3d Scanner App™ Reviews

by Arshaun K.

As the title suggests I’m a big fan of 3dScannerApp as it works really well in some circumstances and performs very poorly in others. Bugs include constant freezing and crashing when trying to texturize or refine a scan. In the worse case scenario, the scan will actually somehow become corrupted and delete half of the scan. It’s devastating when it happens (especially when you no longer have the object you scanned) and it’s frequent enough where it’s unusable for me.

by M A 4

iPhone 12 Pro Max. No matter what I do, or what settings I choose or how long I scan or at what distance, it always says “empty scan, no data saved.” 3dScannerApp has camera permission and seems to be doing something on the screen, but no 3-D scan ever results. I’ll check this out again after an update or two. (Maybe it just needs some kind of instructions for the many controls, or some kind of useful error messages.)

by Thechickenundertheroad

I have the brand new super powerful M1 iPad Pro, yet 3dScannerApp crashes when I try and texture the file. If it worked it would be amazing and the best 3D scanner app on the store. I really hope the developers fix this issue so I can texture the file in the future. I would be happy to pay a one time fee for 3dScannerApp if they maintained it better. Perhaps they can let me use the full 8 or 16GB of ram which would make this worthwhile.

by Urchent

Been playing around with this since I got my iPhone 12. Getting an initial model is pretty easy but refining that model is very hard. It’s not clear how to optimize you range distance and resolution for best quality. The colors seam to indicate depth while scanning and actually seem to work a little better father away. I guide with tips on improving these details would be good. There’s almost always a few gaps in the model and it doesn’t seam to improve much if at all if get closer or at different angles.

Over all it does the job and with a bit more refinement and documentation could become great.

by Lidarboy

3dScannerApp is amazing and kinda fun to use, the only downside atm is the fact that you cannot use the high detail option when texturing, it’ll load and load and never actually finish. gets about 50% even after leaving it on the screen for 2 hours nothing happened phone wasn’t even warm showing it wasn’t actually processing any more. Other then that it’s amazing. iPhone 12 pro

by Jegalloway

I have been looking for apps that take advantage of Apple’s LiDAR Scanner on the IPhone 12 and latest gen iPad and have been generally disappointed.

The 3D Scanner App has been the best thing I have found so far, but I’m looking for more. How should I be scanning rooms or objects to get the best quality scans? Is there a help manual to explain some of the functionality of 3dScannerApp ?

This is promising, but not totally there yet.

by Fercrazy2

I like how I can scan a full room In matter of minutes but this is not what I want to do with this, I want to scan some toys so I can use those scans as a base for custom parts and other stuff often this toys are small as a lego or as big as an rc car but the problem is I can’t get any details with this and it scans the WHOLE background and I can’t make it scan my toy what do I have to do to scan small objects? I don’t need a whole lot of details just enough to have as a base

by Modern Home Professionals

I’ve been using 3dScannerApp to take quick scans of a room and then be able to revisit those scans to pull measurements. I then use those measurements to order material. It is a great way to visualize the room while you are shopping for the materials. I am sure that you can find many other uses for 3dScannerApp. I am not sure if it allows you to import the files into blender, unreal, or any other app like that, but for what i use it for it is golden. Thank you, please keep up the great work because right now you are the best scanning app I’ve used to date. I would love a decimate feature that would allow us to simplify scans to the most basic geometry, but in an imperfect world you come through perfectly.

by ScottInReno

I am a personal injury lawyer and often have to hire people to conduct 3D scans of smashed up vehicles, accident sites, etc. I just got a new iPhone with a lidar scanner and used 3dScannerApp to take a scan of a vehicle that was involved in a bad accident. I am totally blown away with the 3D model 3dScannerApp generated. All I had to do was walk around the vehicle pointing my phone at it and stick the phone through a window to capture the inside, and now I have a 3D model including the exterior and interior of the vehicle that I can take measurements from and use to consult with expert witnesses.

This is among the most incredible new features since smart phones were invented and is extraordinarily useful.

by Korora912

I just took this outside and used it to scan the interior of a 30-foot sailboat in a single pass. Easy to capture the data, and allows export in so many formats that you’re almost certain to find one that works for you. It’ll even zip the files up for you, for ease of airdropping. Couldn’t possibly be happier.

by Gstaff100

I am grateful to the Laan Consulting Group for releasing such a powerful, wonderful, astonishing tool for free. Truly a gift to humanity. (And any other non-humans who also like to 3D scan)

I am happy to see regular updates and I look forward to exploring what added precision and mesh optimization can be squeezed out of our current hardware.

Thank you thank you thank you

by ZafNZ

Finally an app that isn’t a money grab. It works, it’s fun, and you don’t have to sign up to anything or pay money to even use 3dScannerApp . It’s quite fun to use, and I’m impressed

Note to author: great app, and I would be willing to pay, my suggestion: add in-app purchase that is purely a donation. Don’t lock features or anything, just ask for a donation — you’d get my money!

by RobChinn

Uses Apple's ARKit APIs to build 3D objects from your photos. Exports multi-resolution models without having to reprocess the photos. The 3D model viewer is handy to view models once the processing is done, and lets you apply the textures or see the untextured and polygon views.

Only thing it's missing is the ability to specify where to save the models and texture files. The button to show the files in the Finder does help though.

by LiveCreate

Took a few minutes of playing around with 3dScannerApp on my iPhone 12 Pro Max. i’m starting to get the hang of it and this thing rocks!I scanned my dog and a few other complex objects at high resolution and each object took less than 60 seconds to scan...Producing a photo realistic 3-D model…Wish I could show you. It’s pretty amazing.

Now all I need is a 3-D modeling out to export to an edit and a 3-D printer and watch out!

by Adam Wilder

Has almost everything you need in a 3D scanning app. Includes plenty of options for defining your mesh and a full set of export formats. There was only one format I would like to have that they don’t include, so that’s pretty darn good. You should definitely grab this if you have a device with Lidar and want to scan 3D objects. Works well for smaller objects (more than a 6 inches) and even larger items (rooms up to smaller building exteriors)

by Shaadoe

I really enjoy the way that 3dScannerApp renters models quickly efficiently there’s a few hiccups but it’s still free and not sure the developers are working very hard to keep it going if anybody out there is enjoying 3dScannerApp you should throw him some bitcoin give me a thumbs up in 3dScannerApp Store because he’s guys are doing some good things and there’s guys out there charging a lot more for a lot less program

by Kazutadashi

I don’t typically write reviews all to often, but this so far has been so gosh dang good I had to write one. It’s very intuitive to use and simple to understand. It performs really fast and has a lot of different options to make your scan really nice. The detail of my scans has been extremely good, and the processing time is super quick. Highly recommend 3dScannerApp to whoever wants to make use of their LIDAR scanner for work or for fun.

by Pman17

I’m surprised this is free. This is the best LIDAR scanning tool I’ve found in 3dScannerApp Store. This will be useful for work. I work with machinery so it’ll be cool to share models of parts through iMessage. Some improvements I could see is with status indicators showing processes or a count down. Gets hung up on a scroll wheel if the object is too complex. App also needs tutorials. I don’t know the best settings for an object. Lots of trial and error to figure out the best way of scanning an object.

by Clint Arthemis Golub

I can’t believe there’s a free app that uses both the LiDAR sensor on my iPad Pro and cameras to construct models of my home and objects with such detail and no adds! it’s seriously amazing.
If I could suggest an improvement; 3dScannerApp does crash when I render a model in more detail “refinement”. And also, a slight tutorial such as what the “confidence” slider means. I hope to see 3dScannerApp improvement where I could add my entire home into one gigantic model. As it is, the A12Z processor in the newest iPad does a killer job whipping out gorgeous renders.

by Dres F

3dScannerApp is insane. I’ve tried to do photogrammetry a ton, but there aren’t many user friendly apps for it on Mac. I’ve also tried other iPhone apps, but none of them worked as well as I wanted.

Lidar scanning is incredible. The best part is that the developers made 3dScannerApp free, so anyone with the right phone can do it. I personally thrive off of free apps like Blender because I’m not a professional, and to see someone putting photogrammetry with LiDAR out for free is amazing. Most software that has cutting-edge features is expensive, and I’m great full that this was put out for free.

by Wulls1313

3dScannerApp crashes every time I try anything and yes my iPad is up to date.

by Uscglt

3dScannerApp installed but said my iPad is not supported I have a MR7F2LL/A. Either don’t allow install or let it launch

by VizMind

I think I am slowly coming to grips with the fact that I have just spent more than $1,000 for an iPad Pro primarily for a LiDAR camera which turns out to be cheap, inaccurate and utterly useless for professional 3D scanning. This is the third piece of software I have tried that can’t scan even the simplest of objects without getting thrown by reflections. A cheap Android phone with still photos processed by the (free) Meshroom software is millions of times better than this mess. Seriously.... Apple, are you listening? This LiDAR camera and related software is a colossal failure. People are not just buying it for AR. Some of us actually want to create accurate point clouds and professional quality meshes. Clearly not with this hardware and certainly not with this software. I received the iPad Pro just 2 hours ago after waiting 2 months for it to be shipped from China. I will be sending it back today and parting ways with Apple forever. You’ve finally proven quality has taken a back seat to your bottom line.

by SaveTheYucca

3dScannerApp is pretty decent for scanning small objects, but for larger objects or environments, like a room or multiple rooms, the high quality texture mode takes quite a long time and even then the textures are pretty low quality and not very useful for most use of scanning film sets and environments.

by WoolyGmammoth

I use 3D scans for my work as a 3D modeler and was hoping I could use 3dScannerApp. Unfortunately the quality of the texture is too low to be useful for much, especially on larger scans. Hopefully it gets improved

by Keltersan

A reminder to users. 3dScannerApp requires a lidar iPad Pro, even the the Compatibility section here says it works on your older iPad Pro 2nd Gen 12.9 etc - it wont. Suggest developer to update Compatibility

by Calimed

Brand new updated iPad.

by NicAshby

App quits a lot after a scan. Sometimes doesn’t record texture image. Often garbles 3D map. Would be 5 stars if not for the bugs

by Andrewfcy

Great app. Don’t complain, it’s free! Shows you what this technology has to offer in the near future.

by Cdawg123

Quality needs improvement - but it’s free!

by Smicha84

And it’s free... welcome to the future

by Chknbrito

Used this to try out some new furniture in the flat. Was quick & easy.

by Tylrprtr

3dScannerApp just blew me away. I had low expectations for a lidar scan from a phone but I exported the generated model that 3dScannerApp made of my living room into Rhino and it looked great. I’m really impressed by this free app.

by Mike Festa

I’ve been testing 3D scanning hardware and apps for years and this is one of the fastest and easiest ones that I’ve used. It’s great to see how far the technology has come in both quality and cost reduction. I bought the 2020 iPad pro specifically for the new lidar sensor and applications like this. If you already have an iPad with this sensor (or hopefully iPhone when they come out), definitely download 3dScannerApp and try it out - it’s free!

The mesh is generated quickly thanks to Apple’s lidar sensor and 3dScannerApp shows the triangles in realtime as they are generated and refined. Note that 3dScannerApp is best for capturing large areas and not small objects. After the geometry has been captured, there is a button for applying the texture. 3dScannerApp captures high res photos while scanning and those photos are then used to color each triangle. The texture detail is pretty good, especially for the output file size, which is only a few MBs. It appears that each triangle is textured from just one photo which makes for a sharper image, however it also adds artifacts between two triangles from different photos with slightly different lighting or perspective.

In 2020, pretty much all 3D scans require some amount of manual cleanup in for professional use, even ones from high end devices. Scans from 3dScannerApp can be used as reference material for further modeling or shared easily as a quick and dirty 3D capture. The file export formats and share options available are great. If you don’t know what output you want, I’d suggest USDZ for sharing with Apple users and GLB for everything else.

For some additional context, I founded the Wayfair Next team in 2015, and one of our objectives was to explore emerging scanning technologies. I now run a company called 3XR, which helps brands digitize their products. Here are other scanning technologies that I’ve tried:
2010 - Microsoft Kinect (PrimeSense camera, - note that Apple bought PrimeSense in 2013 and the current lidar sensor is most likely a miniaturized version of it)
2013 - Occipital Structure Sensor ($350 attachment for iPads)
2013 - Dot Product DP-7 hand-held scanner ($5,000 android tablet with a PrimeSense camera)
2014 - Google Tango, developer tablet ($1,200, standalone)
2014 - Matterport scanner ($5,000 black box on a tripod with 3x PrimeSense cameras)
2015 - HP Sprout Computer ($2,000)
2015 - Artec Spider ($25,000 laser scanner, needs a PC)
2015 - Intel RealSense F200 dev kit ($200, needs a PC)
2016 - Lenovo Phab 2 Pro ($500, Google Tango phone)
2016 - HoloLens ($3,000 AR headset, tracking sensors)
2017 - Asus ZenFone AR ($600, Google Tango phone)
2018 - Occipital Bridge (MR headset / iPhone holder)
2018 - Magic Leap ($2,600 AR headset, tracking sensors)
2018 - Artec Leo ($25,000 standalone laser scanner)
2020 - HoloLens 2 ($3,500 AR headset, tracking sensors)

by Pilotneko

I can confirm that the iPhone 12 pro works great with this application. Very quick to scan my room and dog.