FARO
FARO is a 3D hardware and software company founded in 1981. They are a leading company in laser (LIDAR) scanning, which produces highly detailed point clouds.
File Identification
FARO scanners produce a proprietary FARO Laser Scan (.FLS) file containing raw point cloud data. Faro WorkSpace (.FWS) files are produced in SCENE software also produced by Faro. Current software also creates a .lsproj file as a managing projects and groups of scans.
.FLS single files use the Microsoft Compound File format as a container for the raw scan data. Each file contains a "Main" file with all metadata and a folder called "Scans" with all Calibration, Parameters and Scan Data Streams.
RAW Faro scan data saved by scanner to a memory card may be a group of files inside a .FLS folder. Processing with SCENE software combines files into a single .FLS file[1].
Software
Faro scans can be opened with the free SCENE LT software[2]. An SDK is available for 3rd party software to make use of the format[3], powered by the iQlib library.
