Using High Sensitivity Mode with Trimble X7 3D Laser Scanners

Currently the Trimble® X7 3D scanner and Trimble® Perspective software support 3 scan modes:

• Indoor
• Standard
• High Sensitivity

High Sensitivity mode boosts the power of the laser to help scan difficult to capture surfaces like dark objects further away, shiny piping, or dark, shiny objects like cars. The table below shows the time duration of all of our scan modes on the Trimble X7.

The high sensitivity mode captures less points than the similarly timed 4 minute scan, but excels at capturing quality points on darker objects further away by reducing the speed of the scanner.

Here we have a highway on-ramp that isn't accessible from the roadway. You can see that there are sheets of plexiglass that are supported by dark colored posts. These posts are roughly 35 meters away from the scanner and 20 meters off the ground. When we capture a station using the standard mode, you will notice gaps where these posts are. Although the 4 minute standard scan is capturing many more points on easier to capture surfaces, the standard mode is not able to capture these posts. When we use the same 4 minutes to scan with high sensitivity mode, we are able to capture quality points on those dark posts.

If you wanted to get comparable resolution to the 4 minute standard scan, you could use one of the longer duration high sensitivity scan times. If this on-ramp was accessible to scan up close, the standard mode would be sufficient but since we are not able to get close, the high sensitivity mode is able to capture the data we need.

Note: The screenshots in Trimble Perspective software are using the magnification tool to show the full density point cloud of the area comparing the scans for standard and high sensitivity modes.

Learn more about Trimble Perspective