I bought mine through CAP. We decide to go with them because it is our first jaunt into Cad and they made me feel comfortable that we could do it and the service there was GREAT! The price was just about the same as everyone else.
I cant wait to start using it!! I am curious to see how other people are using them.
1. Does anyone do impression scanning? we have the D810
2. Is it effective?
3. How much can we do with it? i.e. can I get rid of my waxers lol
4. Realistic expectations for what 3shape will do for us.
1. we do SOME impression scanning. trouble is, a lot of cases just are not good to do this way; if you do it, make sure to increase the number of scan iterations to 4 or 5 (default is 3). it will take a bit longer to scan, but you'll lack less detail. this is especially important in cases with tall preps (big impression holes) or rough preps (doctors using dull burs, notches in the preps, jagged occlusals, sharp edges ....)
2. it is effective at what it was designed for - doing 1 piece post core cases.
3. depends how good you are at designing.
4. 3shape is a tool, not a technician. tools dont do anything until they are used by a qualified, knowledgeable technician. slap a minimum wage employee on your 3 shape and watch your wonderfully expensive tool be used by someone who doesnt know his distals from a hole in the ground.
CAP makes everything CADCAM related look easy; truth is they have a helluva lot of good people working there and not doing real life cases, which is a pity.