How to scan an occupied office in a single afternoon.

This is an illustrative field note, not a client case study. It uses no client names, dates, or results — only a realistic picture of how a rental and capture tend to run. Volumet rents the scanner; the modelling is done by the renter or a processing partner.

Your goal: existing-condition data before a fit-out

Say you need accurate existing-condition data for a CBD office floor before a renovation. The drawings are out of date, the space is partly furnished, and the tenancy is still occupied during working hours — so the capture has to be quick, non-disruptive, and complete in one visit.

Rather than buy a scanner for a one-off job, you rent an XGRIDS Lixel K2 for the week. Handheld SLAM capture suits a walkable, furnished interior far better than a tripod scanner that needs repositioning around every partition.

Dry rental, with onboarding for the first run

The Lixel K2 rents from S$2,300 per week (dry, subject to approval). For a first interior capture, adding the optional onboarding session is the safer choice — a short Zoom covers setup, walking pace, loop closures, and how to export clean point clouds, the details that decide whether the data is usable. Teams with prior SLAM experience may skip onboarding and run the dry rental alone. Final pricing depends on dates, duration, deposit, insurance, and logistics.

• Weekly rental, project-based extensions possible
• Onboarding recommended for first-time renters
• Pickup or delivery in Singapore arranged per rental
• You keep the captured datasets

One walk, planned in advance

Your capture comes down to a planned single loop:

• Plan. Map a continuous walking route that closes loops through corridors and rooms; flag glass, mirrors, and tight spaces.
• Capture. Walk the floor at a steady pace with the rented K2, keeping overlap through doorways and returning to the start to close the loop.
• Process. Run the capture through LixelStudio to register and clean the point cloud on the same day.
• Export. Export LAS, E57, or RCP for the design and BIM environment, plus a coloured cloud for review.

What you walk away with

Typical outputs from an interior capture you run, subject to device, software, and processing workflow:

• Registered point cloud — a measurable coloured cloud of the floor (LAS / LAZ / E57 / RCP) for reference in Revit, AutoCAD, or CloudCompare.
• Scan-to-BIM reference — a reference layer your BIM team or a processing partner can model existing conditions against.
• Mesh for review — a lightweight mesh for quick visual review and coordination with stakeholders.

Plan around the hard parts

Interiors have predictable failure modes. Glass and mirrors confuse any SLAM device, reflective floors add noise, and a furnished space hides surfaces you will want later. Booking access during quieter hours and planning the route up front prevents most re-scans. And to be clear: these are reference workflows, not certified survey deliverables.

• Glass, mirrors, and glossy floors need careful technique
• Occupied spaces may require after-hours or weekend access
• Tolerance-critical work — agree expectations before capture
• Reference workflow, not a certified survey deliverable