By Mathias Lemmens, editor-in-chief, GIM International

In GIM International December 2004 we published an earlier product survey on 3D terrestrial laser scanners. The successful use of laser-scanner systems depends not only on the characteristics of the data-collection instruments themselves, but also on the capabilities of the processing software necessary to obtain meaningful information after field acquisition of the 3D point-cloud. So we now present a product survey on commercial software available for processing point-clouds generated by 3D-laser scanners.

3D-laser scanning is a relatively new measurement technology for efficiently obtaining a dense set of 3D-coordinates of objects. The data is collected at a speed of several thousand points per second. This technology uses either phase-shift or time-of-flight measurement (for a detailed overview, see the feature article by Lemmon in this issue). The diversity of characteristics shown by the different software packages demonstrates that 3D-laser scanning is still a young, but above all a promising surveying technology, that is in the process of ongoing and rapid development.

Some of the software packages presented here, such as SiteMonitor from 3D Laser Mapping, are developed for specialised applications, while others, like Cyclone SCAN from Leica Geosystems HDS and RealWorks Survey from Trimble, offer a full suite of point-cloud processing tools from scan registration and georeferencing through to feature extraction. They are specifically developed to support manufacture - specific scanners. There are also packages that offer full support for the entire laser-scanning process, right through to reverse engineering and data comparison, and are not associated with a particular type of scanner; PolyWorks from InnovMetric is an example. The characteristics of the software package available from Zoller + Froehlich indicate that there is also software on the market specifically developed for editing 3D-laser scan point-clouds.

3D-laser scanning was not initially specifically developed as a technology to support the needs of the land surveyor. However, manufacturers of surveying instruments are now recognising the attention being paid by surveyors to the technology. In response, these manufacturers are increasingly adapting the technology, both instruments and processing software, to the needs of the surveyor. As a result, new features may soon be added in support of even better surveying workflows than are presently available and portrayed here.