ReCap Pro Training

Create the project folder yourself in Explorer beforehand – unlike Plant 3D, ReCap does not create its own project folder. Under New > Project from file import, enter a name and then select this folder. Work on a local SSD drive if possible; network drives are much slower, and you should avoid folders synchronized with cloud storage. Avoid umlauts and special characters in names to prevent problems during import and sharing.

Open the project and select Import. You return to the import page and can add the additional scan folders by drag and drop. Check the import settings (unit, filters) and start the import. Then select Continue Registration so that the new scans are matched to the existing ones, and complete the process with indexing.

With many terrestrial scanners (e.g. .fls format), each scan comes with a folder containing additional structure and the image information. So import the complete scan folders, not just the individual file. The most reliable way is to drag and drop the folders from Explorer onto the target area in the import window. ReCap converts the data into its own RCS format during import.

Under Settings > System, at the very bottom, you will find the Info section with details on the graphics card, memory and processor. For import, registration and indexing, a powerful multi-core processor and plenty of memory are important. Because a large amount of data is written, the project should be on a local SSD. For mesh models, a higher number of usable processor cores speeds up the calculation considerably.

We advise against it. Only indexing completes the registration – until then, the data is held only in a temporary cache. If you choose Launch Project before indexing reaches 100%, ReCap may hang or crash. So wait until the progress bar is complete and all RCS files have been written to the project's support folder.

Save the project and start mesh creation. In the following dialog, select the scanner type used, a high quality setting (needed for piping so that round geometry is preserved) and the number of processor cores. The calculation is very compute-intensive and can take hours. You export the finished mesh, e.g. as an FBX file; it is usually much smaller than the point cloud and can be reused in Navisworks or Inventor.