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.

Software
Faro scans can be opened with the free SCENE LT software. An SDK is available for 3rd party software to make use of the format, powered by the iQlib library.