CIMA+ cuts its point cloud footprint by 75% with VL365
From 40 TB of structured scans to 10 TB of unified LAZ on VL365: same accuracy, same density, same immersive 360° views — no more per-scan-position billing and no format lock-in.
The Challenge
CIMA+, one of Canada's largest multidisciplinary engineering firms, runs reality capture on every kind of site: tripod-mounted terrestrial scanners, vehicle and backpack mobile mapping, SLAM units. Every scanner position produced a structured scan — its own file, its own panoramic imagery, its own overlap with neighbouring stations. Forty terabytes of it, online.
Structured-scan hosting is billed per scan position, so the cost of the archive grew with the field effort instead of with the value of the data. The team needed to shrink the footprint without giving up accuracy, density or the immersive 360° views their clients rely on.
The workflow is five steps in VisionLidar desktop: import the raw structured scans (FARO .lsproj/FLS series and E57 from terrestrial, mobile and SLAM sensors), validate registration, colourization and station imagery, export one unified LAZ, export the trajectory file with the standalone JPGs, then publish LAZ + trajectory + JPGs to VL365. No third-party tools, no re-registration, no format gymnastics — and the conversion is included in the free version of VisionLidar desktop.
The Outcome
“40 TB down to 10 TB — a 75% smaller footprint with zero loss of accuracy, density or precision. Pricing is now independent of the number of scans, uploads and downloads are unlimited, and VL365 is included in every CIMA+ project instead of being sold as an option.”
Products Used
- VL365
- VisionLidar