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.

The structured data contains each scan location, each panoramic image & depth map, and the 3D point cloud, as the result from the registration process.
Each scan location is visible in the 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 the Import Structured Scans to learn more about structured scan data import in Cintoo.

Structured scan file formats

(Structured) RCP: the native format for Autodesk ReCap projects
(Structured) FLS: the native format for Faro Scene projects
(Structured) E57: the standard exchange format for terrestrial laser scanning
Every point cloud software provides the 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 the 3D view.
Panoramic images are lost.
Navigation from scan to scan is no more possible.
The quality of the scan project is affected.
Overall file size is slightly smaller, making the 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 pretty 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 though since the structure of the scan data is lost and the overall quality is affected.
Typically, 2 formats are used:
- Unified RCS, making your scan data directly consumable by all Autodesk desktop apps.
- Unified E57

Once the 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 the user-defined parameters and successfully import such type of file in Cintoo.