Alternative to Leica Register 360

[Jamesrye]

Have you considered sub-contracting out the registration work?

[jamesworrell]

Cyclone REGISTER will be liquidated. After more than 20 years, it will no longer be developed with new features and new scanner support.

After more than 20 years it will be time to seriously look at competing vendors for our entire TLS workflow.

[gsisman]

Cyclone REGISTER will be liquidated. After more than 20 years, it will no longer be developed with new features and new scanner support.

After more than 20 years it will be time to seriously look at competing vendors for our entire TLS workflow.

That is why I keep a VERY CLOSE watch on all SW developments, as soon as a "horse " takes the lead in simplicity and TOTAL workflow synergy that will be the time. And up to this time I think Leica has led that race.
The proprietary formats of their RAW data has allowed that to happen (as well as with many other vendors). There are so may "Cloud Services" out there now vying for our business, but all mostly rely on pre-registered bundles or SAAS Registration services. Right now our internal policies do not allow that. These could change over time, but only with the ability to ourselves controls access to those services (This is kind of what we are doing with the fledgling Cyclone Enterprise (and that was with special permission from our main Technology and business Enterprise -IT group) verifying the security level on our Azure hosted service was the same as what the Main County Enterprise services use.)
Not sure Register 360 is there now with Cyclone EQUIVALENCY , but I guess it will allow ALL programming resources to go into further developing Register 360 on the newer platform , instead of splitting out the upgrade/CCP programming which is juggling old P & C series hardware and newer BLK hardware. Field 360 is now becoming it's own product (as the notice shows) with it's latest export to E57 option (exporting a pre-aligned E57 bundle onto device storage with a BLK product WITHOUT going through Reg 360 or Cyclone Core).
If you want the tighter registration then you can import directly or into another package.
on a second note:
Can anyone clarify how Field 360 deals with this option (E57 export) for RTC360 or P-series instruments? Do P-Series also download completely onto the Field 360 device or is it written back to their removeable/downloadable drives? It took a while for the F 360 app to export to E57 on device (about 90 seconds for per 1.33 GB full res scan, Into the downloads folder)
I can see my E57 export (11GB on the latest scan job) in the download folder of my phone, and now I can copy it off to the computer to upload into another package for further registration if desired. (Took about 5 min/ 4GB file through USB-C)
I wanted to see what it actually downloaded from Field 360 so I imported it back into Register 360 as a pre-registered bundle. The import on my Lenovo Carbon Core i7 Pro with SSD & 16GB RAM took 10 mi for 6 full res scans with LDR images (for some reason 3 of the scans didn't import and said they had no links, which they did in F 360 0n the phone) Note: This was NOT with the newest F 360 that is coming out with a loop closure capability on the Mobile device.) Sadly.....no panoramic images.....even though it actually imported them since it is shown in the pallette.....!

https://www.screencast.com/t/48t8EbxIMESv
https://www.screencast.com/t/XhSpbkB2kx
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LKRzJF ... sp=sharing
https://www.screencast.com/t/XhSpbkB2kx

I brought the three missing scans in individually with Smart align after exporting them individually to E57 and transferring them
https://www.screencast.com/t/hjIngFD7

After a bunch more cross- Registering in Reg 360 after cleaning noise before visual alignment, but no panoramas....sigh..
https://www.screencast.com/t/eCl4vr0d
https://www.screencast.com/t/eCl4vr0d

[jamesworrell]

Not sure Register 360 is there now with Cyclone EQUIVALENCY

Not. Even. Close.

That, and the concept of going from field "registration" to finished product (aka Field 360). Give me a f'n break. Half a dozen scans maybe, but no way I am releasing any data in the multi-hundred scan range from a field registration.

As always, the demos, the concepts, the samples - all look good at 5 or 10 scans .. punch in 2,000 scans and see how you go. Get the internal programming teams doing real world scanning at the very least at say 500 scans across multiple databases, with trees (to remove from control spaces), mirrors and data through glass (to remove from model spaces), errors in survey control (usually dodgy target height - so tilted bundle) and more, like the rest of us, and tell us R360 is ok to use.

[gsisman]

Not sure Register 360 is there now with Cyclone EQUIVALENCY

Not. Even. Close.

That, and the concept of going from field "registration" to finished product (aka Field 360). Give me a f'n break. Half a dozen scans maybe, but no way I am releasing any data in the multi-hundred scan range from a field registration.

As always, the demos, the concepts, the samples - all look good at 5 or 10 scans .. punch in 2,000 scans and see how you go. Get the internal programming teams doing real world scanning at the very least at say 500 scans across multiple databases, with trees (to remove from control spaces), mirrors and data through glass (to remove from model spaces), errors in survey control (usually dodgy target height - so tilted bundle) and more, like the rest of us, and tell us R360 is ok to use.

.
I agree in regards to the 500 + scan jobs, but I'm not sure Hexagon/Leica is as in tune with their Surveyor base (the one that built their business) as they used to be. There are others working with Large scan bundles 300 and up to thousands within Reg 360 but their workflow is different than the traditional Cyclone Core users that cut their teeth one that software.
We were trained on Cyclone Core and then jumped on Reg 360, but admittedly our largest job has been a multi- hundred scan parking garage. The packages are now packaging Cyclone Reg core with Reg 360 full, rather than the other way around, so it can still be used, I guess- but probably with Legacy scanners or scanner versions available right now. Going into the future the new items they put on newer scanners- FW & Hardware will be tailored to the newer Reg 360/ 3DR and they are going to let Cyclone stagnate, I guess.

[Jamesrye]

Register 360 cannot even hold the data level when applying control, which is pretty fundamental to surveying.

It's also glitchy as you like. For example, we leave the links unlocked and then apply control - we look at the residuals.
Now we remove the control and look re-optimise the project.
Now we re-apply the control and the residuals are identical to the ones we just looked at!
Until we close the program and re-open it - Now the residuals update correctly!

Honestly, it's so frustrating. It's like Beta software. When it has to be right? use CORE, which is why we import all our projects there to properly check them.

[kaz]

There is an option to hire the license as per when you need it. you can get it in 2 week blocks, then charge it to each job as you go.

You could also get someone to register the data for you.

Please notice that according to Leica's own "terms of business" EVERY subscription license they sell AUTO-RENEW without any questions asked. If you sign up with a business credit card - your accountant might chase you down after a few months carrying a pitchfork and other torture instruments...

I don't know how many EU rules Leica is breaking by doing that - but it is quite a few IMHO.

Sadly the massive move to "subscription" software turns instruments into landfill filler as more and more subscriptions are required for even the most basic operation. Talking about environmental disaster..

For BLK360 - I think the basic operation - scan-registration and E57 export should be "free" - I just picked up a BLK360G1 and I'm surprised at the amount of money Leica wants for the software subscription. Compared to my 3D Disto CCP of £125/year for a £6000 device - the £2000 per year to register and export BLK360 (£18.000 new) is equivalent to daylight robbery IMHO.

I have stopped CCP on my BLK3d as the software is simply not stable nor working well. Now I have the BLK360 I think the BLK3d goes on eBay. But I might end up getting rid of them all for someone who sell a product that does not require massive amounts in subscription charges.