Measure, model and draw from any 3D scan

1What Scan Bench does

Scan Bench opens 3D scans of buildings and sites and turns them into things you can use: measurements, floor plans, sections, 3D models and files for clients and CAD.

• Measure anything in the scan: lengths, areas, heights, sections, levels and volumes, in mm, cm or metres.
• Draw the building over the scan: walls, doors, windows, floors, roofs, stairs, steelwork and glass, each fitted to the scan.
• Make drawings: plans, ceiling plans, sections and elevations with dimensions, as PDF sheets or DXF for CAD.
• Hand over: a cleaned scan, a 3D model (IFC, GLB, OBJ, SketchUp or Blender), schedules, pictures, walk-through videos and a viewer file your client opens in a browser.

Scan Bench works entirely on your computer. Your scans are never uploaded anywhere.

2Before you start

Your computer

• A desktop or laptop with a mouse and keyboard. A mouse with a wheel button makes 3D work much easier. Scan Bench is not made for phones or tablets.
• Graphics that support WebGL 2 (almost every computer from the last few years). A separate graphics card helps with big scans.
• 8 GB of memory or more. Scans over about 200 MB can be slow on computers with less.

If your computer has a separate Nvidia or AMD graphics card, make sure Scan Bench uses it: the start screen and Help > Graphics card show which card is drawing. To switch, open Windows Settings > System > Display > Graphics, add your browser (or Scan Bench), choose Options > High performance, then close and reopen it.

Before you open a scan, the start screen checks your computer and tells you if anything may struggle. If it says This computer is ready, you are good to go.

Files you can open

3Your first hour

The recommended route for a new user. Each step builds on the last, and you will have a real measurement within ten minutes.

1. 1 min

   Take the tour

   On the start screen, click New here? Take the 1 minute tour. It points out the rail, the steps, search and Export. You can run it again from Help > Take the tour.

   Done when: you know where the rail and the Prep, Model, Drawings buttons are.
2. 2 min

   Open a small scan

   Drag the file onto the window, or use File > Open scan (Ctrl+O). A progress bar shows while it reads. The scan opens in 3D with the Scan panel beside it.

   Done when: you can see your scan in 3D.
3. 5 min

   Learn to move around

   Drag on empty space to turn the view, right drag to move it, and use the wheel to zoom towards the pointer. Press F any time you get lost. Click Plan at the top (or press 1) for the view from above, then 3D (or 6) to go back.

   Done when: you can fly to any corner of the scan and back again with F.
4. 5 min

   Check the scale

   XGRIDS LCC scans are already in metres. For any other scan, press M and measure something you know, such as a door width or a paving slab. On the rail, open Scan > Scale, type the real length into Last measure is really and press Scale from last measure.

   Done when: your check measurement matches what your tape says.
5. 10 min

   Tidy the scan

   From Scan on the rail, use Straighten to level the floor, Crop to cut away the outside, then Clean up (X) to remove stray splats. Everything can be undone with Ctrl+Z.

   Done when: the scan sits level and the clutter around it has gone.
6. 5 min

   Take your first measurements

   Click Drawings at the top and switch to Plan. Press M and click two points to measure a wall. Press Z and click round a room to get its length, width and area. Click any measurement to pick it and drag its ends.

   Done when: you have one room's length, width and area on screen.
7. 1 min

   Save the job

   Press Ctrl+S or click Save at the top. The job file is small and holds your measurements, walls and settings. Keep it next to the scan.

   Done when: you have a _job.json file beside your scan.
8. 20 min

   Draw your first room

   Click Model. Open Walls on the rail and pick Wall (W). In Plan, click one end of a wall, then the other end; each wall takes two clicks. To draw wall after wall from the last corner, tick chain in the bar at the top, then click the first corner again or press Enter to finish. Heights come from the scan. Add a door with Opening (N) by clicking either side of the gap. Press 6 to see it in 3D.

   Done when: your room stands up in 3D with a door in it.
9. 10 min

   Export something

   Open Export > Which export do I need?. Under Drawings: PDF and DXF, press Floor plan PDF.

   Done when: you have a dimensioned PDF plan of your room.

After that, you know the core of the app. Pick up the extra tools from the Quick guides as your jobs need them.

4Which tool do I need?

Find what you want to do, then go straight to the tool. The rail down the left groups the tools into Prepare, Look, Measure and Survey: click a group to see what is in it, and click again, click elsewhere or press Esc to close it.

5The screen

• 1Menus: File, Edit, View, Insert, Tools, Export and Help.
• 2Search (Ctrl+K) finds any tool by name. The next button sets the look: Auto (follows Windows), Light or Dark.
• 3Steps: Prep, Model, Drawings and Compare. Each step puts the tools it needs at the top of the rail.
• 4Views: 3D, Plan, and More views for Ceiling, Top and the A-A and B-B sections. Fit brings the whole scan into view.
• 5Units (mm, cm or metres), Save the job, and Export.
• 6Copy view (F9) and Record 5 seconds (F10), for showing a problem.
• 7Rail: this step's tools first, then the groups Scan, Look, Measure and Survey, the tools of other steps (dimmed), and Compare. In the Model and Drawings steps, Scan is called Prepare.
• 8Settings panel for whatever you picked on the rail. The × closes it.
• 9View bar: camera presets (Iso, Top, Front, Left, Back, Under), how the scan and model are drawn, Show, Work area, Lock all, background, VR and Full screen. It fades while you work; move the pointer over it.
• +Tabs: each scan you open gets a tab under the menu bar. Click a tab to switch scans (the work on each is kept and put back), the cross closes it, + opens another scan. A dot means changes not yet saved in a job file. Switching takes as long as opening that scan.
• 10Height slider: drag the top end down or the bottom end up to clip the view. Double click shows everything. Model: full height chooses whether the model is clipped too. Cut edge colours the edge where the slider cuts through the scan (splat scans); the round swatch picks the colour.
• 11Status line: what the current tool expects you to do, plus the file and point count.

In the Model and Drawings steps a Model panel opens on the right. It shows how many walls, pillars, openings and roofs you have, the floor level, the thickness for new walls, and buttons such as Check walls against scan, Tidy up the model and Add dimension strings.

The views

6Moving around

The camera presets on the view bar jump to a set direction. Work area shows only the part you are working on. You can also drag a tab in from any edge of the 3D view to cut the scene away.

7Step 1: Prep

Get the scan right before you draw on it. The Prep panels are under Scan on the rail: Scale, Straighten, Crop, Clean up, Slice and Auto clean.

The Scan panel

Opens when a scan loads. At the top: the file, its size and how many splats or points are shown. Get it ready lists the four set-up steps, ticked when done: Level, Scale (shown in orange until the figures are real metres), Crop and Clean up; each has its own button, and the blue Next button takes you to the next one to do. Combine scans into one joins floors, rooms, or the inside and outside of a building into one scan. Under Other scans: Open a different scan (this one stays in its tab), Show a second scan on top (a see-through overlay) and Compare dates. Recent reopens the last scans with one click.

Scale

Everything you measure depends on the scale, so check it first.

• XGRIDS LCC scans open in metres. Leave them alone unless a check measurement says otherwise.
• From a known length: measure something you know with M, type its real length into Last measure is really, press Scale from last measure.
• From the room height: type the real floor to ceiling height into Real height and press Set scale.

Straighten

Makes the floor level and squares the building to the screen. Use it when a scan opens tilted, lying down or upside down. Sit on grid stands the scan on the floor grid.

Crop

Cuts the scan to a box: drag the box handles, then Apply. For odd shapes, use Crop polygon (P) and click round the area you want to keep. The crop also applies when you save a cleaned scan.

Clean up

Removes floaters, stray splats and things you do not want in the scan. Press X or pick it on the rail.

1. Choose how to pick: Lasso, Box, Brush or Straight lines.
2. Drag over the unwanted points. They turn red. Alt+drag takes some off.
3. Press Delete. Ctrl+Z (or the undo arrow in the panel) puts them back.

• Invert swaps the selection, handy for keeping one thing and deleting the rest. Clear lets go.
• The jobs at the top of the panel are four tiles, in the order you work: Remove object (one click picks a whole object; Alt+drag round part of the red takes just that part off), Trim (Trim box, Lasso, Box, Brush and Lines), Fix holes (filling, Find holes, Clone, Repeat and Straighten) and Looks. Tap a tile and its settings open under it; tap it again to close. With Trim box open, dragging beside the box turns the view.
• Delete + fill in Remove object fills the ground the object stood on: only the part that is really missing, so good ground near the edge stays as scanned. When a wall stands up to 2.5 m behind it, the ground up to the wall is filled too and the brown blur the scanner left in the gap goes, in the same step (one Undo).
• On an LCC scan the view swaps to a lighter copy while you turn it; round anything deleted or filled the full scan is drawn instead, so there is no rim.
• Fix holes shows its tools as tiles in two groups: Fill gaps (Fill hole, Patch area, Clone brush, Repeat) and Fix surfaces (Flatten, Straighten wall, Surface eraser, Lift shadow). Pick one and only its settings show underneath. Photo out and Photo in are under Photo editing.
• Trim box: the count of what is inside and Delete inside are at the top; Width, Depth and Height use the unit on the top bar; Exact position, turn and tilt opens the X, Y, Bottom, Turn and Tilt boxes.
• Patch area (Fix holes > Patch area) fills a bigger gap, such as an empty car park bay where a car was, on the Plan. 1 Lock: click round each part that must stay sharp (the white lines either side); Enter or the first point closes it. 2 Sample: drag a box over clean surface to copy from. 3 Fill: click round the gap, or pick Brush and brush over it, then Fill the gap. Nothing is copied over a locked part. Edge blend fades the copy into the scan at the edge, Match colour and shade to the edges shifts it to match the surface all round the gap (a darker side stays darker), Follow the ground height keeps slopes, and Pattern is Line up (the sample laid straight) or Mix up (turned at random so no repeat shows). One fill is one Undo.
• Lonely splats finds isolated floaters for you. Only one way of trimming is on at a time: opening the Trim box, a select tool (Lasso, Box, Brush, Lines) or Lonely splats puts the others away.
• Before shows the scan as it was, to compare.

Slice and Auto clean

Slice shows one band of height in the flat views. Scrub it down to skirting level to find the true wall face, or up to a door head. It only changes the picture, never your measurements. Auto clean is an automatic floater filter with a strength slider. It never removes more than 60% of a scan.

Saving the cleaned scan

File > Save cleaned scan (PLY) writes a new file with your deletions, levelling and crop applied. Your original file is never touched. Save cleaned scan (SPZ) gives a much smaller file.

8Step 2: Model

Draw the building over the scan. Each tool reads heights, thicknesses and levels from the scan as you place it. Click Model at the top: the rail shows Select, Walls, Floors roofs stairs, Steel and glass, Objects and Mark up.

Select and edit

Select (V) works the same in every view: click anything to pick it, then drag its handles. In 3D, blue squares move a corner, pink diamonds set heights, green arrows change the length and a white + adds a corner. Shift+click adds to the selection; Delete removes it.

Walls

Drawing accurately

• Type a length: while drawing, type digits for the exact length of the next leg and press Enter.
• Snap (S): to corners, wall faces, square angles and matching heights. Alt draws straight with no snap for that click; Shift keeps to the axis.
• Walls meeting at a corner join as a builder's butt joint. Snap a wall end onto another wall to join them.
• Tidy up the model (Model panel) squares corners, levels heights and lines up openings in one go. Ctrl+Z undoes it.

Floors, roofs, stairs

Steel and glass

• Beam: click start and end. Ends snap to wall faces, post tops and other beams.
• Canopy: click the four corners of the canopy roof; posts, beams, rafters and glass are made for you.
• Glass: a glass sheet (not a window). Click each corner.

Objects

Library (I) holds doors, windows, fire safety, washrooms, kitchens, furniture and more: pick one, then click in the scene. The Insert menu also has My objects for your own PLY or GLB files, and stand-ins (van, car, person, dog) for scale. Objects can be moved, turned, tilted and resized after placing.

Showing the model

On the view bar, Scan and Model switch each on or off, and the menus beside them choose how they are drawn (for example points, photo or x-ray for the scan, solid for the model). Show holds extras such as wall sizes and textures. Edit > Clear all walls removes every wall, room and opening, so use it with care.

9Step 3: Drawings

Measure, annotate and set up the sections that go on your sheets. The tools are under Mark up on the rail.

Zones measure to the wall line, so pipes or cables fixed to a ceiling do not shorten your area. Dimensions are laid out so they do not sit on top of each other. Change the units at the top at any time; drawings and exports follow.

The Measure > Sections panel shows the A-A or B-B section live beside the plan or 3D as you move the line. See the Quick guides.

10Saving and exporting

Save your job

Save at the top, or Ctrl+S, saves zones, measurements, notes, walls, clean-up and settings to a small job file. The scan itself is not inside it, so keep the job file next to the scan.

To carry on later, open the scan and use File > Open job. You can do it in either order: if you open the job first, Scan Bench waits and applies it when you open the scan.

Autosave

Scan Bench also keeps your work in the app as you go. When you reopen the same scan it asks: Carry on where I left off or Start fresh. Start fresh keeps a copy, so Ctrl+Z straight after brings it back.

Which export do I need?

Export > Which export do I need? lays every option out by what you want to end up with.

The Export button at the top (Ctrl+E) opens the full drawings and files exporter. Room, area (GIA and NIA) and model schedules, and a steel list, are under Export > Schedules.

11Quick guides

Short how-tos for the specialist tools, and where to find each one.

12Ponding and dips

Where water would stand on a floor, yard or car park, how deep, and how much. Rail: Measure > Ponding

1. Pick the area (optional)

   Press Draw the area and click round it. Leave it out and the ground of the whole scan is checked. With an area drawn, only the ground inside it is checked, and the dip survey PDF shows the area and its blue dashed outline. Gullies, drains and the rain test need an area. The red Clear button takes off the area, gullies, drains and dips (Ctrl+Z brings them back). Drawing a new area clears the old dips, so press Find the dips again.

2. Add gullies and drains

   + Square gully grate drops a gully where you click. + Channel drain (draw a line): click along the drain, round any bends, and click the last point again or press Enter to finish.

3. Find the dips

   Press Find the dips. Each dip is listed with its depth, area and litres. Click a row, or a numbered pin in the view, to pick it.

4. Look at it

   Water colours the water by depth in five shades, Pins numbers each dip, and Block shows a solid slice of the ground round the picked dip. With a dip picked, Section through it opens Sections with a short cut through the dip, and Look at it in 3D turns the view to it.

5. Try the rain test

   Pick how heavy the rain is and how long, then press Start the rain. Water runs, gathers in the dips and drains away through your gullies and drains, with litres and depths.

6. Make the report

   Dip survey PDF gives a plan with numbered dips, a schedule, and a page per dip with a 3D picture and a section. CSV saves the list. Untick 3D pictures in the PDF for a quicker, smaller file.

What counts as a dip

• Only the ground is checked. Walls, kerbs, sills, cars, railings and roofs are left out.
• The water must be deeper than the scan's own noise. The panel shows the noise and the cut-off it uses, never less than 5 mm.
• The water must cover at least 0.2 m². Hollows over 250 mm deep, such as pits, steps and gaps in the scan, are left out and counted.

How sure each dip is

Each dip in the list has a mark, also in the PDF and CSV. Pick a dip to see the reason.

• Sure: well clear of the scan noise, at least 0.5 m², and not next to a gap or the edge.
• Likely: small or shallow, but nothing else wrong.
• Check on site: it runs into the edge of the scan, sits next to a car, object or gap, is over 150 mm deep (more likely a hole or gap than water), or is only just deeper than the scan noise.

The pins use the same colours: green Sure, orange Likely, red Check on site, and blue for the dip you have picked. The key is under Show. The Block round a picked dip covers the whole dip, and its water is the same size as on the plan; only the picked dip is labelled on the block. Heights on the block are stretched (the label says by how much, for example heights ×2) so shallow dips show, which is why it stands proud of the scan. Rain on the block: with Block on and a dip picked, pick how heavy and how long under Rain on this block and press Rain on the block. Rain falls on the block only, runs down, fills the dip and runs off the sides; the readout shows the minute, litres standing and the deepest water, and the slider steps through it. It uses the same strength and length as the Floor levels rain test. Pick the surface (tarmac or concrete, block paving, permeable paving, gravel or short grass: how fast water runs and how much soaks in, from rough typical figures) and how much ground round the block the rain falls on (block only, or 2, 3 or 5 times its size), so water from uphill runs in. Water runs downhill on its own surface, goes round cars, and once the dip is full it spills over the lowest point of the rim: white arrows show which way it runs, orange where it overflows, with litres a minute. Moving blue streaks ride on the water in the direction it flows (sped up 10 times so you can follow them) and turn orange where they pour out of the dip; they keep moving while the playback is paused. The water itself is drawn as it spreads: light blue streams where thin water is running, blue puddles on the ground round the block, and orange (or deep blue: pick Water under Overflow shown) for water that has come out of the picked dip, so you can follow the overflow downhill and see which other dips it reaches and joins (the readout names them). Rain can last up to 3 hours. A dip on its own never fills above its rim; what changes with heavier rain or more ground round it is how fast it fills and how much runs through. Gullies are not counted. Export > Picture of this view (PNG) saves the view with the water, pins and block on it, and the record button (F9 and F10) films them too, rain included.

Hover the plan in Ponding to read the water depth under the mouse, the dip number and its mark. Floor levels lists the same dips as Ponding, so the two tools always agree.

Clear buttons

Each drawing tool has a red Clear button to start again: in Ponding (area, gullies, drains and dips), Floor levels (area, fall lines and gullies), Sections (back to the whole line, fall points off, dip check off) and Volume (Clear all areas). Each one can be undone with Ctrl+Z.

Dips on a section

In Sections, the section bar has a Dips list: Water line (where water would stand, with depth, width and litres a metre), Rim to rim (a straightedge from lip to lip), Should be / is (type the fall it should have, such as 1 in 80, and see where it sits low) or All. Strip adds a row of levels along the bottom, and Mean line draws a best-fit line with dips blue and humps orange. This section PDF saves that one section.

Style of the 3D view

Redraw the view in another look for pictures, videos and presentations. Tools: Fun

• White model: a white massing model with grey lines, like an architect's model. Clay: warm sculpted clay. Both are lit by the real 3D shape of the scan.
• Watercolour: soft painted colours on paper. Miniature: sharp where you are looking, blurred near and far, so the site looks like a scale model.
• Cartoon: flat colours with ink lines. Blueprint: white lines on blue. Pencil sketch: pencil lines and shading. Thermal: heat-camera colours from the brightness of the scan, not a real heat survey.
• Cel shaded: anime-style. Flat colours, with hard bands of light, half light and shadow taken from the 3D shape, a blue sky and thick outlines.
• Painterly: oil paint, with brush strokes and rich colour. Retro pixel: big pixels and a few colours, like an old games console.
• Night vision, Retro VHS and Old film also show in pictures and videos.
• The same Fun menu has Scanner sweep (a laser plane rises and builds the scan), Brick world (the scan as toy bricks) and Paintball (click to splat paint; Ctrl+Z takes a splat off).

It works live while you turn the view, and pictures (Export > Picture of this view) and recordings take the look. Labels and measurements stay as they are. The shape looks need the scan shown as Splats; with Points they use the colours only. The shape looks read the 3D shape of the scan and smooth it while keeping real edges, so walls and the ground stay clean up close. Pick Normal to go back. Nothing in the scan is changed.

Opening reveal

When a scan opens as Splats in 3D, it grows into view from where you are looking from, near things first, with a band of small glowing dots at the growing edge. It takes under two seconds. View: Reveal the scan when it opens turns it on or off; View: Play the opening reveal plays it again, for example while recording a video. View only: the scan is not changed.

Walk around

See the scan from a person's eyes and walk through it. 3D bar: Walk View: Walk around

• Who is looking: Adult, Child, Wheelchair or Dog set the eye height; the slider fine tunes it from 0.2 to 2.2 m. The eye follows the ground as you walk.
• Moving: W A S D or the arrow keys to walk (left and right arrows turn), drag to look round, Shift to go faster, the mouse wheel to step.
• Stop at walls (on by default): you stop at walls, cars and anything solid between knee and head height, and slide along them. Untick it to walk through anything.
• Steps and jumping: you walk up steps, stairs and ramps; a rise of more than 35 cm stops you. Space jumps about 45 cm, to get up a higher step or over something low.
• Sharp: big scans turn to dots while you move, to stay smooth. Sharp keeps the full scan.
• Torch (T): a beam from where you stand lights what you look at. Dark turns the scene down to night so the torch shows. The torch shows on splat scans and casts no shadows.
• Esc or Stop leaves walking and puts the view back as it was. Nothing is saved.

RC car

Race a remote-control toy car (about 45 cm long, at real size) round the scan. 3D bar: RC car Tools: RC car

• Keys: W or Up throttle, S or Down brake then reverse, A and D steer, Space handbrake (the back slides round corners), Shift boost, C changes the camera (low behind, higher, overhead), R back to the start, Esc stop.
• Game controller: left stick steers, right trigger throttle, left trigger brake, A handbrake, Y back to the start.
• It bumps off walls, kerbs and anything solid from 10 to 45 cm high, and follows the ground.
• How it drives: like a 1/10 electric buggy. Full torque from a standstill up to 25 mph (Shift for 30), tyres that grip then slide when you push too hard, a fast steering servo with less lock at speed (taps on the keys give small corrections), and the handbrake swings the back round. The wheels turn at the right speed, the front wheels steer, the body squats, dives and leans, and each wheel follows the real ground. You hear the motor and the tyres (M mutes), and sliding leaves skid marks.
• Laps: the clock starts when you first drive. Go more than 6 m from the start and come back past it to finish a lap; your last and best laps show on screen.
• The car is a solid model: it hides behind walls and cars in the scan and gets darker at night with the scene. When you stop, the car goes.
• Car: the Car button on the RC bar picks the design: Monster (an off-road truggy, the default), F1 (with a Colour button for its livery), Classic (the red buggy) or Your model (load a GLB file of any car; Shift+click Car turns it round; its wheels spin and steer, found by their names or by shape at the four corners). They all drive the same.
• Placing the car: double-click the ground to put the car there, or press Place and click. Restart takes it back to where it started.
• Lights: headlights light the scan ahead of the car. Auto turns them on when the scene is dark.
• Ramps: the car drives up ramps and slopes; anything 9 cm or more above the floor next to it stops it. The floor is read from the middle of the scanned ground, and on dense scans it takes more than a few stray dots to count as solid, so painted lines and smudges do not stop it.
• Jumps: drive off a kerb or a ramp and the car flies, then lands on its suspension. The airtime shows on screen.
• Gates: press G or + Gate to put a gate across the car's path. The first is start and finish (chequered); the next gate to drive through is green. Laps go through the gates in order. Clear gates takes them away.
• Sound: the motor is a recording of a real toy RC car; its pitch follows the speed. You also hear a thump when it lands, a knock when it hits something and the tyres when it slides (M mutes). Sound loads your own motor sound, for example a motor loop from Pixabay. Its pitch follows the motor and it is kept for next time. Shift+click it to go back to the built-in recording.
• Behind (Auto, On, Off): hiding the car behind objects draws the scan twice, which can make driving jerky on laptop graphics. Auto turns it off while driving if the frame rate drops, and remembers that on this computer; Off is the fastest. The car still hides behind things when it stops. If driving is still jerky, lower the number of splats in the settings.
• Lights: Auto, On or Off for the headlights (Auto comes on when the scene is dark). Rear turns the red rear lights on or off; they come on with the headlights and glow brighter when you brake, and white reverse lights come on while reversing.

13Sky, light and weather

Sky, sun, weather, lamps and effects for pictures, videos and the client viewer. Rail: Look > Sky, light & weather

How the panel works

1. Scenes along the top set everything in one click: Clear day, Sunshower, Golden hour, Misty morning, Stormy evening, Storm passing, Bonfire Night and more. Use the arrows either side, or the mouse wheel, to see them all. A scene only sets the controls: change anything and it shows Custom (started from ...).
2. Save as mine: type a name and press Save as mine to keep your own mix. It sits with the scenes, with a cross to delete it. Reset all starts again.
3. Time of day: drag the bar from midnight through dawn, noon and dusk. The sun, sky and light follow it.
4. Tiles: each tile is one part of the scene and says what it is set to. Tap a tile to switch it on, and tap again for its settings, which open under its row. The small switch in the tile's corner turns it on or off without opening it. Each tile's settings have their own Reset.

Placed objects

• Pick one to move it with the red, green and blue arrows. Click empty space or press Esc to let go.
• Each object has its own settings. Pick it in the list or in 3D and its settings open under the list. Fires: size, flame height, light on the scan, sparks, and smoke amount, height, spread and colour (Smoke at 0 is no smoke). Smoke: amount, height, spread, puff size and colour. Fireworks: rockets a minute, height, burst size and colour. Also sunbeam size and strength, how many pigeons, the Christmas tree (style Realistic or Simple, height, turn, fullness, light brightness, warm or coloured lights, bauble colours, and tinsel, star and presents on or off), string light brightness, droop and bulb spacing, and confetti amount and timing. Same for all copies the settings to every other one of that kind; Reset puts the picked one back to normal.
• Delete removes the picked object, or use the cross in the list. Picking another scene removes what a scene placed.
• Firework colour and Fireworks a minute appear once fireworks are in the scene.
• Objects hide behind the scan where something is in front of them, worked out by the graphics card pixel by pixel. On a thin, sparse scan this is not always exact. View > Hide effects behind the scan with the graphics card switches to the older check if your graphics card struggles.

14Keyboard shortcuts

Press ? in the app to see the main keys on screen.

15Common first-day mistakes

The things new users trip over most, and the quick fix for each.

16Words used in Scan Bench

Plain meanings for the terms you will meet in the app and this manual.

18Getting help

• Show the problem: press F9 to copy a picture of the view (the pointer shows as a red ring), or F10 to record 5 seconds. The picture goes to the clipboard, ready to paste into an email with Ctrl+V; the video is saved to your Downloads folder.
• Report it: Help > Report a problem opens a short form. Tick what you were doing and what went wrong, say how often, and write what happened. Tips to try first appear as you tick, each with a link into this manual.
• See what is sent: the form shows the picture of the screen and the details of your computer and the app, each with a tick box to leave it out, and the full text to read. No scan data is included.
• Send it: Save and open email saves the report and picture to your Downloads and opens an email with the report filled in. Attach the two saved files and send. Scan Bench itself never sends anything.
• Tell us the build: the build number is at the bottom of the Help menu, and the report includes it for you.
• What changed: Help > What's new lists the changes in each update, day by day. It also opens once by itself after an update.

Christmas tree model: "Xmas Tree realistic - Christmas tree realistic" (skfb.ly/oOBJo) by Graphetta, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Changed: turned into points, recoloured and decorated.