1.5 Your First Scan

Choosing a Practice Environment

Do not run your first scan on a billable project. Spend one practice session in a controlled environment to verify the workflow end to end before any client work.

A furnished indoor space of 500 to 1,100 sq ft is ideal: a large office, a residential floor, or a furnished retail space. Furniture, walls at multiple angles, and good lighting all give SLAM the feature density it needs. Empty rooms with plain walls, large open warehouses, and parking garages are feature-poor and will give you a failed first scan that teaches you nothing.

Pre-Scan Checklist

• Battery charged. L3: 100 minutes total operating time. L2 Pro: about 90 minutes per charge. K2: about 1.5 hours per charge
• Storage confirmed in LixelGO. Budget 60 to 80 GB per hour of scanning
• Firmware current. Check in LixelGO before leaving the office, not on site
• LixelGO installed, signed in, and previously connected to your device successfully (covered in 1.2 LixelGO)
• Phone hotspot enabled if RTK is required
• Naming convention decided. Use ClientName_SiteName_Date_Segment format for production projects. For practice, any short ASCII name works

Startup Sequence

Power on the device, connect to LixelGO, and confirm the scanner status before configuring the scan. Do not skip the status confirmation.

Scan Mode Configuration

Before starting the scan, configure the mode settings to match your project. These settings cannot be changed during the scan.

Mount Type

LixelStudio reads the mount type automatically during post-processing, so the correct selection here removes a manual step later.

• Handheld: default for walking scans
• Vehicle-Mounted: for vehicle-mounted backpack or rooftop configurations
• Drone: L2 Pro mounted on a DJI M300 or M350 with the XGRIDS drone bracket (covered in Module 6: Advanced L3/L2 Pro/K2). A drone mount for the L3 is in development for the DJI Matrice 400.

GNSS Type

• Standard RTK: when the Standard RTK module is mounted (L2 Pro) or for K2 default operation
• Survey RTK: when the Survey grade RTK module is mounted on the L2 Pro
• Aerial RTK: for L2 Pro on drone with Aerial RTK configuration

Project Name

Enter the project name in the input field. The device saves the folder as ProjectName_YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS where the timestamp marks scan start. If no name is entered, the folder defaults to default_YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS. Use ASCII characters only and avoid spaces.

The 15-Second Static Initialization

A botched initialization corrupts the starting reference frame, and the error persists for the entire session. The scan cannot be recovered through processing; you have to redo it.

During the Scan

You are now the instrument platform. The quality of the scan depends on how you move, how you hold the device, and the route you walk.

Walking Speed

After the initial 10 to 15 seconds of slow movement, walk at about 3 ft/s in open feature-rich areas. Reduce to about 1.5 ft/s for indoor environments, doorways, corners, dim lighting, and any area with limited geometric features. Walking too fast reduces point density and degrades visual tracking; the system needs adequate dwell time at each location.

Device Posture

Hold the L2 Pro and K2 vertically along the walking direction. Keep the inclination angle under 20 degrees from vertical on the L2 Pro and under 15 degrees on the K2 during normal walking. Up to 30 degrees is acceptable briefly in special cases such as scanning a small space or capturing floor and ceiling detail. LixelGO displays a real-time posture indicator. Excessive tilt affects IMU accuracy and point cloud geometry.

Maintaining Distance from Surfaces

Maintain about 2 to 10 ft from surfaces during scanning. Too close misses surrounding context. Too far reduces detail density on the surface being captured.

Turning and Direction Changes

When changing direction, rotate your entire body rather than twisting just your arms. Arm-only rotation introduces angular inconsistency in the trajectory that appears as geometric distortion at corners and doorways in the final point cloud.

Loop Closure

Plan your route to return through areas you have already scanned, not just incidentally but deliberately. Loops give the SLAM algorithm reference comparisons it uses to correct accumulated drift. For your first practice scan, walk the perimeter, then cross through the interior, then return near your initialization point from a similar angle to your start.

Marking Ground Control Points

If your project uses GCPs, mark them during the scan, not after:

• Align the front sharp corner of the GCP base plate with the physical control point on the ground
• Tap "+" in the Control Point list in LixelGO, or single-click the device function key
• Enter the control point name exactly as it appears in your CSV file, including capitalization. A name mismatch can be corrected after the scan by supplying a new spreadsheet of control point names, so it does not cost a return visit
• LixelGO confirms successful marking with a brief LED hold and an in-app message
• Keep control points 328 ft (within 100 m of each other) on the L2 Pro, or 164 ft (within 50 m of each other) on the K2; use at least 3, evenly distributed, never on a single straight line
• You can review and delete marked points in the Control Point List during the scan if needed

If You Are Using RTK

Three RTK conditions must be met for LixelStudio to successfully apply the coordinate transformation in post-processing:

• RTK status must reach Fixed (not None, Float, or Single) before you begin scanning
• The scan must contain more than 100 valid RTK-fixed points across the session (20 is the absolute minimum for the K2; aim well above it)
• The scanner must cover 33 ft (over 10 m while Fixed) during the scan

Keep any continuous stretch with no fixed solution to 328 ft (under 100 m) on the L2 Pro, and 164 ft (under 50 m) on the K2. Scan an area at least about 33 ft wide.

Monitoring the Preview

Glance at the LixelGO preview during the scan. The point cloud should track your movement smoothly. If it looks distorted, fragmented, or fails to register new geometry as you move, the system has lost tracking. End the session, return to a previously scanned area, and decide whether to continue or restart.

Ending the Scan Safely

How you stop the scan determines whether the data is recoverable. The save step after a scan ends is the most fragile moment in the entire workflow.

Common First-Time Mistakes

• Moving during the 15-second initialization countdown. Corrupts the starting reference frame. Error persists through the entire session. Cannot be corrected in processing. Restart required.
• Lifting the scanner before the app confirms initialization. Keep it still at least 15 seconds after the point cloud appears. SLAM has not finished accumulating initial tracking data. Early tracking quality degrades.
• Starting a scan with RTK Float status. Position data embedded in the scan is unreliable. The scan will fail accuracy requirements after processing. Wait for Fixed.
• Walking faster than about 3 ft/s in feature-rich areas, or faster than about 1.5 ft/s in feature-poor areas. Reduces point density, degrades tracking, causes drift accumulation.
• Tilting beyond 20 degrees on the L2 Pro or 15 degrees on the K2. Affects IMU accuracy and point cloud geometry. LixelGO's posture indicator shows when you have exceeded the threshold.
• Twisting the arms when turning instead of rotating the entire body. Introduces angular inconsistency that distorts corners and doorways in the final point cloud.
• Routing in a straight line without deliberate loops. Drift accumulates continuously with no correction. The final dataset can be unusable even though no warnings appeared during scanning.
• Powering off during the fast-flashing green save phase. Corrupts the project file. Data is not recoverable. Wait for solid green.
• Typing GCP names that do not exactly match the CSV file. LixelStudio cannot match the points. Names are case-sensitive. A name mismatch can be corrected after the scan by supplying a new spreadsheet of control point names, so it does not cost a return visit.
• Leaving the site without reviewing the preview in LixelGO. Coverage gaps and missed areas are correctable in minutes on site, and a return site visit otherwise.