the CyPie window, then press the All button. There is no user interaction required for this step.
For further information on the editing processes, please refer to the CyEdit User Guide.
The scan merging process involves two separate actions from the user. The first is to align the scans, and the second is to actually perform the merging of the data files into a single file.
To align the scans, click the green Auto Align button in the CyPie window.
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If the alignment came out well, then press the green Merge button to assemble the individual scan files into a single polygonal model. The files that will be created are in the PLY file format and are called lores.ply, midres.ply, and hires.ply. All three (3) of these PLY files are required in the processing to follow and will be stored in the set1directory.
Although this step is optional, it will greatly reduce the clutter on the desktop and make the remaining steps much more easily understood.
Although this step is not required, it will greatly help to cut down on the clutter on the desktop.
Press the red arrow in the small set1 directory window to close that directory.
This step may not be necessary, depending upon the level of detail and completeness that you desire. We will however reorient the object for this tutorial.
Generally, reorient the object so that any areas that were not captured in the previous orientation will be captured in this orientation. It is important to allow a forty to fifty percent (40-50%) area of overlap between the two orientations. This overlap will allow CyEat to automatically align the objects in a later process.
For simplicity, simply place the subject so that the shaft is parallel to the floor and the flat part of the blade is facing the digitizer.
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To create another directory for this orientation's scans, press the green + button in the CyDir window. This button is located just to the right of the set1 directory name.
You will notice a new line in the window with ??? displayed in the naming field.
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Replace the ??? with a name for this directory. For this example, we have chosen, "set2" as the directory name. Please note that the user must press the Enter key for the directory name to be accepted.
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Now that the subject has been reoriented, it is time to begin scanning this new orientation.
Click the white arrow to the right of the directory name to open that directory in preparation for scanning.
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Press the green Scan button in the small set2 directory window to launch Guee, the scanning software.
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Adjust the Script, Color On/Off, and Scans entries in the Guee Control Panel:
Press the Open button in the Guee Control Panel to launch CyScan, the software that drives the motion platform and processes the scan data.
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Set the appropriate scan properties in the CyScan Control Panel; Width, Pitch, Surface and Texture.
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To begin scanning, verify that all of the settings have been entered in the CyScan and Guee Control Panels.
Press the Scan button to begin the digitization process:
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At this point, the user may be presented with a dialog box requesting to perform the home movements. The user should choose to home the platform by clicking Yes when prompted.
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Although this step is optional, it will greatly reduce the clutter on the desktop and make the remaining steps much more easily understood.
In the next step, the user should open the CyPie software, which provides convenient access to the editing functions normally used to process the scanned data and to the scan file merging process.
In the small set2 window, press the green Merge button. This will launch CyPie and read in the scans that were just taken.
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The editing processes will ensure that each dataset contains the most accurate data and will create the highest quality final model.
For the purposes of this tutorial, we will perform the Void and Despike editing functions only.
This editing step will allow the user to remove any unwanted data points from the scans. For more information, refer to the voiding section above.
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The despike editing function will automatically search through each scan file successively, eliminating any spikes that it finds. For more information, refer to the despiking section above.
The scan merging process involves two separate actions from the user. The first is to align the scans, and the second is to actually perform the merging of the data files into a single file.
To align the scans, click the green Auto Align button in the CyPie window.
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If the alignment came out well, then press the green Merge button to assemble the individual scan files into a single polygonal model. The files that will be created are in the PLY file format and are called lores.ply, midres.ply, and hires.ply. All three (3) of these PLY files are required in the processing to follow and will be stored in the set2directory.
Although this step is optional, it will greatly reduce the clutter on the desktop and make the remaining steps much more easily understood.
Although this step is not required, it will greatly help to cut down on the clutter on the desktop.
Press the red arrow in the small set2 directory window to close that directory.
Press the Align and Merge button in the CyDir window to launch CyEat.
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The required files will be automatically read into the program.
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Press the Guess button to begin the alignment process.
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Once the refine process has completed, press the Final button to finish up the alignment of the files.
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When the alignment is complete, press the Merge button to assemble the files into a single model. This process will create three (3) files, lores.ply, midres.ply, and hires.ply, which will be stored in the same directory in which CyDir was started (one level above set1 and set2.
To quit CyEat, press the Exit button.
If you are still not satisfied with the quality of the model, you can continue to capture the object by repeating the steps above. These steps can be executed as many times as necessary.
To convert the file to any of a number of industry-standard file formats, use the Mtool program. Please see the Mtool Quick Start for more information.
For those users who do not have access to Mtool, please refer to the output formats listing and the translators section of this user guide.
To quit CyDir and complete the scanning process, press the Exit button in the CyDir window.
The above steps cover the typical usage of CyDir/CyScan to capture a complex object. We started the programs, scanned and merged two (2) separate orientations of the object then merged the two orientations into a final, complete model.