• Access to cloud services to speed post-acquisition processing of clouds, and the realization that segments of server-hosted point-cloud data can be converted into vector data of features as required, but otherwise left banked as cloud data against future need.

• Wider user acceptance. In addition to the traditional market for industrial retrofits, the need for interior mapping of government and commercial buildings is a growing market. Accurate as-builts are useful for space allocation planning, security evaluation and complex flow programming for facilities; for example, they are useful in courthouses, where the traffic paths of judges, jurors, defendants and the public need to be isolated from each other. Emergency first responders are pushing for fast access to 3D models of all critical public facilities, and they expect legislation will soon require it.

"It's gaining traction with owners that have longtime horizons," says Tom Greaves, one of the original founders of the SPAR Research Group who stepped down in December after the event was sold two years before. Greaves exhibited at this year's event as the executive director of his next enterprise, CyArk, a non-profit organization that is digitally preserving and sharing 3D models of World Cultural Heritage sites. Many CyArk scan models are available for consumer browsing as mobile apps. A large library already exists at www.cyark.org.