Hi everyone,

We’ve been experimenting with bringing FARO laser scan point clouds into SolidWorks to help with modelling existing industrial plant infrastructure (things like conveyors, platforms and structural steel).

The workflow that has been working best for us so far is roughly:

1. Capture multiple scans with a FARO scanner
2. Register and clean the scans in FARO software
3. Export the point cloud (usually E57)
4. Import into SolidWorks
5. Use the cloud as reference geometry to build parametric models.

A few things that helped us:

• reducing point density before importing
• splitting very large scans into smaller regions
• extracting planes and sketches from the cloud
• building parametric models rather than converting meshes.

This works reasonably well but large industrial plant scans can still become pretty heavy in SolidWorks.

Curious how others handle this.

Questions for the community:

• Are you using ScanTo3D or something else?
• Do you simplify the point cloud before importing?
• Any tips for managing very large point clouds?

Would be great to hear what workflows people are using.