# LiDAR scanning overview

> **LiDAR reality-capture data is the top-choice input for 01Spatial mapping.** Professional scanners combine visual imagery, camera poses, metric scale, and 3D geometry, producing reliable, high-quality Spatial Maps for building- and campus-scale projects.

## Required data

A valid input must include visual panoramas, camera positions and orientations, and metric 3D geometry. A point cloud without imagery cannot produce a visual-localization map. Register and clean the project in the vendor software before export.

## No additional spatial-reference configuration

LiDAR exports already carry scale, poses, and spatial coordinates. They do not require 01Spatial Reference Boards, Map Configurator, GCPs, Tie Points, or Scale Bars. Prepare the brand-specific export, upload it, and start the build.

## Capture principles

- Include panoramas or color imagery in the export.
- Resolve registration errors, double walls, ghost points, and isolated stations.
- Increase scan density at entrances, turns, stairs, transitions, and occlusions.
- Minimize moving people, vehicles, and machinery.
- Treat mirrors, glass, and reflective metal carefully.
- Split very large or multi-floor sites into manageable, coherent exports.

Static tripod scanners commonly use roughly 2–5 m station spacing. Handheld or mobile scanners commonly use roughly 1–3 m effective panorama spacing, with tighter coverage in complex areas.

## Upload

Single-ZIP LiDAR inputs support local upload and, where shown in Portal, direct cloud-drive download. CHCNAV currently uses a local multi-file input for panoramas, a pose TXT, and an optional LAS file.