XGRIDS Pro Guide™ / Module 10: Resources
10.6 Project Estimating
Field time, battery count, storage needs, and processing time for every project type. Use the numbers here to build proposals, schedule field days, and confirm your hardware is sized for the job before you leave the office.
Quick Reference
The Numbers You Need Before Every Job
L2 Pro
Battery runtime90 min
Raw data per hour60–80 GB
Internal storage1 TB SSD
Single-battery coverageCampus scale
Tens of thousands of m²
Max segment (LCC Studio)20 min
GCP spacing max100 m
Max scan (64 GB RAM)~30 min
Max scan (128 GB RAM)~60 min
K1
Battery runtime90 min
Raw data per hour60–80 GB
Internal storage256 GB TF card
Single-battery coverageBuilding scale
Several thousand m²
Max segment (LCC Studio)20 min
GCP spacing max50 m
Max scan (64 GB RAM)~30 min
Max scan (128 GB RAM)~60 min
PortalCam
Battery runtime60 min
Internal storage512 GB eMMC
Max segment (LCC Studio)20 min
Output type3DGS only
Absolute georeferencingNot supported
LCC Studio version neededV1.10.0+ for fusion
LixelStudio Processing
Processing ratio20–30× scan time
5 min scan~100–150 min
15 min scan~5–7.5 hrs
30 min scan~10–15 hrs
RAM needed~2 GB per min of scan
Workspace storage2–3× raw data size
LCC Studio Processing
Processing ratio (Medium)~20 min per 1 min scan
5 min scan~100 min
15 min scan~5 hrs
30 min scan~10 hrs
64 GB RAM stable up to30 min scan
128 GB RAM stable up to60 min scan
Multi-Scan and Fusion
Max segments (map fusion)10 segments
Max total duration200 min combined
Each segment max20 min
Overlap between segments15–30 m
Map fusion processingHours (varies)
Aerial-ground fusion24–48+ hrs
Field Time
Estimating Scan Time in the Field
XGRIDS devices do not capture a fixed area per unit of time the way terrestrial scanners do. Coverage depends on walking speed, space complexity, and how much re-coverage is required. The numbers below are working estimates based on published speed guidance and real-world project experience. Use them for proposal budgets, not scan time guarantees.
Walking Speed and What It Means for Coverage
The maximum recommended walking speed is 3 ft/s (about 1 m/s). Most indoor environments require 1.5 ft/s or slower through transitions, doorways, and corridors. In practice, an indoor floor with mixed open and corridor space averages somewhere between these extremes when factoring in time spent pausing at key areas, handling transitions, and returning to loop closure points.
Environment Type
Walking Speed
Notes
Open outdoor spaces, large atriums
Up to 3 ft/s
Maximum recommended speed. Use loop patterns every 1,600 ft to prevent drift accumulation.
Standard indoor rooms and open office
1.5–3 ft/s
Reduce to 1.5 ft/s when closer than 6 ft to walls or near furnishings.
Corridors, hallways, tight spaces
1.5 ft/s or slower
Hold device sideways so both walls are captured simultaneously.
Doorways and transitions between spaces
1.5 ft/s or slower
Slow before entry, pause 10–15 sec at threshold if needed to establish view of both sides.
Dark areas with poor lighting
1.5 ft/s or slower
LiDAR works in the dark but cameras need light for coloring. Bring portable lighting for camera quality.
Stairwells
Very slow
Scan ascending and descending. Loop at each landing. Do not rush. Stairwells are high-failure zones.
Tunnels, mine shafts, long narrow corridors
1.5 ft/s or slower
Break into segments under 1,600 ft. Use Narrow Scene SLAM mode in LixelStudio. RTK unavailable underground; use GCPs.
Scan Time Estimation by Project Type
The estimates below reflect total scan time in the field, including initialization, route coverage, transitions, and loop closures. They do not include setup, teardown, data transfer, or drive time. Multiply by 1.25 to 1.5 for a realistic on-site time budget that leaves room for re-scans of problem areas.
Project Type
Typical Scan Time
Device
Planning Notes
Single residential unit
100–250 m²
8–20 min
Any device
One segment, no fusion required. PortalCam ideal for high-fidelity interior.
Single floor, commercial office
500–2,000 m²
15–40 min
K1 or L2 Pro
May need to split into 2 segments if RAM is 64 GB (30 min limit per segment in LixelStudio).
Multi-floor commercial building
3–5 floors, 500–1,000 m²/floor
1–3 hrs field time
L2 Pro recommended
Plan 1 segment per floor (or per battery charge). Use map fusion to stitch. Up to 10 segments total. GCPs on each floor.
Single-building exterior
Mid-rise, all four facades
20–60 min
L2 Pro with RTK
Outdoor with RTK Fixed achievable. Maintain Fixed status throughout. Do not scan under canopy overhangs without RTK verification.
Campus or multi-building site
>5,000 m² outdoor+indoor
Half day to full day
L2 Pro
Plan 20-minute segments. Bring minimum 4 batteries. Map fusion required. Hybrid RTK + GCPs recommended for absolute accuracy.
Underground or tunnel
Single continuous route
Varies by length
L2 Pro or K1
See Tunnel and Mining guide for segment strategy. GCPs required (RTK not available). Break at every accessible access point.
Aerial-ground fusion project
Outdoor facility with roof coverage
Ground: 1–3 hrs
Drone: 30–90 min
L2 Pro + drone, or PortalCam + drone
Ground and aerial on same day for lighting consistency. Mark fusion points before ground scanning begins. 70–80% drone image overlap required.
Complex environments increase field time significantly. The scan time estimates above assume mixed indoor environments with open areas and standard corridors. Tight MEP rooms, congested industrial racking, stairwells, vertical circulation, and exterior facades with irregular geometry all reduce effective coverage rate by 30 to 50%. If the majority of the project footprint falls into one of these categories, double the estimated scan time before building your schedule.
Stairwells and vertical circulation are the most common cause of schedule overruns. They require ascending and descending passes with loop closures at each landing, are high-failure zones for SLAM, and often require re-scans. Budget stairwell coverage separately from floor-level estimates rather than rolling them into the overall area calculation.
Target 12 to 15 minutes per segment. Stay under 20. Each scan segment submitted to LCC Studio for map fusion should target 12 to 15 minutes. Going over 20 minutes does not ruin the scan but significantly increases processing time and RAM requirements. A 25-minute segment is not automatically unusable, but plan to it as a ceiling, not a target. Plan your route and battery swaps so each segment ends in an area that overlaps the next by 15 to 30 meters.
Batteries and Storage
Battery Count and Storage Planning
Batteries Needed
Budget one spare battery per 90 minutes of planned field time for L2 Pro and K1 (60 minutes for PortalCam). Cold weather reduces runtime approximately 20%. Add one extra battery as a safety buffer for projects longer than 3 hours or in temperatures below 5°C.
Planned Field Time
L2 Pro / K1 Batteries
PortalCam Batteries
Up to 90 min
2 (1 active + 1 spare)
2 (1 active + 1 spare)
3–5 hrs (half day)
4–5
6–7
5–8 hrs (full day)
6–7 (+charging setup on site)
9–10 (+charging setup on site)
Cold weather (<5°C)
Add 1 extra battery to all estimates above
Add 1–2 extra batteries to all estimates above
Raw Data Storage Needed
Budget 60 to 80 GB per hour of scanning for L2 Pro and K1. PortalCam data volume varies but the 512 GB internal storage is sufficient for most single-day projects. For L2 Pro multi-day projects, plan offload drives with at least 1 TB free space per full scan day.
Total Scan Duration
Raw Data (L2 Pro / K1)
Processing Workspace Required
30 min
30–40 GB
60–120 GB
2 hrs (map fusion project)
120–160 GB
240–480 GB
Full day, 5 hrs scanning
300–400 GB
600 GB–1.2 TB
Processing workspace is temporary but must exist during processing. LixelStudio and LCC Studio both write large intermediate files during SLAM optimization and reconstruction. The workspace grows to 2 to 3 times the raw data size during processing and shrinks once the final output is written. Plan storage to accommodate the peak, not just the final deliverable.
Processing Time
Estimating Processing Time
Processing time is determined by scan duration, software, hardware, and quality settings. The ratios below are based on the recommended hardware configuration (RTX 3070 or better, 64 GB RAM minimum). Older GPUs or lower RAM will produce longer processing times and, in some cases, processing failures on longer scans.
Workflow
Processing Ratio
Example
Hardware Notes
LixelStudio single scan
20–30× scan duration
10-min scan → ~3–5 hrs processing
64 GB RAM required. Fails mid-process if RAM is insufficient. Install to non-system drive.
LCC Studio single scene (Medium Quality)
~20 min per 1 min of scan
10-min scan → ~200 min (~3.3 hrs)
GPU-dominant. RTX 4090 is 3–4× faster than RTX 3060. VRAM ceiling determines model quality.
LCC Studio with HD Enhancement
+50–100% above base LCC time
3-hr LCC job → 4.5–6 hrs with HD Enhancement
Requires GPU with more than 8 GB VRAM. Enable in Advanced Features before starting reconstruction.
LCC Studio map fusion (up to 10 segments)
Hours (longer than single scene; varies by segment count)
5 segments → plan for an overnight run minimum
16-core CPU required. 96–128 GB RAM recommended. RTX 4090 or equivalent recommended.
LCC Studio aerial-ground fusion
24–48+ hrs typical
Plan 2 full nights minimum for campus-scale projects
Most hardware-intensive workflow in the XGRIDS pipeline. NVMe SSD required. Do not use the processing computer for other work during aerial-ground fusion.
LCC Studio with Spatial Recognition
+10–30% above base LCC time
3-hr LCC job → ~3.5–4 hrs with Spatial Recognition enabled
Indoor environments only. Requires LCC for BIM plugin in Revit to access recognition data.
The 20 min per 1 min processing estimate is for Medium Quality on recommended hardware. High Quality settings increase processing time substantially and are not published with a consistent ratio in the official documentation. Standard Quality reduces processing time but produces lower Gaussian point density. For production work, test one segment at your target quality setting before committing to a full-project run overnight.
Full Project Timeline
Total Time from Site Visit to Delivered Output
Use the phase breakdown below to build realistic client delivery timelines. The most common mistake is quoting delivery time based only on scan duration and ignoring processing, QC, and export time.
Phase
Typical Time
Personnel
Notes
Site recon and pre-field prep
30–60 min on site
1–2 hrs office prep
Scanner operator
Route planning, GCP pre-survey coordination, firmware verification, battery charge, storage clearance, coordinate strategy confirmed. Skip this and problems compound on site.
Field collection
See scan time table above.
Add 25–50% for on-site time.
Scanner operator
+ spotter for complex sites
Includes initialization, scanning, data QC in LixelGO or LCC Scan, and data transfer off device. Stairwells, MEP rooms, and multi-floor routes extend this materially.
GCP survey (if required)
1–2 hrs for 6–10 points
Licensed surveyor or operator with survey-grade equipment
GCPs must be physically placed before or during the scan. Coordinate collection and marking cannot happen after the scan is complete.
LixelStudio processing
20–30× scan duration
Overnight for most jobs
Unattended compute
Do not interrupt. Power settings must be set to Never before starting. Plan overnight for anything over a 10-minute scan.
LCC Studio processing
~20 min per 1 min of scan
Overnight for most jobs
Unattended compute
Can run in parallel with LixelStudio if RAM allows. Monitor RAM usage on the first run before committing both pipelines simultaneously.
QC and export
1–4 hrs
Scanner operator
Review accuracy reports, verify GCP residuals, identify problem areas, clean if needed, export to client format. Do not skip the accuracy report review before delivery.
Total pipeline time is almost always longer than scan time. For a 2-hour field collection day, plan 2 to 3 full calendar days to deliver final processed output. Processing, QC, export, and any rescan time all compound. Build this into client timelines before the project begins, not after the scan is complete.
Phase 1
Pre-Field Prep
Software verified, batteries charged, storage cleared, coordinate strategy confirmed, GCPs placed if required. Plan 1 to 3 hours depending on project complexity.
Phase 2
Field Collection
On-site scanning including setup, initialization, scanning, data QC in LixelGO or LCC Scan, and data transfer off device. See scan time estimates above.
Phase 3
Processing
LixelStudio or LCC Studio reconstruction. Plan for overnight runs on anything over 20 minutes of scan data. Aerial-ground fusion: 48 hours or more.
Phase 4
QC and Export
Review output in LixelStudio or LCC Studio. Check accuracy reports, identify problem areas, clean if needed, export to client format. Plan 1 to 4 hours.
Example: Single-Floor As-Built Scan Delivery
Worked Example — 1,200 m² office floor, point cloud and 3DGS deliverables
1
Pre-field prep (Day 1, morning)
Confirm RTK NTRIP credentials, charge 2 batteries, clear transfer drive, create project folder structure. Place 6 GCPs throughout floor using surveyed coordinates.
Estimated time: 2 hrs
2
Field scan (Day 1, midday)
L2 Pro with RTK and GCPs. Approximately 1,200 m² at mixed indoor speed averages to a 20–25 minute scan. Must stay under 20 min for LCC Studio — split into two 12-minute segments with overlapping area near center corridor.
Scan time: 2 × 12 min = 24 min total on site | On-site time including setup and transfer: ~2 hrs
3
LixelStudio processing (Day 1, afternoon into evening)
Two segments, each 12 minutes. Each runs at 20–30× ratio. After processing, merge via map fusion.
Per segment: 12 min × 25 = ~5 hrs | Two segments: ~10 hrs | Start afternoon, finish overnight
4
LCC Studio processing (Day 1, afternoon, parallel run if two machines available)
Same two segments in LCC Studio at map fusion mode. Medium Quality.
Per segment: 12 min × 20 min/min = ~240 min | Map fusion adds overhead: plan 12–18 hrs total | Overnight run
5
QC and export (Day 2, morning)
Review LixelStudio point cloud: check accuracy report, verify GCP residuals, clean noise, export to LAZ and E57. Review LCC Studio model: check segment seam at center corridor, export LCC and PLY files.
Estimated: 2–3 hrs | Total project: 2 days
Run LixelStudio and LCC Studio processing in parallel when possible. Both are processing the same raw scan files but independently. If the processing workstation has sufficient RAM and VRAM, starting both pipelines simultaneously cuts total calendar time nearly in half. Monitor RAM usage closely: running both simultaneously on a 64 GB machine will likely cause one or both to fail on anything over a 15-minute scan.
All estimates on this page are informational starting points, not guarantees. Field time, processing time, storage, and battery estimates depend on site conditions, hardware configuration, operator experience, and SLAM environment quality. Confirm estimates with a site visit before committing to client timelines or contract deliverables.
