3D Laser Scanning technology has been around for years, but there has been many hurdles to jump over in order to use the technology. The biggest being the size and weight of the sensors being used. Another major factor was the processing of the terabytes of data. Leica has introduced their solutions to these issues with the Leica BLK360 Laser Scanner and Leica Register 360 office software.

I performed a test scan with the BLK360 of a Lighthouse structure outside my subdivision. The Lighthouse is a neighborhood favorite for taking family photos. The Lighthouse is located at a busy intersection, so safety was a big factor. I had to position the BLK360 in a place that would not endanger myself or the scanner. This was easily done with the BLK360. The weight of the BLK360 is a mere 1 kg (2lbs) and has dimensions that are only: 165mm (0.5 ft.) x 100mm (0.3 ft.). This made the BLK360 easy to setup and move around the lighthouse. I completed the scans in less than 45 minutes and that was for a total 8 Setups. I was not tying into existing control, so I wanted to test the cloud to cloud registration inside Register360. So, I did not use any targets and instead overlapped the scans. I used the IPad Pro to start each scan, but the scans where also stored on the internal hard drive of the BLK360.

Once I performed the survey, I then brought the scans into Register 360. At first I could tell that I didn’t overlap the scans enough and since this was an outside project; I could tell that I was going to have trouble with the cloud to cloud registration. Register 360 could only find 1 link between 8 setups, so I was going to have to rotate each scan into place. With other software’s this would have been a pain or I would have to go back out to the sight to gather more data. Register360 made this process easy by using the “Review and Optimize” workflow. I was able to grab each setup and then move it close to another setup to have Register360 suggest an available link. Then, I selected the suggested link and performed the rotate and move feature. I did this for each scan and the links where created and optimized. All this took under an hour with me performing other task. Finally, when I was done with the review I moved to the Finalize step and chose what I wanted in my report (see link below).

Lighthouse Report

Register360 allows for many different publishing file formats:

* TruView Local - Creates a self-contained TruView site compatible with the TruView ActiveX plugin for Internet Explorer.

* TruView Enterprise - (Formerly known as TruView Global) Creates a .tvg file for upload to TruView Enterprise or TruView Cloud.

* TruView Cloud - Publishes the project directly to your TruView Cloud account.

* JetStream Local - Creates a .jsv file for offline use in JetStream Viewer.

* JetStream Enterprise - Publishes the project to your JetStream Enterprise server on your local network.

* E57 - Creates an .e57 file. The .e57 format is a compact, vendor-neutral file type for storing point clouds, images, and metadata produced by the laser scanners.

Cyclone Register360 can be used by other scan data and will improve your workflow. Especially when working with a huge scan project. The BLK360 will not replace your P40 or P20 scanner, but is a great addition. Also, with the Cyclone Register360 you can now combine your scans from all your scanners easier than before. I didn’t perform it, but there are other features in Register360: finding targets, import of multiple data sets, applying coordinates, etc.

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