Any of you using a Faro Scanner? How do you like it and the Scene software?
I've only seen a field demo, but it's a real slick little instrument and pretty clever software. The expensive challenge is still to get the point cloud into a usable CAD file.....
We used it for a large project where the only deliverable was the final point cloud. No modeling. It was a great unit that I believe can hang with the specs of other scanners at half the cost. (If your looking at purchasing) We were able to do all of our processing in Scene fairly easily and exported to a variety of formats that integrated with Civil 3d and microstation. You need a super fast machine though with 16gb of ram. The whole scanning process is dealing with huge amounts of data and large file sizes that's leads to a slower than normal work flow. I'd love to be able to use it all again if the right project came along.
It's very fast and very accurate. But be aware of the comparatively short range. We found that there are some projects, such as a 1400' concrete dam in a steep valley where it just will not work out as the ideal scanner.
For industrial work and other indoor work it's great. Investigate third party software for dealing with the point cloud. Might be better, might not be. You won't know until you look.