3D laser scanning for massive spaces

Faro Technologies has announced the Faro Scene 3.0 software which is suitable for tunnel excavation and mining etc, allowing users to digitise massive spaces into 3D data.

Faro Technologies, provider of portable CAM2 solutions, has announced the Faro Scene 3.0 software for its Laser Scanner LS product.

"Since its launch last year, the new Faro Laser Scanner LS has brought high speed and high definition to the world of scanning," Faro Chairman, Co-CEO and Co-Founder Simon Raab said.

"The enhancements in Faro Scene 3.0 expand our Company's technological superiority beyond its traditional industrial base to industries such as Tunnel Excavation, Mining, Historical Preservation, Civil Engineering, as well as to the Forensic and Insurance Investigations".

The Faro Laser Scanner LS empowers users to digitise massive spaces into 3D, action-ready data.

Ideal for large-volume modeling, factory planning/redesign, quality control and forensics, it scans 120,000 points per second - up to 100 times faster than most time-of-flight scanners - with 3mm accuracy.

The result is an image so detailed that it looks like a black-and-white photo, but in three dimensions that, thanks to Faro Scene 3.0, one can use to instantly measure the distance between points, move in 3D space and create CAD models for practically any application.

New features for Faro Scene 3.0 include...

Noise Reduction and Simultaneous Volume Compression: helps create high-definition scans more quickly.

Meshing/Surface Triangulation: Point-cloud information becomes faster and often easier to handle as Faro Scene creates a mesh of triangulated surfaces from individual points, which can then be exported into other CAD systems.

With meshing, unnecessary triangles are automatically eliminated, yet the scan still retains surface texture, so the file size is smaller without large segments of data being lost.

Edge Recognition: This makes modelling in a CAD system as simple as possible.

The 3-D grayscale data of the point cloud is used to generate an automatic edge model of the scan.

Using this feature, edged objects can be easily extracted and used as the basis for modelling, then exported into other CAD systems in VRML or IGES format.

Visual Assessment of Registration Quality: This gives the user a visual appraisal of which measurements would improve the registration, thus taking a further step toward intuitive quality improvement.

Automatic Object Fit: Approximating a VRML object placed near the point cloud enables a faster comparison of the object to the scan data.

A free downloadable scan viewer, available on-line, contains a version of Faro Scout LT that enables users to navigate, export points to other software systems and to make measurements within the scan.

"The power to see a 3-D copy of the actual site, navigate through it and make critical decisions without visiting the site is an important capability for everyone from project managers in the construction industry, government officials in disaster recovery, and even insurance adjusters performing damage or risk assessments," Faro Director of LS Product Management Bernd Dietmar-Becker said.

Automatic colour Overlay: The colour option for the Faro Laser Scanner LS uses a digital camera to overlay colour pixels on the point-cloud data, which is especially practical and timesaving when capturing large areas in colour.

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