Scan Quality & Inspection

Once you have a scan you may need to know how good it is — relative to a CAD reference, a previous scan, or a tolerance band. Quality / inspection / metrology tools compute deviation maps, GD&T checks, alignment errors, and dimensional reports. Pairs with Industrial & Laser Scanners (capture), Point Cloud Tools (raw cloud handling), Mesh Processing (cleanup), Scan-to-CAD / Reverse Engineering (going the other way), and Mechanical CAD (the reference geometry).

Free for inspection

• ★ GOM Inspect — closed source, free; pro-grade inspection viewer for GOM / Zeiss data; reads STL / PLY / STEP and lots of vendor formats. Surface comparison, GD&T checks, trend analysis. The most-used free inspection tool; many shops standardise on it because the paid GOM Inspect Pro shares the file format.
• ★ CloudCompare — free, OSS (GPL); cloud-to-cloud or cloud-to-mesh distance; the FOSS workhorse for "did this part move / deform / wear?". M3C2 plugin is the gold standard for change detection. See Point Cloud Tools.
• MeshLab — free, OSS; Hausdorff distance plugin; good for ad-hoc mesh-vs-mesh checks.
• Open3D + scripts — free, OSS Python; programmatic ICP + distance.
• 3D-Tool Free Viewer — free; basic inspection for CAD-vs-mesh.

Paid pro inspection

• ★ Geomagic Control X (3D Systems) — paid; the metrology-grade reference; CAD-to-scan inspection, GD&T, automated reports. The standard at quality / first-article inspection.
• Geomagic Control X Robotics / X Robotics — robotic-cell variants.
• Polyworks Inspector — paid; metrology-grade; common in manufacturing.
• Verisurf — paid; integrates with portable CMMs.
• Hexagon PC-DMIS — paid; CMM software with mesh import.
• Zeiss Calypso / Calypso Inspect — paid; CMM + scan.
• GOM Inspect Pro — paid; the upgrade path from free GOM Inspect.
• Ansys SpaceClaim Repair / Inspector — paid; lighter inspection.
• InnovMetric Polyworks Modeler / Inspector — paid pro.

Specialist / niche

• CMM-Manager — paid; budget CMM software.
• Solid Edge Inspector — paid; first-article reports.
• Net-Inspect — SaaS; QA workflow management on top of CMM data.
• Gleason GAMA — paid; gear inspection.

Common inspection workflows

• CAD vs scan colour-map — align the cleaned scan to the STEP file, render a deviation heatmap (red = too much material, blue = missing material), export a PDF report.
• First-article inspection — golden CAD model, dimensions called out per drawing, scan + automated check against tolerances.
• Wear / deformation tracking — scan a part now, scan again later, compare in CloudCompare / GOM Inspect; M3C2 for sub-mm change.
• Reverse-engineering verification — after Scan-to-CAD / Reverse Engineering, scan again, compare against the new CAD to confirm the model captures the original.
• As-built vs as-designed (AEC / surveying) — compare a TLS scan of a built site against the BIM model.

Reports / output

• PDF inspection reports — Control X, Polyworks, GOM Inspect Pro produce them automatically; free GOM Inspect produces a more basic version.
• Heat maps + animations — CloudCompare exports per-vertex distance values; visualise in any viewer.
• GD&T flagged deviations — Control X / Polyworks attach feature-by-feature pass/fail.
• Statistical / trend reports — paid tools chart per-batch deviation over time.

Targets / artefacts

• ChArUco / coded markers — for alignment to a known coordinate system.
• Reference spheres — for sphere-fit alignment in metrology.
• Calibration artifacts (NIST traceable balls, gauges) — for verifying scanner accuracy itself, not just the part.

Pick this if…

• Default free inspection viewer: GOM Inspect.
• Default FOSS quantitative comparison: CloudCompare (M3C2 for change detection).
• First-article CAD-vs-scan inspection in a quality lab: Geomagic Control X (paid) or Polyworks Inspector.
• Robotic / inline inspection: Control X Robotics or Verisurf.
• CMM-tied workflow: PC-DMIS (Hexagon) or Calypso (Zeiss).
• AEC as-built vs BIM: CloudCompare or vendor TLS software; see Industrial & Laser Scanners.
• Need scripted batch inspection: Open3D + Python.