Way back in June of 2022, Leica Geosystems introduced a new piece of scanning hardware known as the BLK360 G2. The original BLK360 (now being referred to as the G1) was released in 2012 was known as one of the smallest terrestrial laser scanners on the market. I will save the comparisons between the two for a different blog post. This post will stick to the topic of some quick tips on how the G2 operates.
First, for those who are still using older versions of the Field 360 app, you may want to think about upgrading. The newer versions make something as simple as connecting to the scanner even easier. There is a connections tool that allows the user to select the scanner they would like to connect to without having to go to the Settings app in their mobile device. Now it is a time savings of maybe 15 seconds but hey, ever little bit counts!
Second, scanning with VIS is just such a huge help. With Leica's Visual Inertial System, the G2 is able to keep track of where it was, where it is, and where it's going. This is done through a series cameras that collect 3 points in space to designate points that may be used from one scan to the next. When moving the scanner the VIS system is adding and removing these points that are to be used to help register the two scans together. Yes the Pre-Align tool worked pretty well in the past but VIS is just that next step up in registering and having confidence in our data.
Saving the toughest part for last, when things don't go as planned. If you have a G1 and are anything like me, you will just get moving testing everything you used to do out on the G2. Well, when I did this, the one thing that stood out to me was that when I tried to delete scans using the BLK Data Manager and then delete the job on my iPad, the whole job would reappear a few seconds later or anytime I hit connect on the Data Manager. Frustrating to be sure but with all new tech come some challenges. The good thing about this is that we can utilize the iPad (or Android tablet) to Manage device data. From here the data can be deleted from the scanner and then the job can be deleted from the mobile device.
