Structured vs. Unified & Unstructured Scan Data

Each individual scan comes with its depth map, associating X, Y, Z data to each pixel of the panoramic image grid.

Structured data contains each scan location, each panoramic image & depth map, and 3D point cloud, as the result of the registration process.
Each scan location is visible in 3D space.
It’s possible to be in each scan position, see the panoramic image and navigate from scan to scan.
File size for each scan is big.

Scan view from one scan Position.

Please check articles in Import Structured Scans section to learn more about structured scan data import in Cintoo.

Structured scan file formats

(Structured) RCP: native format for Autodesk ReCap projects
(Structured) FLS: native format for Faro Scene projects
(Structured) E57: standard exchange format for terrestrial laser scanning
Every point cloud software provides an option to export a structured E57 file.
- Faro Scene, Trimble RealWorks, Leica Cyclone, Topcon ScanMaster etc.
- There are other structured scan formats generated by point cloud software: FLS, PTX, TZF etc.

Unified scans lose the structure of the project
Scan positions are no more visible in 3D View
Panoramic images are lost
Navigation from scan to scan is no more possible
Quality of the scan project is affected
Overall file size is slightly smaller, making 3D point cloud somehow easier to consume in desktop modeling apps, such as Revit for example

3D View - Scan Positions are no longer visible.

Note: use Unified Point Cloud option in Cintoo Connect to import the unified scan data creating the structure based on user-defined parameters.

Unstructured point clouds

Generated from:

Mobile lidars
Drone-based photogrammetry:
- This data is unstructured since there are no scan positions associated to a depth map as produced with laser scanners on a tripod
- It’s similar to a unified point cloud

Note: use Unified Point Cloud option in Cintoo Connect to import the unstructured scan data creating the structure based on user-defined parameters.

Every point cloud software provides the option to generate a unified point cloud.
Turning a structured point cloud into a unified point cloud is a destructive operation since the structure of scan data is lost and overall quality is affected.
Typically, 2 formats are used:
- Unified RCS, making scan data directly consumable by all Autodesk desktop apps
- Unified E57

Once scan data has been unified, all the structure data of the project is lost
Using Unified Point Cloud option in Cintoo Connect it's possible to create a new structure with user-defined parameters and successfully import such type of file into a Cintoo project.