MetroX - thoughts after a week of scanning

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Ok, I think I have a strong grasp on what the scanner can do, have/had a couple of other scanners so I can compare.

The laser mode
Honestly? No complaints whatsoever.
This is a real game changer for me - there no longer is a question of “will it scan” - just the question of setting up enough markers around the object - I haven’t yet put a single marker on any of my objects, not once. I don’t want to clean them up later. So I make sure my object is surrounded by dummy objects that are covered in markers - works great :slight_smile:
Lasers freakin scan everything - I’m talking about black glossy plastic from an LG TV remote - the full field mode (so structural light) saw absolutely nothing, maybe some faint contours of the rubber buttons - the laser scan came out absolutely complete, no holes, maybe a little noisy in very glossy parts of the remote - simply amazing.
One tip for everyone else - you can wave the scanner around violently (just like they do in videos), it won’t loose tracking - but don’t. It doesn’t make the scanning process faster just more chaotic. Just focus on a given part of the object and glide the laser lines over it with a gentle motion - you’ll see each line filling up with points, line after line, until the whole surface is filled - then you move to the next area, and then the next.
If you wave the scanner fast in all directions you’ll get points all over the object fast, but the points are just sparse, and you’ll still have to fill all the parts later on, but now you’re not exactly sure which parts have enough points and which don’t - keep in mind you won’t be able to get all green at all parts of your object - some parts are just difficult to scan.
Tip2 - rotate your scanner - scan the same area with the scanner in horizontal orientation and then repeat with vertical orientation - this helps the laser line get into all slots - you may also try rotating the scanner so that the laser lines go inside the crevice, not across it. Don’t worry, as far as I can tell, there is no such thing as overscanning like there is in structural light scanners. I have done scans that covered the same area 20 times - and I never saw loss of scanning detail.

Global marker mode
It works just like in videos, I only have two issues with it
1 Revoscan please stay in Global Marker mode.
Seriously, every time I finish scanning in GMM, I complete my scan, then fuse the cloud to see what it looks like, then when I’m done I go back to scanning tab - and BOOM - I’m in normal marker scanning mode.
Now I have to switch to Global Marker mode again (takes about 5 seconds to switch), then select the stored marker point cloud from the library again, click PointCloud scanning (takes 5 seconds to switch again) and now I can scan again.
If I just scanned in GMM, that means I have everything set up, which took time. If I’m now going back to scanning - odds are I want to continue scanning in the same set up - ie. I rotated my object and I want to scan the other side of it, using the same Global Marker cloud - do the smart thing and just get me back to the exact scanning settings I was in 30 seconds ago :wink:
2. Turntable and creating the Global Marker cloud
This is weird. I put my marker covered dummy objects on the turntable - I’ll later put my object in the middle of that marker filled construction. I turn the table on and just hold the MetroX in place - the scanner “sees” all the rotating markers (they light up red) but it doesn’t “store” them. The marker counter goes up to 25-27 and that’s it. I think that most of the stored markers are the markers on the table itself. Now if I stop the table and just move the scanner around the table, even just once (should be the same result, yes?) all my markers get stored - the counter quickly moves up to 100-108 markers.
It’s not a big problem, but it is surprising - it’s as if the marker storing was dependent on the MetroX gyro sensing that it’s moving?

Full field mode
It exists I guess, it works, didn’t spend a lot of time with it since it’s pointless - it doesn’t capture color data. If you don’t need it - use laser mode, it’s a 1000 times better, if you need color - you’ll use auto turntable mode.

Auto turntable mode
It CAN be amazing.
If you go through the entire process, I was able to get scans of PCBs on par with my Mini1 - for some reason Mini 2 doesn’t see PCBs - don’t know why.
With Mini1 it takes some effort and a steady hand - whereas with MetroX it’s automatic - so not really a contest here :wink:
It’s especially amazing since Mini1 scans that PCB from 7-10 cm distance and MetroX scans from 20-25cm distance.
That said:

  1. Manual White Balance is broken - the second you change it all you see is color data with the blue structural light illuminating the object - so everything is just neon blue.
  2. Oh God the set up process :frowning:
    I understand that in Auto Turntable mode data is captured once ever 5-6 seconds, but why do the cameras refresh once every 5-6 seconds when I’m not scanning yet??? We know from other modes that real-time preview is possible on that hardware - give it to me. Before I start the scan I need to set up the position of the scanner on the tripod, the depth camera exposure, RGB exposure and RGB White Balance. Have you any idea how much time all this takes if I can see the result of my change after 5 seconds?!?!
    Just give me a normal real-time preview while I’m setting up, and then once I start the scanning process switch to capturing data once in 5-6 seconds like it’s supposed to :confused:
  3. I was able to scan some previously unscannable objects - a PCB with black plastic elements and shiny solder, an old Nikon FE camera with black plastics and metal silver elements. I did this by scanning 3 separate rotations, each with a different Depth camera Exposure (lowest, medium, highest). All within a single scanning session, subsequent rotations just added to the already scanned data - I was doing it in Auto turn table Marker mode - just to make sure all scans would align perfectly.
    Could we get a program to automate this? Like preprogram a couple full rotations each with a different depth camera exposure?
    or better yet
  4. Depth camera HDRI mode
    Since in Auto turntable mode the scanner already performs not a single but several captures in each position (at least it looks that it is) can we have a mode where it will perform several captures with different depth exposures?
    This way we’ll be able to get maximum scan data in a single rotation. We are removing any potential alignment issues since all exposures are taken from the exact same position :slight_smile:

All in all I’m extremely happy with MetroX.
Sure, needing markers for laser scanning is something you need to get used to, but if you’re scanning medium sized objects (5-10-20cm) just make your own dummy objects (find some plastic crap, spray paint it black and cover it with markers) and with every scan just surround your object with those dummies - works like a charm.

PS. For more mobile types.
You can power MetroX from a powerbank:

  • powerbank needs usb C PD mode with at least 35W of power - it needs to be able to output at least 3Amps at 12Volts
  • find a usb-c to 12V DC 5.5-2.5mm adapter - this adapter switches the power output of the USB-c port to 12V and has a DC jack plug that connects to MetroX.
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100% agree on the setup and mode selection issues. Along with global markers, the RGB and WB settings are particularly painful and sometimes just become non-responsive.

Why are marker scan and feature scan two separate buttons on the other side of the interface from scan settings? They’re just tracking mode dropdown selections that escaped the dropdown list but didn’t eliminate it. It would make more sense to have those two buttons be Laser and Full Field buttons, all other selections contained in the scan settings panel. Then Laser would have two sub-choices (cross and parallel) and Full Field would have two sub-choices (auto and … not auto) as well as whatever tracking options there are for each.

Miraco has a much more usable interface for global markers. I can’t say I’ve used global markers in Revoscan 5.5 to compare.

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Awesome update! Looks like it took a while to type out, thanks for taking the time to get it all on here.
Ive never had a scanner before, let alone a scanner with freaking laser beams shooting out of it! Needless to say im kind of amazed , and im too new to know if my woes and tribulations are self induced or not haha… That being said- ive scanned entire sections of a glossy black car using the magnetic marker blocks and it creates a green point cloud in my preview with very little effort ( using auto exposure and laser brightness, in cross-lines laser mode).

I thought i was going to be smart and use painters tape with marker dots for the non-magnetic areas of my black/glossy car scan. The painters tape and markers come up perfectly, but the black sections inbetween the painters tape have a very hard time getting any amount of good scan data- any ideas why?

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Do you have a picture?

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Well, you mentioned you were using automatic exposure.
Painters tape scans extremely well so a proper exposure for it would be pretty low. Your glossy black car would require very high exposure.
It’s possible that when your scanner saw painter tape it lowered the exposure so that it would scan well, but at the same time it caused your car to not show up at all :slight_smile:
First of all - why painters tape?
The markers should stick onto the car without a problem, just maybe clean that part so that you’re not trying to stick them on dirt.
Secondly, if you absolutelu need painters tape - use small bits of it, just enough to fit a marker.
And third and probably most importat - join the big boys and don’t use automatic exposure - set it manually so that the car surface scans. This way no matter what else comes into frame your scanner will always “see” your car :slight_smile:

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When you set the exposure manually how do you read the color overlay in Revoscan? I see red and blue highlighting as I adjust the exposure. Am I trying to minimize both, or have the item I want to scan either highlighted either red or blue? I’ve tried different settings in feature scan mode and didn’t have much luck holding tracking no matter how I adjusted the exposure, but I realize now that was probably a different issue.

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Red is overexposed, blue underexposed. Try to keep your object between them so shades of gray.
Loss of tracking is usually because the object doesn’t have distinct features. In feature mode the scanner is taking 10-15 photographs per second. Each photograph has color data and depth - from depth the scanner gets the “shape” of the color data. Feature mode uses only the “shape” part for tracking, if you’re scanning a milk carton it doesn’t matter it has a ton of detail printed on it’s sides - as far as the scanner is concerned it’s just a flat box. Now a box is a pretty good shape for tracking, assuming the depth camera sees the box in EVERY frame. Imagine you get too close to one of the sides, so that it fills the depth camera frame. Now you’re looking at a flat piece of a plane, no distinct features, just flat. Can you tell which part of the box it is? Neither can the scanner - boom, tracking lost.
If you have a long non distinct object - like a ruler - tracking will get lost. But get some crumpled pieces of paper and put them around the ruler - now within each frame, apart from the non distinct ruler, you have very distinct pieces of paper - the tracking can work, you’ll scan the entire scene, scanning your ruler by accident - it’s just lying among the pieces of paper :slight_smile:

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Rear Bumper-Mesh. V1
Rear Bumper-Mesh. V11920×1200 289 KB

Im using painters tape because im cheap and was hoping for a way to reuse the marker dots easily/relocate them a few times. Your thoughts are my thoughts regarding auto exposure and having painters tape/glossy black mixed in a small area. The places where i used the marker blocks scanned up really good and very fast , so did the plastic bumper at the bottom of the scan with the tracking markers and painters tape.
Lesson learned though- i wont use marker blocks on large flat surfaces if i dont have to lol… Ive 3d printed off some very tiny magnetic ‘bases’ for the marker dots- now i can reuse them easily and theyre small enough that the software will automatically remove them.