Polycam 3D Scanner, LiDAR, 360 Reviews

by Justafaceinthecrowd

When opening Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 I'm now greeted with a page asking me to create an account. There is a small skip button, that does nothing. I haven't deleted Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 , yet, even though it's now completely unusable, I'll wait to see if they fix the skip button, otherwise it's gone. Edit: they fixed the button, it still won't let you skip unless you're online and let them steal your info. App now deleted, greedy. 2nd edit: developer responds saying I need to be online to skip the account creation step. Not good enough, if I don't need to create an account to use Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 , why do I have to be online just to skip it? I won't give you my personal data, I'll just delete Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 now.

by Wersky

I am using iPhone 12 plus Max, properly updated iOS. I have tried several scans. I begin the scan… It appears to scan the entire object, I see that it is “recording“ with a red REC style button to “stop“ the recording or “capture”… problem is when I press that it just starts to become an endless spinning wheel of death… And above that something pops up that says “Move iPhone to Capture” — I ALREADY DID! I tried removing Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 . Reinstalling… Force restarting my phone. Everything. Several scan attempts and they all do the exact same thing and my gallery is empty. What is strange, I did a quick test of Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 on my wife’s phone last week before I got my new phone..She has the same phone I do, and it worked well. And is working well with hers currently… So there is some kind of a bug or problem going on here and it’s quite frustrating because I had planned to use this for a commercial project and was boasting to coworkers after having seen fairly desireable result while testing on another phone previously

by Conservative Buyer

M1 iPad Pros both 11 and 12.9 inch both 1TB (16 Gb ram), iPhone 12 Max Pro running iOS 14.6. Polycam 1.5.4 - issues also in previous iOS and Polycam versions. Subscribed to yearly plan last month after using free for a short time. Free version worked as expected with internet or offline. After paying for app, it would hang at Polycam load screen for a seconds/minute or took me to touch screen,again, either with or without internet. Than few updates ago App stopped loading while offline. CAN NOT USE without internet! Deleting App (lost scanned data) and installed new version. Issue continue. Phone and tablet are portable devices that are used in remote location where cellular data or wifi is not accessible. Why is internet needed to load App? To require access to internet after subscribing is not fair. There are other free scanning Apps that work offline and without location data. Subscribed to support developer rather than free version. Free is not always Free (data farming). Hope issues are fixed in future updates.

by AnonymousEngineer

I’ve been using Polycam for the last year and have been very impressed with its capabilities, and my coworkers and I have been using it for civil engineering applications. However, I recently ran into several issues. I read on another review that you must login to use Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 offline. There are many locations where I wanted to perform scans that have poor cell service and therefore being required to be connected to the internet is a problem. Therefore, I created an account. However, it appears to have lost the scans I performed prior to creating an account and now it states “Oops an error occurred. Failed to sign-in. Please check your Internet connection and try again later.” My internet connection is fine, but I’m still getting this error. I hope the developers can address these issues quickly. I had intended on purchasing Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 for a many more within my organization, but now I’m skeptical. Otherwise, Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 is excellent, but this issues need to be addressed soon or we will have to stop using Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 altogether.

by Bs12345698

Great app for quick scans that don’t need a lot of detail, but not for large or very detailed spaces. Beware that although Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 will allow you to scan as much as you want in LiDAR mode, it may not process that data if it’s too large. I’ve had a few scans cause Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 to crash in processing or even after processing when trying to view. So stop after about 3-4 minutes to break your scans up and combine them later in Blender or something.

But if you’re serious about photogrammetry and need pro quality you’ll prob want to use Reality Capture.

by Dame El Fuego De Tu Amor

Firstly, this isn’t the first app I tried but so far it’s the best. I tried a scan of an entire room, but it always crashes when saving. I’ve had it successfully scan a room only once, and the result was fantastic! I’m using an iPhone 13 Pro Max. I haven’t yet tried the pro features you can buy in-app, but I am saving those for when Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 can finally handle a room. My hope is that I can find a way to use this for work (not scanning rooms).

Limitations of Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 so far (when it works for me) are that it doesn’t scan well in low light, reflections such as mirrors or metallic surfaces confuse Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 , but those are expected. LIDAR is dependent on light after all.

I’d love to make this a 5 star review if it didn’t crash so much, as the pro features seem very promising. I am looking forward to seeing Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360’s growth.

by Blah13225

While the free 5 captures lasted Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 was amazing it is the only app I’ve seen that can do 3D scanning on this level of fidelity buuut there is a reason I only gave 5 stars you have to pay 10 dollars a month just to be able to do the ONLY thing Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 can do but I have 2 solutions one I think the devs will dislike and the other the community will be eh about

1. Add ads each time you send something to be modeled this will be nice because the people who pay for the subscription won’t get ads but also get the rest of the pro features

2. Make it so each day you get 1 free capture at a limit of 10 so each day you can do 1 capture but if you don’t use it it doesn’t disappear this is my favorite but I could see why the devs don’t add this one

by 14792678

Tbh i dropped a paycheck on the new iphone 12 pro for the sole purpose of using the LiDAR Scanner. After using Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 and several others for about 4 months i can easily say this one is my favorite 3d scanner. Hands down the best for detailed photo-scans of objects. In the top 3 for scanning rooms and spaces.

I wrote this review because i really want to see some new features introduced in the social-media platform on Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 . I would love to be able to comment and share other people’s scans, follow certain users and locations, and message other profiles. Also, there is a section to add a description when posting a new scan, but this description isn’t available (to my knowledge) to its polycam viewers. As an artist, including the specifics on a sculpture i post in the description is pretty important. I hope to see these changes implemented soon! If they do, i think Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 has the potential to become one of the top social medias in the future.

by MartialEagle

I downloaded after reading about it in an article and after trying to process in HD format it unexpectedly quit. I’ve got plenty of space so I it’s not a storage issue. After the third crash I was able process it in SD format and it’s very impressive, but until I can save in HD I’ll wait until the developer gets the bugs out. I still chose to give four stars because this is a phenomenal app and I am confident it will be addressed. Happy to Test Flight it and see if I can recreate the unexpected quitting.

by Hoffdiggity

This is a solid app, I was very impressed with the quality of scans, BUT for me Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 could be incredibly better with 2 solid additions…… it needs the ability to turn on the flash for better lighting, seems like a simple fix…… and also allow for screen rotation to rotate your phone to “landscape” for a wider scan angle. Competitor scan apps do these 2 things and I tend to use the other app more because of this. Include these simple changes and it would be my sole scanning app and upgrade this to a 5 star.

by Sean-sull

Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 is wonderful for getting 3D scenes of rooms. It’s an invaluable tool for someone who wants to digitize floor plans and rooms. The issue I keep having is that when it goes to process the photography and turn it into a 3D model, it often crashes and breaks.

Some annoyances:
- Incorrect time estimates for processing. “30 seconds estimated processing time” when it takes 3 minutes. Or when I choose the lower quality option it will say 23 seconds and take about a minute. Just completely off :/
- app crashes often when I try to go back or open up a menu
- app doesn’t work very well in the background. If I leave Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 , it’s a 50/50 chance whether it will finish processing the pictures in the background or just crash and make me do it over again when I tap back into Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 .

Still love the work these developers are doing. App is great for what it is.

by CoreyW

After completing a scan it just showed a button that said “process capture” on a white background. The button didn’t work, and nothing happened for over 5 minutes. Leaving Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 and coming back showed a gallery that had my scan in it and clicking the process capture button this time worked.

Quality is okay. It’s hard to tell what did or didn’t capture in the scanning process, and the viewer doesn’t seem to offer a way to change the height of the camera. Panning is also a bit finicky, more often zooming or staying put than panning as expected.

But for a free app, it’s a fun demo of LIDAR.

by Modern Arch

Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 along with a ipad or iphone Lidar scanner is amazing. I work in architecture and I have been using it on stairs to find interstitial floor spaces . Whole room scans, attic spaces, and facades all work good. I can not wait to see the future of this technology, in a few years hopefully it will be accurate enough to do full floors and buildings (no more all day field measuring). For now, stick with single room scans for best results. Great app and new tech! Keep improving! iPad/landscape version please. Thanks!!

by JohnnyIsland

Time with application: 3 months

Device: iPhone 12 Pro

Polycam is a fantastic application for using your supported LiDAR device. It also utilizes Apple’s objectCapture api if you pay for a subscription. The Polycam team has done a fantastic job and I look forward to seeing where this goes. One feature I’d like to see implemented would be the ability to toggle a transparent overlay of the last image capture. That would eliminate a few steps

by TreyL16

I was an early adopter of LiDAR scanning on the iPad and have tried just about every scanning app available.
When Polycam released it was decent, but had detail and texturing issues that were overcome by other apps. About a year later, they have become the best option for just about every use case. The new photogrammetry option solves the problem of small object scanning, one of the shortcomings of LiDAR.
I now 100% recommended Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 over all others, even with the subscription.

by Ella1020

Love Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 very much!! I only have a couple minor things to mention. When I’m editing a model in Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 , I wish there was a way to rotate it. Sometimes a model is a bit slanted and it’d be nice to be able to rotate. Also when saving an orbit video, it’d be cool if there was an option to just have the model orbiting without it zooming in & out at the same time. Just a more basic turntable animation. Maybe being able to change the background color of the video too. Again I’m obsessed with Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 , these are just a couple personal suggestions. Thanks!

by Nlarsen619

Ok..i absolutely love Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 . Best one ive been able to find that exists as an app beyond programs like RC. If i can make a suggestion though…to improve functionality, could you guys implement remote snapping..or toggling the volume up button to take a photo so things like the remote buttons will work??…like they do on the native camera app and most others camera apps?? Example scenario is if you use an extension arm and BT remote “shutter” button and want to snap a photo of something you normally couldnt reach. I keep hoping you guys will have this in an update but so far..ive had no luck. Besides that, the results of the photogrammetry algorithm you guys have is top notch.

by Ebrainer1

This is an app that truly amazes you and gives you hope that technology is going amazing places. This takes me back to the primal beginnings of Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 Store when crazy weird new gadgets were being made, developers brimming with passion adding new features and improvements with lightning speed.

It does what it says, and it’s the best. You just hit record, point, move, and capture. Then the exporting and sharing process is quick and easy. Tying it all together is an elegant interface.

Since I’ve downloaded Polycam, it’s had quantifiable, memorable updates that make it even more functional and beautiful. I can’t wait to see where it goes in the future.

by Champae

Since the release of the Ipad Pro with Lidar, I've had the opportunity to test a significant amount of apps that support the new lidar hardware. When I came across Poly Cam not too long ago, I was immediately impressed by the results. The speed and quality of the captures are some of the best I've seen. Really impressed by the texture mapping, the blending of the seams are really well done, including the UV layout. The model formats currently supported will get you into any DCC application out there for further editing. Overall I love the ease of use and speed of Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 and looking forward to new features and improvements from the Poly Cam team. I highly recommend giving this application a go for your capture needs.

by Pirate4367

I am a photogrammetry enthusiast who purchased the LiDAR iPad Pro as soon as it was available. I was initially disappointed with the iPad’s ability to do 3D scanning until I discovered Polycam. Polycam generates the best quality captures of any 3D scanning app out there, and texturing is lightning fast — only takes about 10 seconds to texture my living room. I have been using Polycam on a daily basis and found it to be a nice tool in my photogrammetry tool belt. The spatial resolution is not as good as what you get using images and something like Reality Capture, but the speed and convenience make it a fantastic tool nonetheless. The new crop tool is very nice though, and if you’ve used other 3d editing programs you know how much easier this is to use!

by Ereinecke

The interface is pretty good but it can have some difficulty with more complex geometry. It often has troubles resolving the shape of objects scanned from multiple angles (arms disappear off humans when doing a 360 scan for instance).
Also the textures picked for geometry can sometimes be images captured at an off-normal angle to the face so it sometimes ends up with strange perspective baked into the textures.
I had experienced some of the crashing issues from previous versions, but the latest version addresses that and is much faster at processing!

by Moony5556

Developers should be required by law to expose in the description exactly what the in app purchase consists of! This is endlessly frustrating for customers download an app, begin using it, and then find they can’t do anything with it without making a purchase. There is a law against this… It is called bait and switch! Do the right thing.

by @micanbar

Polycam3DScannerLiDAR360 in tandem with the iPhone 12 Pro has pretty much replaced using a Kinect tethered to a wall and PC. Really nice having the ability to do photogrammetry on the go with detailed results. Unfortunately had to knock a star off for HQ processing consistently crashing the device, most likely due to resources but hard to tell. Most scans at 50k verts caused a crash.

by WoolyGmammoth

I work in 3D modeling, and sometimes use 3D scans as a rough starting point for my models. Not only is this a great scanner app, it also allows you to export your 3D models in almost any format you would care to use, which saves me time so I don’t have to convert the 3D model format before importing into my editor. The new crop functionality is also very nice and saves me time so I don’t have to crop in blender!

by Shb10865

I’ve spent a lot of time testing nearly every lidar scanner. This one so far seems to have the best texture capture and spatial understanding and that rescan feature on prior captures is awesome. I do kind of wish it would fix more obvious errors but I’m sure it will only get better

by Jacob Hateley

Really excited about this technology! My first attempts to scan were very positive. The one gripe I have to mention is that it doesn't seem to scan hollow objects very well, but I've only tried one thing and it's probably not the best thing to scan (a glossy ceramic cup my son made)

by SaveTheYucca

Super useful tool for scanning environments and larger scenes. The color quality is the highest I’ve seen in any of these LiDAR scanning apps, and the runtime for texturing is also quite fast. Overall seems like a very useful tool that I’ll be using regularly for my job.

by Hobnobgob

Feels like the future - you can generate the mesh in real-time and then texture it when you’re done. Took between 5 and 15 seconds for the captures I made. Keeps coming out with new features too - awesome job developers!

by Sewage.l

It doesn't even have to be used specifically for construction work or its commercial education use. Im more than confident it could be used for other applications and intend to test it. So far it has delivered exactly what was advertised

by Weekendsareforsleeping2943

Scan quality has consistently gotten better and faster over the past few weeks. Really having a good time scanning.

by Lucy Whitfeld

Takes a few attempts to get it right but when you do the end result is amazing. When you scan the object it is better to over do it to make sure you get all the angles covered. Polycam iis best app for scanning objects in 3D. "

by Tyler Wiseman

Easy to use and follow but i wish there was an easier way to get full body scans without the help of another person. Other than that its great!