Selected Profile - Shows the name of the selected scan profile. Tap to select a scan profile. If the scanning parameters differ from the selected profile, altered is appended to its name.

Selecting a predefined scan profile overwrites all current scanning parameters with the settings of the selected scan profile.

You can also edit the scanning parameters individually by changing the following settings by tapping to edit:

Resolution and Quality - Displays the selected resolution in megapoints, as well as the selected quality.

Horizontal and Vertical Scan Range - Displays the scan range with the horizontal and vertical start and end angles in degrees.

Select Sensors - Opens the screen to enable or disable automatic use of built-in sensors' data for the scan registration in SCENE or Sphere XG.

Scan with Color - Switch colored scan recording on or off. If switched on, the scanner also takes color photos of the scanned environment with the integrated color camera or PanoCam accessory, if attached. These photos are taken right after the laser scan and are used in the point cloud processing software SCENE or Sphere XG to automatically colorize the recorded scan data.

Color Settings - Shows the current exposure metering mode used for taking color photos. You can also choose whether to use the integrated camera or the PanoCam, an accessory available from FARO. (For more details about PanoCam refer to the Accessories Manual for the Focus Laser Scanner.)

• High Speed: enables the Ricoh Theta Z1 automatic standard mode for captures. This option is the fastest mode for PanoCam capture.

• Low Noise: activates the Ricoh Theta Z1 Low Noise feature for captures.

• HDR: enables the Ricoh Theta Z1 HDR feature for captures.

Advanced Settings - Enable or disable the Clear Contour and Clear Sky filters. Enable or disable the Far Distance.

Scan Size [Pt] - Shows the scan size in points horizontal x vertical measurement. The vertical size can only be changed by setting a new resolution or changing the scan area angle.

Scan Duration, Scan File Size - Expected scan time and file size in megabytes depending on the chosen settings, including pre and post-processing, resolution, selected exposure metering, scan area, quality value, and scan range. Note that the values shown here are approximate values because color scan times can vary because of particular exposure times required by lighting conditions at your scan site.

Selecting a Scan Profile

Prior to capturing a scan, you can select a scan profile that fits the needs of the scene and the desired scan quality.

This view shows a list of all available scan profiles. The list contains factory predefined profiles that are read-only and custom profiles that can be created and manipulated under Manage > Profiles.

See Service for an overview of the available factory predefined scan profiles. See Selected Profile

Select a profile by tapping it. The selected profile is highlighted.

 

Setting Resolution and Quality

Resolution - The resulting scan resolution. Choose from 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/5, 1/8, 1/10, 1/16, 1/20 and 1/32.

Quality - The quality of the scan and the scanning time at constant scan resolutions. You can balance the quality and speed. If speed is more important, choose lower values. If the quality of the scan data is more important, choose higher values.

The resulting scan duration, vertical and horizontal scan points (Scan Size [Pt]), as well as scan size in megapoints (MPts) is displayed in the middle of the view. Point distance [mm/10 m] / [in/30 ft] is the distance between the captured scan points in mm (in) within a scan distance of 10 meters (30 ft).

The unambiguity interval specifies the maximum distance at which the scanner can accurately measure points with the selected settings. For technical reasons, points created for objects farther than this distance appear much closer to the scanner than they actually are.

If this happens, remove the points later using the SCENE software. This can be time-consuming. It is quicker to choose a combination of resolution and quality with an unambiguity interval that is larger than the most distant object to be scanned.

Vertical area - The size of the vertical scan area in degrees. Tap the fields to enter the values of the vertical start and end angles.

Horizontal area - The size of the horizontal scan area in degrees. Tap the fields to enter the values of the horizontal start and end angles.

Default Area - Tap to reset the values to the default scan area (vertical from -60° to 90° and horizontal from 0° to 360°).

The rectangle in this view illustrates the full scan area. If there are scans saved on your selected storage medium, the preview picture of the last recorded scan is displayed. If there is no preview picture available, a grid is displayed, where the space between the horizontal and vertical lines is equivalent to 30°. The highlighted rectangle illustrates the selected scan area.

Use Inclinometer - Enable or disable the automatic use of the inclination measurement of the built-in dual-axis compensator (inclinometer) for the scan registration in SCENE or Sphere XG. Regardless of your setting, this sensor's data is always measured and attached to each scan. If the inclinometer data is enabled, it is automatically used to register the scans; if it is disabled, the data is ignored. You can change this behavior later in SCENE. See the SCENE User Manual for more information. Jump directly to Use Inclinometer by tapping the quick access icon () at the top of the screen.

To get the most reliable data from the dual-axis compensator, ensure that the scanner’s inclination is less than 2°. See Inclinometer (Dual-Axis Compensator).

Use Compass - Enable or disable the automatic use of the built-in compass' data for the scan registration in SCENE or Sphere XG. The compass' data is always measured and attached to each scan during scanning and is automatically used for the scan registration, if is enabled. If it is disabled, the data is ignored. See Compass.

Use Altimeter - Enable or disable the automatic use of the altimeter data for the scan registration in SCENE or Sphere XG. As with the inclinometer, the altimeter data is always measured and attached to each scan during scanning and is automatically used for the scan registration, if it is enabled. You can enter a reference height before starting your scan project. This reference height acts as the basis for all measurements made by the altimeter. Find the altimeter settings under Manage > Sensors > Altimeter. See Altimeter.

Use GPS - Turns the GPS sensor ON or OFF. Unlike the other sensors, the GPS data is only recorded during scanning and is thus only available for scan registration in SCENE, if this is switched to ON. Note that a GPS signal may not be available when scanning indoors. See GPS.

Recommended Settings - Enable all sensors. Remember that the use of the inclinometer will increase the scan time.

Color Settings

Parameters > Color Settings

There are two option to capture and colorize scans:

• The integrated camera, see section below

• The PanoCam (an additional accessory available from FARO. For more details about PanoCam refer to the Accessories Manual for the Focus Laser Scanner.)

Set the exposure metering mode - Set how the integrated color camera determines the exposure for taking the color photos, if colored scan recording is switched on.

Figure 5-18 Even weighted metering

Figure 5-19 Zenith weighted metering

Figure 5-20 Horizon weighted metering

Even Weighted Metering - Determine the exposure settings the camera uses regarding the light information coming from the entire scene, and averages without giving weighting to a particular area. Even weighted is the default for accelerated, standard, and extended profiles.

Horizon Weighted Metering - The camera uses the light information coming from the horizon to determine the exposure setting. This mode is commonly used in scenarios with bright light coming from directly above (e.g., indoors with bright ceiling lighting or outdoors with bright sunlight coming from directly above), or to achieve the best balance of light and exposure for objects at the horizon. Compared to even-weighted metering, this increases scan duration by approximately 14 seconds.

If the vertical scan area is limited, then the area used to determine the exposure (i.e., the exposure metering area) might not be near the horizon. This is the case, if the vertical start angle is set to > -30°, or if the vertical end angle is set to < 30°. The exposure metering area is then be moved up or down, and set to the center of the remaining vertical scan area. The following figures illustrate this:

Zenith Weighted Metering - With zenith weighted metering, the camera uses the light information coming from above the scanner to determine its exposure setting. Use this mode when there is very bright light coming from windows, for example, and you want to achieve the most correct balance of light and exposure for objects on the ceiling of building.

HDR Mode

The HDR, Night, and Speed modes are mutually exclusive.

The High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging method merges images captured with different exposure settings into a single image with a greater dynamic range of luminosity.

Scanning with HDR Capturing

Set the HDR capturing by tapping + or -, ranging from 2x to 5x. This setting corresponds to the exposure levels. If no option is selected, then OFF is displayed.

When HDR is enabled, a larger number of captured images result in a longer capturing time. The processing time is thus longer in SCENE or Sphere XG.High Resolution - With high resolution enabled, the full 13 MPx resolution of Focus Premium's internal camera is used. This improves colorization quality in SCENE and Sphere XG. Note, though, that this increases the file size and processing times. Only activate this option if the very best quality colorization is required. If this option is turned off the 13 MPx image is down-sampled to 8 MPx and used for colorization (identical to the Focus Core Focus^S and Focus^S Plus models).

Night Mode

Select night mode to improve the quality of color photos under relatively dark lighting conditions. Enabling night mode significantly increases the scan duration.

For best scanning results, enable Night Mode in combination with either Horizon Weighted Metering or Zenith Weighted Metering. Very dark lighting conditions may lead to a poor picture quality, even if night mode is activated. This can lead to grainy images and other artifacts.

Speed Mode

Select Speed Mode to reduce the scan duration. This happens at the cost of color picture quality. This mode is fastest and should be used in bright environments.

Advanced Settings

Parameters > Advanced Settings

This is a shared snippet. Edit only in the Laser Scanner Manual

Clear Contour Filter - Enables the dynamic contour filter. This hardware filter removes scan points that resulted from the laser spot hitting two objects. This usually happens at the edges of objects.

Clear Sky Filter - Enables the dynamic sky filter. During scanning, this hardware filter removes scan points resulting from scanning empty spaces in the sky.

Distance Range - The Distance Range setting configures the scanner to increase the quality of the points captured at specified distances.

• Normal - Select this to scan most objects.

• Near - Select this to scan objects that are near the scanner, especially when the objects are reflective. (Not available with the FARO Core scanner.)

• Far Distances - Select this when scanning outer-lying spaces, where the scan surfaces are located at distances of greater than 20 meters from the scanner. This setting is not recommended for indoor scanning.

Recommended Settings - Enables the Clear Contour and Clear Sky filters. Disables Far Distance Optimization.