Industrial & Laser Scanners
Terrestrial laser scanners (TLS), SLAM scanners, and metrology systems for buildings and large sites.
The "scan a building, a tunnel, a factory floor, a heritage site" tier — terrestrial laser scanners (TLS), mobile / SLAM scanners, and high-end metrology arms. Pricing starts in the tens of thousands and runs into six figures; FOSS plays mostly in the processing layer, not the hardware. Pairs with Drone Mapping & Aerial Photogrammetry for the airborne side, Point Cloud Tools for downstream processing, Scan Quality & Inspection for verification, and Handheld 3D Scanners for the consumer step down.
Terrestrial laser scanners (TLS)
- Faro Focus S / Premium / Core — phase-shift TLS; mid-range pro; $30k–80k.
- Leica BLK360 (G2) — palm-sized TLS; ~$20k; surprisingly capable; AEC favourite.
- Leica RTC360 — flagship phase-shift TLS; $60k+; the BIM industry default.
- Leica P-Series (P30 / P40 / P50) — long-range pulse-based; surveying / civil.
- Trimble X9 / X12 — TLS with HDR cameras and self-leveling.
- Trimble TX-series (TX6 / TX8) — older but still in fleets.
- Riegl VZ-400i / VZ-2000i — long-range, pulse-based; tunnels / quarries / forensics.
- Z+F Imager 5016 / 5010X — German precision; tunnel / heritage.
- Topcon GTL-1200 / GLS-2200 — surveyor-friendly hybrids.
Mobile / SLAM / wearable scanners
- Leica BLK2GO — handheld SLAM scanner; walk through a building, get a point cloud; ~$50k.
- NavVis VLX 3 — backpack SLAM mapper; ~$80k+.
- GeoSLAM ZEB Horizon / ZEB Go — handheld SLAM; common in mining / forestry.
- Emesent Hovermap — drone- or backpack-mounted; SLAM for confined spaces.
- Trimble SX10 / SX12 — total-station + scanner hybrid.
Metrology / arm-based / fixed
- FARO ScanArm — 7-axis articulated arm with laser scan head.
- API Radian Pro / Leica Absolute Tracker — laser trackers for large-volume metrology.
- Hexagon RomerArm / AbsoluteArm — arm-CMM with optional scanner.
- Zeiss ATOS / GOM ATOS — fixed structured-light metrology.
Vendor processing software
- Faro SCENE — paid; capture + register + cleanup for Focus and BLK360 (now multi-vendor).
- Leica Cyclone Field 360 — capture-side iOS/iPad app for BLK360 / RTC360.
- Leica Cyclone REGISTER 360 / Cyclone CORE — registration / processing.
- Trimble RealWorks — Trimble's TLS suite.
- Riegl RiSCAN PRO — Riegl's processing tool.
- NavVis IVION — cloud platform for VLX captures.
Vendor-neutral processing
- ★ CloudCompare — free OSS; the FOSS workhorse for point clouds. Registration, segmentation, distance comparison, mesh export. See Point Cloud Tools.
- ★ Open3D — free OSS Python lib; algorithmic point-cloud processing.
- PCL (Point Cloud Library) — C++ algorithms; classic.
- PDAL — point-cloud abstraction CLI; convert / filter / pipeline.
- PotreeConverter / Potree — convert + serve point clouds in a browser viewer.
- Bentley Pointools / iTwin Capture Modeler — paid; pro point-cloud editing for AEC.
- Autodesk ReCap Pro — paid; ingest TLS data into the Autodesk pipeline.
- EveryPoint, Cintoo Cloud — paid SaaS for cloud-hosted TLS scans.
Output formats
- E57 — open ASTM standard; the universal TLS interchange.
- LAS / LAZ — LiDAR / aerial standard; lossless compression in LAZ. See Drone Mapping & Aerial Photogrammetry.
- PTS / PTX — older Leica formats.
- RCP / RCS — Autodesk ReCap.
- Vendor-native (e.g. .fls Faro, .zfs Z+F) — proprietary; read by SCENE / vendor tools, exported to E57 for interop.
Where free / OSS plays
- Hardware: nowhere meaningfully — there is no FOSS TLS hardware, the laser-rangefinder hardware itself is closed.
- Processing / viewing: CloudCompare, Open3D, PDAL, Potree, PCL — the entire post-capture pipeline can be FOSS.
- Hobby SLAM: see OSS / DIY 3D Scanners for Ouster / Velodyne hobby builds.
Pick this if…
- Default mid-range TLS (AEC): Leica BLK360 or Faro Focus S.
- Highest-quality TLS, money no object: Leica RTC360.
- Mobile / walk-through SLAM: Leica BLK2GO or NavVis VLX.
- Outdoor / long-range / surveying: Riegl VZ-400i or Trimble SX12.
- Process the data on a free desktop: CloudCompare (see Point Cloud Tools).
- Inspection / verification / metrology: see Scan Quality & Inspection.
- Aerial coverage instead: see Drone Mapping & Aerial Photogrammetry.
- Smaller objects, sub-mm: see Handheld 3D Scanners.