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This printer is still running like brand new. Flawless work, flawless results. I've made a few projects into reality since the last time I reviewed this awesome machine. It's still performing excellently. No issues what-so-ever. The onboard digital screen is intuitive and lets me know if any potential problems could occur, like the outside temp is getting close to be too warm to print. That's awesome idea. In the next few weeks, I'll be giving the printer a service, lubricate all the moving parts, shafts, bearings etc, to ensure continues reliability. This printer is proving to be one of my finest decisions. Very pleased
I haven't owned the scanner for any length of time, but, I have used it extensively. I'm constantly learning thte capabilities and the short falls of this scanner.
Scanner:
The scanner fits into my hand quite comfortably. Using the short lanyard around the wrist, the scanner feels securely seated in my hand without any danger of slipping out. That's a good point.
The Blue Light scans are quite detailed. That has impressed me. With a few scans on black material, (usually not recommend as scanners don't pick up on black materials very well), the Raptor picked the material up really quite well. Impressive. Scanners don't scan too well on small objects. I'm trying to scan a small object, with geometries, holes, straight patters etc. The Raptor did very well at picking up this object and displayed accurate details.
Is the Raptor worth the money? In my opinion, yes. I say this because the Raptor picks up small objects really very well. The size of the object I used is 5cm x 5cm x 2mm. Really small.
SOFTWARE:
The software that comes with the Raptor, CrealityScan, is really basic to say the least. It has inherent flaws, being it requires authorization every time it starts up. I find that part annoying and tedious. The software is quite good at detecting holes and repairing them, it can pick up on detailed geometry. It can't remove markers at all. The markers stay with the scanned object and are very difficult to remove. The software has an option to ignore the base. This doesn't seem to do anything at all. I have used the onboard tools to clean up the scanned object, removed the stray scans, markers and all the unwanted materials from the object. Once I mesh the object, it meshes everything from before I removed the unwanted parts. I have to remove hte unwanted parts again, and then the mesh is broken.
I have to transfer the object to a CAD software to try again. I've tried sending as stl, but not recommended, so I use ply files to transfer. The software is very difficult if not impossible to centre the object in 3D space. There are no axis point to help out with this procedure, thus making it so difficult to accomplish.
The scanned objects cannot be printed because of this issue.
COJNCLUSION:
The device in itself is quite good. The calibration side of this takes somem time to accomplish. I think my score was approx 98%. That's good enough for what I want to do. The small object in black material worked quite well since this is against what a scanner can really do. That's a huge plus for me. The hardware is made very well, sits well in the hand and doesn't move about while scanning. I haven't used it as yet for colour matching, but no doubt it's good at that too.
The supplied software really needs a lot of work to catchup with the world leaders i this type of software. It is sadly lacking in power to render scanned parts. My test was on a very small object, and I had trouble getting the software to keep up. Once all the unwanted material has been deleted from the scan, it should stay that way after a mesh is applied. I scanned top and four sides in one scan and the bottom in another scan. I merged the two scans together to find the bottom scan was not saved with the unwanted material removed. This is annoying and tedious. I eventually scanned the top and four sides in one scan, closed the session and created another part to scan the bottom, Then I had to import the bottom scan into the top scan to merge the two scans together. At this point I was successful in creating the part.
The created part was not on centre, therefore the print failed. This is a serious issue with the software. It really needs work to be of any real benefit.
Would I recommend the Raptor:
Yes. It is a very sound and solid device. For a complete beginner, it doesn't take too much of a learning curve to use it. The draw back is the accompanied software. In all, well worth the buy.