Artec 3D has released Artec Twins, large scale digital twin software that is the first Artec application to generate and render gaussian splats.
Artec Studio remains the company's software for professional 3D scanning. Artec Twins was initially conceived for Artec Jet, the mobile SLAM LiDAR scanner Artec launched in April, and builds on Artec Studio algorithms while adding gaussian splatting, analysis tools and handling for very large datasets. Among other survey vendors, CHCNAV's CoMeta generates splats from the same aerial triangulation as its orthomosaic, DSM and mesh, and SHARE3DCAM lists gaussian splatting among the deliverables of its C10 backpack scanners.
Artec Twins generates splats inside the application from either Artec Jet LiDAR data or photos and video, with no external software involved. Point clouds, meshes and splats sit in a single project and can be switched on demand, which Artec frames as measurement and presentation drawn from the same data. Splats import and export as PLY, alongside E57, LAS, LAZ, PTX, BTX, XYZ and RCP for point clouds and OBJ, PLY, STL, USD and USDZ among the mesh formats.
Artec Twins fuses data from any Artec scanner with smartphone, drone and satellite sources. Artec pairs satellite or Jet data for wide context with the static Ray II for structural detail and the handheld Leo for submillimeter accuracy, and scans from other manufacturers import if they use standard formats. Analysis covers distance maps against point cloud, mesh or CAD references, cross sections, volumes, primitive fitting, ground control points and as built comparison against design files.
Artec says Artec Twins renders point clouds of billions of points at up to 200 frames per second without decimation, and keeps environments of 100 square kilometers or more interactive. Artec publishes no equivalent figure for splats.
All processing runs on the local machine. The product page lists an Intel Core i7 class CPU with an RTX 4060 8 GB as the minimum and an RTX 4090 24 GB as recommended, and notes that splat generation can be more demanding.
Artec lists Artec Twins at US $6,840 a year by subscription or US $17,100 for a lifetime license, and both include splat creation from photos or point clouds.
Artec Twins is available now from Artec and its resellers.
