Polycam 3D Scanner, LiDAR, 360 4+

Update: photo mode still Not working

Updated: yes, good news, they did update the software and it does work AFTER you log out and create a new account with an new email address, etc.. I had PAID for the pro version on the original account and then had to pay AGAIN for the new account and I have no idea how to get a refund. Although I immediately canceled my first subscription, I have still been charged for two subscriptions.

The LiDAR mode works with my wife’s iPhone 12 Max, unfortunately the photo mode does t work on my iPhone XR. Just hangs on Hold Still to calibrate, when you move around nothing is recorded. The Manual Mode doesn’t appear to be taking any photos. Attempted multiple times with over 30 + button pushes and the ‘done’ button never appeared and nothing ever saved. When trying to x exit out it says ‘exit’ or ‘save and exit’ neither did anything, just hung for over 15 minutes until I gave up.

Developer Response ,

Hi there, we had a rough bug introduced that made the app pretty unusable for some folks creating new accounts. The bug is now resolved, though. If you just started using Polycam, in order to use the app as normal, you'll need to log out and create a new Polycam account with a different email (or hit "skip >"). Huge apologies for the issues and if you have any other questions please email me at contact@polycam.ai

Encrapification over time

I used to love this app, it worked amazingly, scanned entire floors of houses, exported reliably for only $60/year for the pro version. For about three years it was my go-to tool for personal projects and home renovations (I am a DIYer not a commercial or pro user).

Fast forward three years and forced updates later, now it costs $150/year to export which is totally unreasonable for a DIYer like me and to make matters worse when scanning longer sessions (more than one room or two) randomly the entire scanning view turns blue (the color of unknown/uncaptured geometry) and stays that way completely ruining the scan. When I click finish at that point all the data is gone. I have to reattempt 10-15 minute scans like 5 or 6 times to finally get a successful scan which makes me completely discouraged from using the app at all, especially since I wont shell out the absolutely insane almost 3X price bump for export to SketchUp so I can stitch multiple scans together since a lot of my scans simply cant be done in one session due to geometrical shift mid scan and the extend feature being close to useless/broken/unreliable.

What’s the point of buying devices with fancy hardware like LiDAR when there is no first party software and the third party is ridiculouly overpriced subscription rubbish.

Too Many Bugs

Yesterday I had 2 completed scans completely disappear from my phone. Lucky for me I had immediately uploaded the first one to the cloud so I could share it, but then it disappeared from my phone entirely when I exited out of the finished scan and back to all of the other scans I’ve done. The same thing happened again later in the day, only this time I wasn’t so lucky, it too disappeared when I exited the scan and I didn’t upload it to the cloud. Also, I couldn’t extend a scan. The app says it has successfully relocated and to move the phone to start scanning, but nothing happens. One of the scans I sent to the cloud and shared with my gf appeared as all black with no surface detail even though it looks fine on the phone. I deleted it from the cloud and reuploaded it only to get the same result. Lastly, at the end of my last scan of the day (I did like 7 total including the ones that disappeared), I hit the red button to end the scan and save it but it just hung there. I had to quit the app and pray that the scan actually saved because by that point I was out of daylight. Thankfully it saved, but these bugs (except for the first where the scans totally disappeared) happen way too often.

Developer Response ,

Hey there - thanks so much for your review / feedback. You've obviously used the app a lot, and I'm sorry you're encountering issues. I'll try to address them individually:
- The disappearing captures are hard to explain - must be a bug, but we'll keep an eye on that. Sorry, I'm sure it's frustrating to have work disappear!
- With the Extend button, you have to make sure you tap the "record" button after it's relocalized to start a new Session. The Extend interface is a little confusing in general - we should make it clearer soon.
- Captures can appear black on mobile web browsers if the texture is larger than 4K, which happens at many processing levels. If your gf downloads the app or looks at the capture on a desktop web browser, it will appear normal.
- Sorry about the hang. Sometimes that can happen with an intermittent web connection. If your web connection is very weak, try creating the LiDAR capture in airplane mode. This is something we'll work to improve as well.

Anyways, thanks again for your detailed review! You can get in touch with us directly (contact@polycam.ai) if you'd like to chat more or provide other feedback. It's how we make the product better :)