Recap Pro Register Scans

[Mariela Laflam]

NewBLK, Leica and Recap user here. I've imported my first set of 18 scans using mostly auto registration on the iPad. When I got it all loaded into my desktop I can see that I have some scans out of alignment. When I go to the home button and to registration I get a list of the scans on the left and a top view of the project. On the bottom of the screen there's a box that tells me that all my scans are registered. I can't get to the split screen manual alignment window. I know its got to be easy but I can't find my way back to that. Can someone steer me? Thanks.

I know about the technique of removing a scan from the registered scan group as you've described. But several times I tried to do that today, and every time, ReCap Pro seems to just go into an endless loop, presenting a message saying "Removing scan ...". In other words, it just never completes the scan removal, and therefore I'm never presented with the dual-pane window that allows me to register manually. I have to terminate this behavior by killing the ReCap app task - not pretty.

I should add that I'm starting from the point of having a set of 6 scans all registered automatically, and I want to back up and see if I can improve results by registering manually. Yesterday, I was able to remove scans from the group of registered scans and add them to the list of unregistered scans, but this was in a situation where I wasn't starting from having all of my scans registered, and I was already in the dual-pane manual registration mode.

There is a known issue where the 'removing scans' can hang in some rare cases. I would expect you could remove the last one in the list without hitting this issue. If not, one workaround would be to add another scan (doesn't matter what) to the project and choose manual registration from the import screen. This will put you in two-pane mode and allow you to delete the main group ('delete' meaning unregister all scans).

As you can see, I'm new to the Autodesk forum (and to Autodesk, for that matter). But I like to write and enjoy helping other people, so I expect I'll make frequent contributions to this forum as I ramp up with Autodesk and, most likely, as I add other Autodesk apps into my skill set and workflows.

I am checking back to see if one of the great posts in this thread helped you with your question. If so, please take a moment to reward the poster or posters with a Kudos and select the Accept as Solution button on those posts that helped.

I wanted to open the same project in which I had observed the same problem at least three times. Recall that in this project, all eight scans had been automatically registered, but I wanted to explore the effect of leveraging my targets to get a better registration result manually. My plan was to enter the manual registration mode by removing scans, one by one, from the registration group. But when I tried to remove any of the eight scans, ReCap got into an interminable loop, the removal never completed, and I had to kill the ReCap task to regain control.

Then, after receiving Ryan's workaround suggestion, I once again opened the troublesome project. But, to my surprise, the project was now in a different state than it was when I had last had it open. Instead of all the scans being in the automatically registered state, the project state had somehow been reverted to the point where one has just imported all the scans and none have yet been registered or indexed. So, I re-registered all of the scans using the automatic mode, and then tried to remove a scan from the registered group, expecting to see the same "infinite loop" behavior that I'd seen earlier. To my surprise, no such ReCap hang-up occurred; instead, the selected scan was successfully removed from the registered group and ReCap entered the dual-pane manual registration mode.

Bottom line ... the problem has slipped out of my hands for now. If it re-appears, I'll try Ryan's workaround again. However, there's a caveat. Remember that, in order to regain control after ReCap goes into an interminable loop, I have to abort the task. As you probably know, aborting a task is a very disorderly way to exit, from a software point of view. An abort can sometimes leave data structures in a persistently damaged state, so that behavior is different - and perhaps incorrect - when the task is next run. In other words, observing the system's anomalous behavior changes the system ...

Thanks Jim...like you a newbie to scanning and Leica/BLK...I've had some issues as can be expected with the release of a new product like the BLK...some very helpful info in this thread...thanks everyone...Ryan. is there not a new manual with new ReCap Photo integrated in the works and if so when can we expect it? Thanks again...

I have removed 6 or so of the last scans that are from a hallway connecting the two clusters. When I re-register the scans from the hallway they do not register correctly even with up to 7 or 8 targets and spheres in common. I have all of the targets and spheres numbered in this file. I did find another file where the clusters are not on top of each other but is missing 17 scans. I am have to trash this file and go to a different file even if I have to Export it as a Project from the Scene software that came with our FARO Focus Scanner.

I'm pretty sure I saw that and picked on it. All it gave me was a registration report. I was not able to register my scans. They were indexed all in one scan location. I didn't see a way to get back to registration. Neither automatic or manual. Our scans are .fls folders from a Faro Focus 3D scanner.

I wish I would've saved the data (.rcp and support folder) to try it again. I just wiped it out and started all over with Pro. It all turned out fine this time. I guess we'll just have to pay more attention to what we start a project with... Regular ReCap or ReCap Pro.

We are in the process of assembling a 140+ scan ReCap file. On two recent occasions with the same project either ReCap or the graphics card crashed during the last hour of processing. Post-crash, of the 140 files listed on the import interface, 130 have the gear/check-mark icon and 10 have the clock icon yet the blue indicator bar states 100% complete, Launch Project.

I would like to point out that Autodesk chose the solution to my dilemma. Not me. I've not been able to test any of these solutions, so I'm not saying they work or don't work. I just think it's odd that Autodesk has chosen one as a solution to my issue. They did this on one of my other posts. Autodesk chose a 'solution' that did not even apply to my original question. I ended up negating the solution on that post. I'll leave this one up because it might help someone, but in all honesty, I don't think it really applies to my original question nor would it have solved my problem. I'm certainly glad

I got around to replicating my original issue with just 5 scan locations, so it only took a few minutes. I started the project in regular ReCap and Indexed the scans then saved the project. I then opened the project in ReCap pro and followed Vidanom's solution.

Vidanom's solution worked. BUT. I was only able to Manually register the scans, which wasn't bad for 5 scans. So, for me, it was better just to start from scratch and read in all 20+ scans and let it crank for a few hours with the AutoRegistration.

I'm not sure why I didn't notice that the first time. I think, perhaps, I was only clicking on the pulldown of the Registration icon (which is the registration report) and not the registration Icon itself.

This is going to be a quick step by step on registering scans in Recap Pro. I will talk about some of the issues I have had and how to overcome them. Recap will automatically register scans by looking for common points. However, I have found there can be some discrepancies which is where you might manually register the scans together.

Arrange your scans into one folder. The scanner I had placed them in separate folders with some of the images and other file types so making sure you can place them all in at the same time just speeds things up. Also, a tip is to try to make sure your scans are numbered in order of the path you want to stitch them together. It just makes it easier to order during registering if you have lots.

Choose a location for the project, name it and select the files to import. (Something to be aware of if you are starting to use point clouds is that they can quickly fill up your hard drive if you are working with lots of scans. The scans I took are around 180MB each, 12.5mm accuracy over 10m)

Choose the clipping range you want to apply from each scan. I recommend making sure this is within a reasonable tolerance of what you need, as I found that leaving it at 180m (default) would crash Recap sometimes. 25m or lower is acceptable for interior scans usually. The filter scans refer to the points it will clean up on entry, if you chose minimal, all points would be included, if you chose aggressive, it will delete most points that do not seem to conform to a surface.

Hit merge scans, Recap will look for common points around the targets you have selected and stitch the scans together. Once this is done hit index scans (this can take a little while depending on how many scans you have). Once it is indexed, hit launch project and you are away. The file created is an RCP file that can be placed into Revit or Autocad and used very effectively as an underlay to draw around.

I believe your first scan cannot be deleted from a registration group. You would have to un-register all of the scans in this group so you can delete the first one and to start a new registration group.

This is still the case and even worse is that the top level scan is placed there by ReCAP LATER in the registration process. It took a terrible scan, said "we found a match" the preview looked good so you accept. Then what happens when that scan becomes your primary scan location but its totally wrong and you can't remove it? I've got 50 or so scan totally registered. I added one scan (that was horribly wrong) and now I need to grenade the ENTIRE project to start over?

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