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botspot’s Automation Suite: Complete Control Over Your 3D Scanning Workflow

Every 3D scanning system is only as capable as the software that runs it. Hardware sets the ceiling for quality, but it is the software layer that determines how easily, how reliably and how efficiently that quality can be reached in a real-world production environment. This is the problem the botspot Automation Suite was built to solve.

Developed exclusively for botspot scanning systems, the Automation Suite is a browser-based control platform that brings every aspect of a scan session, such as camera settings, lighting, turntable control, data processing and automated reconstruction, into a single, unified interface. Whether you are running a high-throughput digitization pipeline or carefully scanning a one-of-a-kind cultural heritage object, the software is designed to adapt to the demands of the workflow rather than the other way around.

What Is the botspot Automation Suite?

The Automation Suite is the central software layer for all botspot 3D scanners, including the NEO full-body scanner, the FLEX, the Studio Scanner, the Object Scanner and the Momentum 2.0. Rather than requiring specialist software installed on dedicated workstations, it runs in a standard web browser. This means operators can access and manage the scanner from virtually any device on the local network, without additional installation or configuration.

The interface consolidates what would otherwise be a fragmented collection of tools — camera software, lighting controls, reconstruction scripts, file management — into a coherent, purpose-built environment. The result is a system that is both accessible to new users and genuinely powerful for experienced scanning professionals.

Scan Settings: Starting Every Session Right

Before any scan begins, the Automation Suite guides the operator through session setup. Scan parameters, naming conventions, file destinations and reconstruction targets are all configured in one place, creating a consistent and repeatable foundation for every capture.

For studios and institutions that run high volumes of scans, this consistency matters enormously. When scan sessions are configured through a shared set of presets, it becomes straightforward to maintain quality standards across different operators, shifts or projects. Advanced users can also create custom configurations for specific object types, surface materials or output requirements, fine-tuning the settings that directly affect reconstruction quality without needing to start from scratch each time.

Scan settings in the Automation Suite also connect directly to the downstream processing pipeline. Resolution targets, polygon budgets and texture output formats can all be specified at this stage, ensuring that the final 3D model matches the intended use, whether that is scientific analysis, real-time rendering or archival preservation.

Camera Control: Precision at Scale

One of the most technically demanding aspects of photogrammetry-based 3D scanning is managing multiple cameras simultaneously. A full-body photogrammetry scanner like the NEO uses up to 160 cameras, all of which must be synchronised and correctly exposed to produce consistent, high-quality image data.

The Automation Suite handles this through a unified camera control panel that allows ISO, shutter speed and aperture to be adjusted individually or universally across all cameras in the rig. For new setups or after any change to the ambient environment, this makes calibration straightforward. For experienced operators who know exactly what a given object or material requires, individual camera adjustments allow fine-grained control where it matters most.

A particularly important feature is Live View. Before committing to a scan, operators can see exactly what each camera sees in real time, allowing them to identify any framing issues, exposure problems or unwanted shadows before they affect the captured data. In photogrammetry, a single poorly exposed or out-of-focus camera can create holes or artefacts in the final mesh. Live View makes it easy to prevent this.

To understand more about how image data becomes a 3D model, our Brief Introduction to Photogrammetry article covers the underlying pipeline in depth.

Lighting Control: Shaping the Optical Environment

Lighting is one of the most underappreciated variables in 3D scanning. The quality of the illumination during capture directly affects texture accuracy, surface detail resolution and the completeness of the resulting geometry, particularly for objects with challenging surfaces such as dark materials, translucent areas or highly reflective finishes.

The Automation Suite provides independent control over the lighting components integrated into each botspot scanner. Operators can adjust individual light groups, manage the intensity and distribution of illumination and, where applicable, control features such as digital spray, a tool that helps capture surfaces that are otherwise difficult for photogrammetry to process.

This level of control matters because different scanning scenarios genuinely require different lighting approaches. A matte ceramic piece and a polished metallic component are unlikely to scan well under identical conditions. By giving operators direct access to lighting parameters through the same interface they use for camera and turntable settings, the Automation Suite makes it practical to adapt quickly between subjects.

Turntable Control: Synchronisation and Precision

For object scanners that use a rotating turntable to present multiple angles of a subject to a fixed camera array, the turntable's behaviour during a scan is critical. The number of rotation steps and the synchronisation between turntable movement and camera triggering all influence the completeness and accuracy of the captured data.

The Automation Suite manages turntable control directly, coordinating rotation with camera triggering to ensure that images are captured at precisely the right moment at each angular position. This synchronisation runs on the dedicated control hardware inside botspot scanners, isolated from the main reconstruction workstation to prevent processing activity from causing any delay or inconsistency in the capture sequence.

Users can also configure the number of angular steps per revolution. For objects that are straightforward to scan, the standard presets handle this automatically. For more demanding subjects, manual control gives operators the flexibility to optimise and create denser image sets.

Data Transfer and File Management

Working with 3D scanning data means working with large volumes of files. A single photogrammetry session can generate hundreds of high-resolution images alongside the resulting mesh, texture and metadata files. Managing this data efficiently, ensuring it is transferred reliably, named consistently and stored in the right location, is a practical challenge that affects the speed and reliability of any scanning workflow.

The Automation Suite handles data transfer as an integrated part of the scanning process. Once a session is complete, images and associated data are transferred automatically to the reconstruction workstation or network storage location, without requiring manual intervention from the operator. Real-time progress tracking makes it straightforward to monitor the transfer and confirm that all data has arrived correctly before moving on to processing.

This automation reduces the risk of human error in file handling (a common source of lost data or mismatched sessions in high-volume scanning environments) and keeps the pace of work consistent, particularly when multiple scan sessions are being run in sequence.

For a deeper look at the data formats and structures involved in photogrammetry workflows, see our Data Models in 3D Scanning article.

Automated Model Reconstruction

The final and arguably most significant stage of any scanning workflow is the conversion of raw image data into a finished, usable 3D model. This process, which in photogrammetry involves image alignment, dense point cloud generation, mesh reconstruction and texture projection, is computationally intensive and, without automation, requires significant time and expertise to manage.

The Automation Suite integrates directly with RealityScan and botspot's own scan-to-3D automation tools to handle this pipeline with minimal manual input. Reconstruction presets allow operators to specify their target output, for example polygon count, resolution, texture format, and the system takes care of the rest, running on the CUDA-enabled GPU hardware built into botspot scanning systems.

For users who need consistent, predictable results across a high volume of scans, this is one of the most practically valuable features in the platform. Rather than requiring a photogrammetry specialist to manage each reconstruction job individually, the Automation Suite makes it possible for any trained operator to produce high-quality 3D models reliably and repeatably.

For advanced users, the system also supports custom reconstruction pipelines, giving specialists the control they need over every stage of the process without sacrificing the automation benefits that make the system efficient at scale.

Designed for Real Workflows

The botspot Automation Suite reflects a core principle of how botspot approaches scanner design: that professional 3D scanning technology should be genuinely practical in daily use, not just technically impressive in a controlled demonstration.

That means a browser-based interface that does not require specialist software or dedicated workstations. It means automation that handles the repetitive, error-prone steps of data management and reconstruction without removing the expert control that professionals need for challenging subjects. It means presets that make new users productive quickly, and advanced modes that give experienced operators the flexibility to push the system further.

For organisations working in cultural heritage digitisation, product development, research or digital content creation, the Automation Suite provides the reliable, adaptable software foundation that makes high-throughput 3D scanning operationally sustainable.

To see the Automation Suite in action alongside botspot's full range of scanning systems, request a demo or visit the Automation Suite product page for full specifications and a downloadable data sheet.