XGRIDS PortalCam questions, answered.

Photorealistic 3D Gaussian Splatting scenes in .lcc and .ply (plus .lcc2, .usd and 3D Tiles from LCC Premium). It is a spatial camera for film, showcases and property tours — it does not export an engineering point cloud or mesh. If you need measurable point clouds, that is a K2 or L2 Pro job.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · FAQ 4, 6

870 g, 130 × 90 × 77 mm, four 4000 × 3000 cameras (two 200° fisheye, two 100° × 85° front), LiDAR 0.1–30 m at 10% reflectivity (60 m at 90%), 180° × 180°, 856,000 points/s, 512 GB internal (external SSD optional), about 60 minutes per 23.04 Wh battery, −20 °C to 45 °C out of direct sun.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · FAQ 18–23

There is no GNSS receiver in the PortalCam. Absolute positioning comes from control points and LCC’s Aerial-Ground Fusion. For survey-grade georeferencing pair it with a K2 or L2 Pro capture, or fuse with drone imagery — AECT can set this up.

Source: Capture guide · Control Points (Lixel P1)

Android 12 or later with Snapdragon 765G / Dimensity 8000-MAX or better; iOS 13 or later. The camera appears as Wi-Fi network PCAMAAxxxx.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · FAQ 5

Check the PCAMAAxxxx network is visible, update LCC Scan, allow network / Bluetooth / local-network permissions, turn on location and Bluetooth, keep the phone close, and try changing Device Region in the app settings.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · FAQ 2

Solid yellow = not activated. Solid green = standby. Fast-flashing green = starting/stopping. Slow-flashing green = scanning. Solid blue = USB mode. Solid white = switching mode. Slow-flashing blue = booting. Solid red = fault. Alternating red/green = firmware upgrade.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · Basic operation

Hold the battery button 2 s to power on (about 25 s to boot) or off. Double-click the device button to start or stop a scan. Single-click during a scan to add a point (control, fusion, HD or POI). Single-click then single-click again while white to enter or leave USB mode.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · Basic operation

Within 180 days of purchase — do it in the first week. The code is on the card in the box; enter it in LCC Studio after signing in.

No faster than 0.5 m/s, and 0.3 m/s indoors, in corridors, near close objects, at doorways, in dim areas and around corners. Keep the camera moving — rotating on the spot produces no parallax and fails.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · FAQ 11; Capture guide

INDOOR for normal indoor lighting, NATURE for sunny outdoors, NIGHT for dim scenes and whenever you move between bright and dark areas, PORTRAIT for a person (start at the head, work down, keep it under 2 minutes).

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · LCC Scan app

Start on the tripod or a flat surface and don’t touch it until the light goes slow-flashing green (6–8 s). Finish by returning near the start point and standing still for a few seconds before stopping, so loop closure runs. Fast-flashing green after stop means it is still saving — do not power off.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · Basic operation / FAQ 13

About 60 minutes per battery, but keep each map to 30 minutes or less (one battery ≈ two maps). Very long maps need 96–256 GB of RAM to reconstruct.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · FAQ 19; LCC Studio 2.4.0 · FAQ 1

The mapping has degraded — a featureless space (tunnel, blank corridor, open flat area) or rough handling (fast movement, shaking, sharp turns). Stop, restart with the correct technique and keep that capture under 20 minutes.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · FAQ 14

Fine mesh and carbon-fibre surfaces, mirrors and polished floors, moving people (keep followers 5 m back), strong backlight and motion-sensor lights. Add even lighting indoors and vary your height and angle rather than standing still.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · FAQ 11; Capture guide

Map Fusion points (to join maps), Aerial-Ground Fusion points (to join with drone imagery — photograph the take-off point once with the drone nose aligned to the connection direction), HD Enhancement points (where you will add DSLR/phone photos) and POI markers. Change the point type in the app.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · FAQ 12; LCC Studio 2.4.0 · FAQ 10

In standby, connect the supplied USB 3.0 cable; a computer switches the camera to USB mode automatically after about 5 s (phones need USB mode enabled in the app). Copy the project folder, then unplug. Other cables can be slow or only work one way round.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · Basic operation

Fast / Standard / Slow trade time for quality; “Portability Optimization” on removes spherical harmonics for web, mobile and XR (smaller files), off keeps full quality for PC; watch the estimated VRAM and memory — red means likely failure. Keep the project path on an SSD, separate from the install folder.

Source: LCC Studio 2.4.0 · FAQ 28, 33

XGRIDS quotes roughly 20–30 minutes of processing per minute of capture on a recommended PC (i9, RTX 3070+, 64 GB). On AECT’s RTX-class workstations we measure about 10–12× in slow mode and about 5× in fast mode. Or send it to AECT for processing.

Source: LCC Studio 2.4.0 · Getting started; AECT benchmark

Publish from LCC Studio to a browser link (no install; public links have a load quota, so ask AECT about hosting for high-traffic projects), or export .lcc / .lcc2 / .ply / .usd / 3D Tiles for Unreal, Unity, Cesium, Omniverse and Apple Vision Pro. Web viewers pick a lower LOD than the desktop — that is expected.

Source: LCC Studio 2.4.0 · Getting started / FAQ 32

No — an LCC scene is not a mesh. For measurable meshes and point clouds use a K2 or L2 Pro capture through LixelStudio.

Source: LCC Studio 2.4.0 · FAQ 16

After 5 minutes idle the camera drops to low-power mode (about a third of normal draw; LiDAR off, data still copyable). Below 10% it force-stops recording and saves; below 5% it shuts down; a battery under 10% will not power it on. Charging: 0–90% in about 70 minutes, 0–100% in about 90 minutes on the 45 W USB-C charger, at 5–30 °C.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · Overview / FAQ 16

Charge fully after each day, top up idle packs every 3 months, recharge a flat pack within 3 days. Damage from ignoring this is not covered by warranty.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · Basic operation

Lint-free cloth with distilled water or 99% ethanol for the LiDAR window; never touch the lenses. Keep it out of dust and rain, don’t cover the heat-sink, and always initialise on the tripod on a flat surface — uneven starts cause thick, doubled walls.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · Maintenance / FAQ 17

Small updates come through the app. Full packages (over 1 GB) are copied to the root of the USB drive with the battery above 50%; restart and the camera flashes red/green while upgrading.

Source: PortalCam manual v1.3.0 · Basic operation

Old software, too simple a path (add angles), lens smudged or blocked, glare or exposure problems, moving too fast, or a dim scene. Re-capture slower with more viewpoints and even light.

Source: LCC Studio 2.4.0 · FAQ 12

No loop closures, too little overlap for the scene size, or too fast. Add loops, overlap and slow down; turn off layered optimisation if repetitive textures fool it.

Source: LCC Studio 2.4.0 · FAQ 13; Capture guide

Provide 10–15 m of overlapping trajectory, at least 3 control points placed consistently (within 0.5 m, ±20° direction, ~10 cm height), and keep lighting similar between maps.

Source: LCC Studio 2.4.0 · FAQ 14

Use 20–500 photos per session (at least 20 per point), same lens and resolution, 80% overlap, sharp and evenly exposed, no zooming or cropping, resolution above 1024 × 768, static subject.

Source: LCC Studio 2.4.0 · FAQ 15, 29

AECT Solutions is the XGRIDS National Distributor for Australia. Email info@aect.solutions with your serial number and a short description (photos or a screen recording help), or book an onboarding call from this hub. We handle warranty assessment and any return-to-factory logistics with XGRIDS on your behalf, and keep loan units for eligible warranty cases where stock allows.

XGRIDS scanners carry a 12-month limited manufacturer warranty against defects. Physical damage, water ingress beyond the IP rating, and battery damage caused by not following the storage rules (recharge after use, top up idle packs every 3 months, rescue flat packs within 3 days) are excluded by XGRIDS. Extended-warranty options are available through AECT — ask us before your first year ends.

Yes. AECT runs the largest XGRIDS hire and demo fleet in Australia — book online at aect.solutions/rent. Demo-to-Buy hire fees are credited 100% toward a purchase of the same product.

Every purchase includes remote onboarding (Tier 0) — this hub, a 1-on-1 call and email support. Professional on-site training runs on your own site and your own job (Tier 2), and the 3DGS Masterclass program covers the full capture-to-delivery workflow. Book through the training page or ask your AECT contact.

Yes. Send us the raw project folder (or a drive) and we return classified point clouds, meshes, floor plans or 3DGS scenes — processed in Australia on AECT hardware. Get an instant estimate at aect.solutions/services/data-processing.

Nothing leaves your machine unless you choose to upload. LixelStudio runs fully offline; LCC Studio processes locally (the online edition only checks your licence when you create or start a model); LCC Cloud publishing is optional. For air-gapped sites XGRIDS offers an offline LCC edition on a hardware dongle — ask AECT.