As our partnerships with Cruse© and Metis continue, so does our support for 16 bit layers, which is great news for those importing 3D scanner information, but also for engravers, as 16 bit layers means far more detail can be achieved when cylinders are etched or engraved.

How much more detail are we talking about?

Well, 8 bit channels can display up to 256 levels of tone. 16 bit layers can display a staggering 65,536 levels of tone.

For most of our users, 8 bit layers will suffice.  And in some circumstances, the difference between 8 bit and 16 bit detail is negligible. However, there are certainly benefits which some users will reap. This includes users of AVA 3D Designer, and engravers.

Importing 16 bit layers

How you have obtained the 16 bit information will determine how you open it into AVA.

If the data has been produced by a high end 3D scanner, it is likely the data will be split into several separate TIFF files. If this is the case, you can open and merge all the relevant files in one go by going to File Menu > Open, selecting the files, and ticking ‘Merge files’ before clicking Open.

If the data is already contained within one document, simply use File Menu > Open.