Leica BLK360 - Have We Wasted Our Money With It?

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pburrows145
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Re: Leica BLK360 - Have We Wasted Our Money With It?

Post by pburrows145 »

david.marty wrote: Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:16 pm I had a lot of trouble with Register 360 and I went to Cyclone. For me this software is not successful enough and does not allow to perform good registration by mixing points and control the cloud to cloud. With Cyclone we can put everything in it and it compensates for everything and we can more easily analyze.
Hi David,

It would be great to get some detailed input as to what you would like to see changed/updated.

Cyclone REGISTER 360 has been very popular since launch and has some really great feature improvements coming in the next version.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Feel free to email me: [email protected]
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Re: Leica BLK360 - Have We Wasted Our Money With It?

Post by jamesworrell »

min 2 targets (for levelled data) as opposed to 3 .. be a good start .. never even installed 360 based on this one requirement ..

then support for vm's .. we are moving all our workloads to vm ..
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Re: Leica BLK360 - Have We Wasted Our Money With It?

Post by pburrows145 »

Thanks James. i think we have these logged already, but I will pass onto the team for sure.
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Re: Leica BLK360 - Have We Wasted Our Money With It?

Post by david.marty »

I Paul

I will writ you a email with my suggestions

thanks
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Re: Leica BLK360 - Have We Wasted Our Money With It?

Post by pburrows145 »

david.marty wrote: Tue Aug 21, 2018 12:51 pm I Paul

I will writ you a email with my suggestions

thanks
I look forward to hearing from you.
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Re: Leica BLK360 - Have We Wasted Our Money With It?

Post by Formula1982 »

I would suggest firstly that you move over to the full Leica solution, use Leica software not the Autodesk stuff. And get a bit of training on tips for registration too. Trusting a piece of software to do it right on it's own is a bit dangerous!

Secondly, and I hope this is taken in the constructive way it's intended - are those doing the scanning experienced with laser scanning? Getting and maintaining levels of accuracy requires knowledge and experience that isn't obvious to someone who is new to it. Lots of do's and don't do's when it comes to moving around certain areas and keeping your accuracy nice and tight. Or to put it another way, there are lots of ways to mess it up without realising it!
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Re: Leica BLK360 - Have We Wasted Our Money With It?

Post by THSConcepts »

Thanks for the reply.

I think the full Leica software solution is the right way to go with it, having Autodesk get there grubby mitts on it hasn't helped the situation.

The guys undertaking the scanning come from total station backgrounds so whilst not experts I wouldn't say they were complete beginners.

With our scans we ensure the basics are right such as scanning in geometry rich environments, plenty of overlap, plenty of light etc. We use targets too to level and adjust locations.

As said, it seems that sometimes it just doesn't register scans together very well in comparison to the equivalent total station data.
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Re: Leica BLK360 - Have We Wasted Our Money With It?

Post by exforma23 »

We have about 6 yrs experience working with Faro Focus 120 scanners. At first we used Scene for scan processing. Now we use Recap Pro (PC version). We've always been happy with the results.
When the BLK360 Recap mobile pro was announced it lured in a lot of people with a cheap pricetag. It was reasonable to assume that a joint venture between Autodesk and Leica would be a solid workflow. Now, after dealing with the BLK360 for almost a year I can say that it is seriously disappointing and unreliable. I don't have time to detail the litany of nagging issues that we have experienced with it. Suffice to say, we repeatedly go back to using our Faro Focus 120s. They produce far superior results. Obviously, they are slower and bulkier. But who cares about a cheaper faster smaller if it produces unreliable scans?
PSS I would love to try out the Leica software. However, the scanner is in for recalibration because the scans are so bloody awful!

I would advise to stear clear until when/if Leica & Autodesk cooperate in devoting sufficient resources to deliver a more professional product and workflow.
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Re: Leica BLK360 - Have We Wasted Our Money With It?

Post by gsisman »

david.marty wrote: Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:16 pm Hi

I bought the BLK and I am also a little disappointed in the connection. We use it for small projects and for the big ones we take the P40.

For me, it is not the BLK that is bad in the measures but the calibration. Do not blindly trust the software and look carefully at the different sections to see if there is a discrepancy.

I had a lot of trouble with Register 360 and I went to Cyclone. For me this software is not successful enough and does not allow to perform good registration by mixing points and control the cloud to cloud. With Cyclone we can put everything in it and it compensates for everything and we can more easily analyze.

So BLK or RTC it is absolutely necessary to improve Registrer 360!

David
David,

Still learning on Register 360 and brand new improvements in the last week with version 1.5 help workflow.
We wrestled with ReCAP using the BLK360 for months in difficult environments and have come up with this synopsis. In very level environments with lots of perpendicular planes, ReCAP operates pretty well...but you must make sure you have good leveled control to tie it down to once you have completed the cloud to cloud. If you have any non-planar Jobs it can be difficult if not impossible if you’re using the “pick three” method in ReCAP Pro Desktop. (The algorithms seem to use three perpendicularly oriented planes that it “slides” in three directions to fix cloud to cloud residuals.) the same method seems to employ in RECAP PRO MOBILE, when you need to manually register in the field. Many times you can better manually register in the field picking the three planes you want rather than letting the software do it. Not sure how it deals with using the auto/manual targeting in ReCAP as we have not had much success with the targets we were using (4.5” Leica BW paddles - we’ll be switching to 6” HDS paddles (photo gray & white) this week.
The Register 360 software allows a good cloud to cloud fit,( smart-align use helps a lot), auto-target extraction with the correct number , labeling and types of targets, and good visual registration (although I wish when you orbit in profile to align vertically at a different from default location, it would not spin you back to the original viewpoint as soon as you hit “move vertically” again!)
If you’re using ReCAP mobile and transferring in real-time we also found you can absolutely NOT put ReCAP Pro in the background on the iPad or it disrupts the WiFi connection and stops your workflow. We’ve found push-button scan setup at the beginning of the job and then manually syncing the scans from the BLK in sequential order as you move along is more reliable, and if you don’t work in a sequential motion you MUST Manually choose the scans to register and pick your own three planes -again noticing the limitations I stated earlier.
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Re: Leica BLK360 - Have We Wasted Our Money With It?

Post by Joon »

We have tested 2 point clouds generated by BLK360 and registered.

The photos below are screenshot of FindSurface for Web. A pipe of 2" x 4' is extracted from the point clouds.

The measurement accuracy of BLK360 may be 5~6 mm (3 sigma).

FindSurface has suppressed the noise and limited the range of inlier points to about 3 mm (=2.2 sigma, sigma posterior = 1.36 mm).

BLK360 is not a P40. I'm satisfied with BLK360. Price, accuracy, range, speed, size & weight, applications potential, etc.

Joon
2 inch diameter pipe measured by BLK360 _ Point cloud.png
2 inch diameter pipe measured by BLK360 _ Point cloud SideView.png
2 inch diameter pipe measured by BLK360 _ Pipe extraction.png
2 inch diameter pipe measured by BLK360 _ Result SideView.png
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