# Digitizing Probe for X Carve? **URL:** \ **Category:** X-Carve\ **Created:** [March 16, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/digitizing-probe-for-x-carve/35374 "2017-03-16T19:31:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EddieHale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@EddieHale](https://community.inventables.com/u/EddieHale)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/digitizing-probe-for-x-carve/35374/1 "2017-03-16T19:31:34Z")
After searching the forums I haven’t found any info other than for the Z-Probe…which is not what I’m looking for. I’m a hobbyist woodworker/guitar builder wanting to get into CNC and looking at getting the XCarve for my shop. I have multiple MDF templates and trying to find a way that I could digitize them for carving later. After some internet searching I’ve found information on probing but nothing that seems to be compatible with the XCarve. Is there a solution out there I’m not finding that could do this? ---
**Author:** ![SHubb](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex009/user_avatar/community.inventables.com/shubb/32/79573_2.png) [@SHubb](https://community.inventables.com/u/SHubb)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 7:47pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/digitizing-probe-for-x-carve/35374/2 "2017-03-16T19:47:55Z")
Part of my job is to digitize parts so we can convert them into various formats for our engineers to work with in CAD. It takes someone with a CMM (coordinate measuring machine) or on the cheaper side a Roamer Arm and the software that allows reverse engineering. We don’t accept walk in customers. We charge a premium price around $100 dollars an hour when I do have to preform this task. My specific machine is a Brown and Sharpe Scirocco with capabilities of reading down to .00001". It takes the engineers several hours if not days to translate the digital image into a working CAD model. You need to find a CMM supplier and see if they have a list of contacts that perform this service. It won’t be cheap. ---
**Author:** ![DonKuehn](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex009/user_avatar/community.inventables.com/donkuehn/32/67346_2.png) [@DonKuehn](https://community.inventables.com/u/DonKuehn)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/digitizing-probe-for-x-carve/35374/3 "2017-03-16T19:50:19Z")
There’s was a software based digitizing solution out there called 123d Catch, which is now Autodesk ReMake which looks interesting. It involves taking a bunch of photos of the object from multiple angles and the software stitched it all together to make a 3D model. It can be found here: [https://remake.autodesk.com/about](https://remake.autodesk.com/about) ---
**Author:** ![JkWestphal](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex009/user_avatar/community.inventables.com/jkwestphal/32/53751_2.png) [@JkWestphal](https://community.inventables.com/u/JkWestphal)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 11:00pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/digitizing-probe-for-x-carve/35374/6 "2017-03-16T23:00:37Z")
As I recall from my limited shark days, Next Wave Automation did offer a digitizing probe but it was expensive, and prone to breaking. But from what I remeber when it did work, it worked well. ---
**Author:** ![TonyNo](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex009/user_avatar/community.inventables.com/tonyno/32/3291_2.png) [@TonyNo](https://community.inventables.com/u/TonyNo)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2017, 11:07pm UTC](https://community.inventables.com/t/digitizing-probe-for-x-carve/35374/7 "2017-03-16T23:07:29Z")
Check out EstlCAM. It can do this.