How to Edit and Export a File from Scandy Pro

January 7, 2020

How to edit in Scandy Pro


First select the scan you wish to edit from your “My Scans” menu.  To work on the selected scan, press “ Tap to Preview”



To access the editing tools, scroll left through the icons at the bottom of the screen, and select the last one that looks like a wrench.


Decimate - This feature reduces the number of polygons in your model which greatly reduces the overall file size. You can see the polygons best in the wireframe frame mode.  However, when I am trying to keep my scan looking as natural as possible, I like to use the color render. That way, I can see when I crossed the threshold from normal human being to 90s video game character.


Before
After
Too Far!


You can adjust the render mode using the first option at the bottom of the screen. Color is the default for each scan that you make.  You can freely switch between the render modes while editing. Only the final selection will be saved when you saved the file.

Smooth - This tool smooths the mesh surface to remove small bumps and dips.  It’s difficult to see the results of this tool when viewing your mesh in color. But if you render in monochrome mode, the smoothing changes become easier to see.


Before
After


Autoclean - autoclean removes small pieces of "floating" mesh that might be hanging around the edges of a scan.  This way, when you export the file, you won’t have to do it all manually.

Note how the small pieces of background are eliminated after autoclean is complete.


Fill Holes - Use this feature to fill in holes in your scan.  

Before, you can see through the holes to the back of the scanned model. This editing tool is great for filling small holes.


For larger holes, like the hole in my neck above, we recommend programs like blender or meshmixer which will give you a lot more control over how you fill holes. For more information on blender, check out our tutorial on Youtube. I got a hole this large because I forgot to scan under my chin when creating the model. For human models, under the chin and top of the head are frequently missed places when scanning.


Crop Plane - This feature is great for getting rid of the pieces of background you may have caught in your scan.  The crop feature only crops from the bottom of the screen up. To crop other parts of the model, you can rotate your scan to orient it so that the parts you wish to crop are situated at the bottom of the screen.



There is no undo button inside of Scandy Pro.  But changes are only saved if you tap the save disk icon second from the left at the top of your screen.  If you are unhappy with any of your changes, tap the X icon in the top left corner to be returned to the My Scans menu to begin again.  When you opt to save the changes you made, you can either overwrite the existing scan, or save it as a new file.



Exporting a File:


To export a file from Scandy Pro, select the scan you wish to export from the My Scans menu and tap the arrow icon. You can save it to your phone, send it as a text message or email, or  share it with another iPhone through AirDrop.



This will bring up the export menu.  You can resize the model by choosing the scale to export in mm, cm, in, and m.  You also have five different file types to choose from.   If you want to export the raw image data, you will need to select the Shared Zipped Dir option instead of the export option.



When to pick the different export file types.


  • PLY - Use a PLY when you want to conserve color.  
  • OBJ - Probably the most common.  Use this one as your default when you aren’t sure which file type you want.  This is the most common file type for 3D printing and 3D graphic applications.
  • STL - This file type is most useful rapid prototyping and manufacturing. STL lacks common CAD model attributes such as color and texture and is instead a geometric representation of your scan.
  • USDZ - This file type is great for ecommerce and online content.  Like a PNG file but for 3D, it is clickable and can be optimized for storage and sharing.
  • GLB - Less common.  GBL is a binary file format representation of 3D models.  It contains information on node hierarchy, cameras, materials, animations and meshes in binary format.  Use this file type when you need to avoid issues created by large file sizes.


If you have any editing or exporting questions that were not covered by this guide, please send us an email at help@scandy.co . We are happy to assist in any way we can.  


Also don’t forget to check out our Youtube channel and our blog for other great tips and tutorials.


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