FARO Connect Software (formerly GeoSLAM Connect)

Summary

1. Faro Connect software

2. Available Training

3. Known limitations

4. GeoSLAM Connect (end of life)

FARO Connect software

System requirements

The GeoSLAM Connect licenses transfer to FARO Connect

You will be able to upgrade to FARO Connect without additional fees if you have an active annual license for GeoSLAM Connect, or a perpetual license with active maintenance for GeoSLAM Connect (You activated a perpetual Connect license in the last 12 months or have purchased the maintenance fee in the last 12 months). If your annual license for GeoSLAM Connect has expired, you will have to renew your license to keep using FARO Connect. If you have a perpetual GeoSLAM Connect license that you activated more than 12 months ago and have not bought the maintenance fee in the last 12 months, you will need to purchase the maintenance fee to upgrade to FARO Connect. Please contact sales@flyability.com for more information.

Downloading FARO Connect

What do you need to download before getting started

FARO Connect:

FARO Connect 2024.2 (Release notes)

Flyability Script Installer:

Faro.FlyabilityScriptInstallerV1.7.0.exe

How to install and activate the FARO Connect Software:

1. You need the latest version of FARO Connect (formerly known as GeoSLAM Connect) to process the data from the new survey package. If you haven't already downloaded Item 1, you can find the latest version here.
2. Install FARO Connect
3. Open FARO Connect Licensing Manager
4. Click on the Activate tab
5. Paste the Activation license code provided to you by email from Flyability:
   
6. Click on the Activate button.
7. Your FARO Connect Software is now activated.
   
   
8. Close the FARO Connect software.
9. To enable the processing of Elios 3 Surveying Payload data on FARO Connect, if you haven't already downloaded Item 2, please download the following script installer (Updated December 14): Script Installer
10. Run the Faro.FlyabilityScriptInstaller.exe (if needed, right-click and use “Run as administrator”)
    
    
11. Start Connect
12. From the login page select Get Started to create a new Sphere XG account (former GeoSLAM Connect accounts are no longer valid):
    
13. Then select EU Server if in Europe or select COM Server if you are in any other part of the world, as shown below.
    
14. Then enter your information to create an account. You will then have to name your workspace, which has to be a unique name, so you may have to try a few times if the name you pick is already taken.
15. Important: Please check your mailbox for a "Welcome to FARO Sphere XG" email (from the support@holobuilder.com address) and click "Verify email address" in order to activate your FARO Connect account.

Important Notice!

On the first start of FARO Connect, you will be prompted to “MIGRATE” all your previous projects. This will DOUBLE all the files previously created with GeoSLAM Connect (such as .geoslam files, and .LAZ), so only do the migration if you need to further use the old projects in FARO Connect, and if you have enough disk space available!

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Available Training

To leverage the data collected during flights, Flyability has partnered with FARO Connect to provide you with a more efficient and high-quality data processing tool. Using FARO Connect may be unfamiliar at first so we have created some specific training material to assist you in this phase and help you take your processing skills to the next level. Below you can find all the available material from Flyability:

1. FARO Connect for Elios 3 Online Training (light version)
2. GeoSLAM for Elios 3 Online Training (light version)

Known limitations

FARO Connect is still under development and while the latest issues are being fixed, please be aware of the known limitations below, and don't hesitate to contact Flyability's support if you need any assistance.

1. Unable to open a project’s processed data from Connect
   The project folder can only be accessed from the LidarOS folder (C:\ProgramData\LidarOs\projects).
2. Issue with rotation of point clouds when manually aligning
   Currently, it is not possible to rotate a point cloud in the Side View. Only rotations in the Top View work.
3. DISCONNECTED: The socket has encountered an unhandled error on execution thread (stopped with exit code 1). Any further processing of commands on this client is not permitted. When encountering this error message, to solve the issue you will need to stop the processing and restart your computer.
4. "OusterLidarFeature" error: When encountering this error message, to solve the issue you will need to stop the processing and restart your computer.
5. Connect 3D viewer running out of memory: A warning message may appear or the screen will go white if there are too many point clouds open on the viewer at once. Avoid opening more than 3-4 point clouds at a time to avoid the 3D viewer running out of memory.
6. Admin request at installation: An admin authorization pop-up may appear 2-3 times when installing the latest version of Faro Connect,  however,  the Administrator permission is not required and Faro Connect will install correctly in the background.
7. Processing speed when PC is idle: The overall processing speed may be slower when the computer is left idle or in speed mode. To avoid slower processing speed,  make sure that the processing PC does not enter a low-power standby mode.
8. Issue with Flyability environment filter which will be fixed in the next version of the script installer.
9. You may be unable to remove/delete tasks from the processing queue.
10. Processing is paused when the screen is locked: it seems it is not the backend processing that is paused but instead, items in the queue are not sent to the backend to begin processing.
11. When processing scanned data (.geoslam) with a space before the dot (.) in Connect v.2.3.0 the output results get corrupted.
12. Naming a project with a space as the last character makes several workflows fail.
13. Flyability reprocessing datasets fail when picking bag and json from the project: this should be fixed in the next release.
14. When running the “Reflective Target Georeferencing (Cloud)” workflow with a control point file that contains a new line with only spaces, it fails with an unclear error message.

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GeoSLAM Connect (end of life)

GeoSLAM connect is no longer supported. If you still prefer or need to use it over FARO Connect you must create a Legacy local user account to use the software.

To do so, ensure you have downloaded and installed GeoSLAM connect 2.3 and the Flyability scripts. Links provided below.

Then follow the Legacy local user creation guide, link below.