Trimble Business Center

I am curious as to the difference between automatic registration through Plane-based registration and Pairwise registration? The auto registration in Plane-based takes significantly longer to process than in Pairwise, so I often opt to do my registration in Pairwise even if I have the tzf files with my scan. It seems that the Plane-based option does a refinement each time, is it necessary to run a refinement after every registration or can the refinement be saved until the end when all scans are registered?

Paul,

Pairwise is essntially a cloud-to-cloud registration. Plane-based is actually how station to station registration happens in the field using Perspective or Field link. I would refer here: Register, Refine, and Georeference Point Cloud Scans. 

• Plane-based registration - If your raw scan data was imported from a Trimble TZF (.tzf) or Faro FLS (.fls) file, which does not include scan station position data, use this workflow to easily perform an automatic plane-based registration of the scan stations and their associated scans to each other, typically resulting in a single scan station group and a rigid point cloud. See "To perform a plane-based registration (Trimble TZF and Faro FLS files only)" below for instructions. After performing the registration, you can, if applicable, georeference the point cloud as explained in "To georeference movable station groups" below.
• Pairwise registration - If your raw scan data was imported in a format other than Trimble TZF (.tzf) or Faro FLS (.fls), or if it includes both unmovable scan stations (for example, scanning-capable total stations set up on known positions) and movable scan stations (for example free-standing scanners set up on unknown positions), use this workflow to perform a pairwise registration of the scan stations and their associated scans. This causes the movable scan stations to move into alignment with the unmovable scan stations, resulting in a single station group, which can be further refined if necessary, and a rigid point cloud. See "To perform a pairwise registration" below for instructions.