Case Studies
Reality capture for real estate: Powered by XGRIDS scanners
Discover how XGRIDS reality capture delivers high-quality visuals, point clouds, and measurements for estate agents, hospitality, AEC and property teams.
Find out how the XGRIDS ecosystem transforms real estate workflows;
Learn which XGRIDS handheld scanner is best for your real estate application: PortalCam, L2 Pro, or K1;
Utilise a range of outputs, from high-fidelity visuals to accurate point clouds;
heliguy™ survey team can help you start and scale with XGRIDS solutions.
Reality capture is reshaping the real estate sector — unlocking powerful new ways to document spaces, measure with precision, and market properties visually.
XGRIDS has emerged as a leading ecosystem for high-quality, scalable, and automated spatial data capture.
With solutions ranging from the portable PortalCam with ultra-high visual fidelity, to the fully-featured L2 Pro and K1, the XGRIDS suite empowers estate agents, surveyors, developers, and architects with fast and reliable spatial intelligence, and photorealistic virtual models.
As a trusted XGRIDS partner, heliguy™ provides hardware, software, onboarding, and specialist surveying support to help real estate professionals adopt these tools with confidence.
Key takeaways
Complete ecosystem: XGRIDS delivers a complete reality capture ecosystem for real estate — including 3DGS (3D Gaussian Splatting) for photorealistic models and point clouds for accurate digital assets and spatial measurements.
PortalCam: Highly portable, PortalCam creates high-resolution models for exceptional property visualisation and marketing.
L2 Pro & K1: Produce 3DGS, dense point clouds, accurate measurements, and floor-plan-ready datasets.
Software suite: LixelStudio and Lixel CyberColor streamline processing and visualisation.
End-to-end support: heliguy™ supports real estate professionals with hardware/software sales, onboarding, workflow training, and survey services.
Expert insight
"Reality capture has become a cornerstone of modern property workflows. Tools like PortalCam, K1 and the L2 Pro allow users to document spaces more quickly and accurately. Whether you’re creating immersive marketing assets or producing survey-grade spatial data, the XGRIDS ecosystem gives real-estate teams a level of clarity and consistency that simply wasn’t achievable a few years ago."
- Alex Williams, heliguy™ Technical Geospatial Specialist
What is real estate?
Real estate encompasses the development, marketing, sale, leasing, and management of physical property—from residential homes to commercial buildings and land assets.
In a market shaped by competition and visual persuasion, accurate and immersive representation of spaces is crucial.
How does reality capture enhance real estate?
High-quality visuals that improve marketing and client engagement.
With XGRIDS solutions, view a property or room from any angle, rather than fixed viewpoints typical of other reality capture solutions.
Accurate spatial data for measurements, renovation planning, and architectural workflows.
Reduced site visits through comprehensive digital documentation and remote viewing.
Faster decision-making with data-rich models.
Real estate industry application table
The table below shows the pain points/challenges of traditional workflows for real estate, and outlines how reality capture provides a next-gen solution.
Real estate segment | Pain points/challenges | How reality capture helps |
|---|---|---|
Residential sales and lettings | Poor-quality photos; limited buyer engagement; time-consuming site visits. | High-fidelity visuals, immersive walkthroughs, fast property documentation. |
Commercial property marketing | Large spaces hard to present; remote investor decisions; need for accurate area data. | 3DGS models, scalable scans, shareable cloud-based twins, accurate floor areas. |
Property management & facilities | Incomplete records, lack of as-built context, maintenance inefficiencies | Digital twins for maintenance planning, asset condition capture, remote inspections |
Architecture, design & refurbishment | Inaccurate measurements; slow site surveys; reliance on legacy drawings | Centimetre-level point clouds, updated floor plans, CAD/BIM-ready datasets |
Construction & development | Need progress tracking; coordination errors; frequent rework | Frequent scans, construction progress comparisons. |
Estate/portfolio documentation | Multiple properties; inconsistent documentation; slow auditing | Batch scanning workflows, and portfolio viewing |
Hospitality and tourism properties | Need immersive previews; complex multi-room layouts | Virtual tours, high-quality visuals, digital space mapping |
Insurance and risk assessment | Need precise dimensional and condition data; claims audit trails | Rapid site capture, accurate 3D reference models, before/after comparisons |
Landlord and housing associations | Property condition reports; tenant communication; compliance | 3D documentation of units, evidence-based inspections, renovation planning |
XGRIDS ecosystem for real estate
XGRIDS combines hardware, software, cloud services, and AI-enhanced workflows to deliver a seamless reality-capture pipeline.
XGRIDS hardware for real estate
XGRIDS has three hardware solutions for real estate, each with a different primary focus:
PortalCam: High-fidelity visual capture
LixelKity K1: Mid-range 3DGS + point cloud
Lixel L2 Pro: Flagship survey-grade scanner: Dense point clouds + 3DGS
1: XGRIDS PortalCam for real estate
Lightweight, portable, and simple to use
Ideal for marketing and client engagement
Creates immersive visuals, walkthroughs, and virtual tours
Perfect for estate agents and hospitality teams
Verdict: PortalCam excels when detail, colour accuracy, and portability are top priorities. It enables users to quickly scan rooms and produce visually rich outputs suitable for client presentations, marketing, and immersive experiences.
2: XGRIDS LixelKity K1 for real estate
Portable LiDAR-based device.
Good accuracy for internal scans and general measurements.
Ideal for property managers, FM teams, and internal documentation.
A flexible balance of visuals and spatial intelligence.
Verdict: A portable reality capture scanner, designed for accuracy, point cloud capture, and 3DGS (especially suited to indoor environments).
3: XGRIDS L2 Pro for real estate
Highest accuracy, strongest range, and best data density.
Produces detailed point clouds and 3DGS.
Ideal for architects, AEC teams, and complex real-estate environments.
The best choice for measurement-critical workflows.
Verdict: The L2 Pro is suited to estate agents and survey professionals. A professional-grade scanner capable of generating 3DGS as well as dense point clouds, enabling measurement-ready datasets. It is more powerful than the K1 - offering a greater scan range and more points per second, and also creates enhanced splats in large open scenes.
Best XGRIDS 3D scanner for real estate
PortalCam | K1 | L2 Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
Primary use | Photorealistic 3DGS reality capture, virtual tours | Compact, cost-effective 3D scanning, interiors | High-precision surveying & engineering |
Output focus | Visual realism & immersive experience | True-colour point clouds & good 3DGS | Survey-grade true-colour point clouds, high accuracy, and detailed 3DGS |
Portability | Very lightweight (<900g) | Lightweight (<1kg) | Heavier (1.7kg+) |
XGRIDS Hardware: Key specs at a glance
The table below provides an overview of the key specifications of the XGRIDS PortalCam, K1, and L2 Pro.
Specification | XGRIDS Lixel K1 | XGRIDS Lixel L2 Pro | XGRIDS PortalCam |
Weight | 1 kg (with battery) | 1.7 kg (without battery) | 870 g (without tripod) |
Dimensions | 180 × 130 × 400 mm | 180 × 130 × 400 mm | 130 × 90 × 77 mm |
LiDAR Channels | 40 channels | 16 or 32 channels | Class 1 / 940 nm (0.1–30 m range @ 10% reflectivity) |
Scan Speed | 200,000 pts/s | 16-ch: 320,000 pts/s32-ch: 640,000 pts/s | 856,000 pts/s |
Scanning Range | Up to 40 m | 120 m or 300 m (depending on model) | 0.1–30 m |
Camera Resolution | Dual 48 MP panoramic modules | Dual 48 MP panoramic cameras | Four 12 MP cameras (48 MP total) |
Field of View (FOV) | 360° horizontal | 360° horizontal | Fisheye: 200° × 200°, Front: 100° × 85° |
Accuracy | Relative: ±1.2 cmAbsolute: ≤3 cm | Relative: 2 cmAbsolute: 3 cm | — |
Battery Life / Operating Time | 1.5 hours (approx.) | 1.5 hours (approx.) | 60 minutes (continuous scanning) |
Storage | 256 GB (replaceable microSD card) | 1 TB SSD | 512 GB internal |
Operating Temperature | −20°C to 50°C | −20°C to 50°C | -20°C–45°C |
Protection Level (IP Rating) | IP54 | IP54 | Not specified |
Connectivity | USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | USB 3.1 Gen2, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth | USB 3.0, Wi-Fi (2.4/5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.2 |
Software Compatibility | LixelStudio & LCC | LixelStudio & LCC | LCC only |
Best For | Compact, cost-effective 3D scanning and mapping | High-precision, professional surveying and engineering | Fast, photorealistic 3DGS reality capture |
XGRIDS software for real estate
Compatible with the XGRIDS L2 Pro and K1, LixelStudio is a powerful desktop application for processing, editing, and visualising captured datasets.
It offers one-click processing from raw scan data to production-ready point clouds.
Benefits of LixelStudio for real estate, include:
Point Cloud Slicing — Sectioning Tools: Horizontal/vertical slicing for floor plans and cross-sections
New plane draw feauture — draw floor plans from the point cloud.
Alignment Tool — Spatial Orientation: Coordinate-aware alignment with fine-tuning controls
Measurement Suite — Comprehensive Tools: Point, distance, area, angle measurements with imperial/metric units.
Allows export into CAD/BIM or visualisation systems.
LixelStudio is free and each purchase of the L2 Pro and K1 come with three lifetime licence keys, allowing up to three users to access the software for one-click data processing.
Lixel CyberColor Studio
Compatible with PortalCam, L2 Pro, and K1, LCC benefits for real estate include:
The LCC studio is where the magic of high-fidelity 3DGS happens.
Cinematic visuals with lifelike detail.
Fuse multiple data sources: Indoor, outdoor, and aerial views, to create one high-res model.
Aerial-Ground Map Fusion: Fill blind spots and rooftop details with aerial captures to create more complete digital twins.
Lightweight files.
Capture and recreate challenging scenes with full visual fidelity: Low light, fine textures, and reflective surfaces.
Full-featured editing tools to help you refine, analyse, and present your 3D content: Clipping, annotate, measure, asset overlays, and model fly-throughs.
End-to-end Collaboration: Review and present your 3D scenes across devices. Share results with clients or collaborators and explore scenes interactively without high-end hardware.
Native support for leading 3D engines and industry-standard development workflows.
LCC for Revit: Accelerate BIM workflows using the LCC for Revit plugin. Seamlessly integrate 3D Gaussian models with Revit for intelligent component generation and real-time visualisation.
Currently, Basic and Premium licences are available for LCC.
LCC Basic | LCC Premium |
|---|---|
Generate: Create high-precision 3D models in one click | Everything in Basic |
View: Navigate models immersively in first-person POV | Map Fusion: Integrate multiple scans from same-model devices to extend modelling coverage |
Avatar: Add digital guides to enhance interactive experiences | Aerial Reconstruction: Instantly generate stunning city-scale 3DGS models |
Collision: Simulate collision effects for improved realism | Ground + Aerial Map Fusion: Integrate aerial and ground scanning for unified modelling |
Edit: Clip, crop, measure, and annotate models | HD Enhancement: Advanced fusion of images and point cloud data delivering exceptionally detailed models |
Portal: Switch quickly between different models | |
Asset Overlay: Import .fbx/ .glb/ .obj models to add to scene | |
Publish: Publish models to the web in one click | |
Cloud Data Management: Set permissions and manage models online | |
Export: Export models in .ply or .lcc formats | |
Record: Support camera path recording | |
Flythroughs: Export spatial navigation videos |
How heliguy™ Helps
As an official XGRIDS partner, heliguy™ supplies the hardware, software licences, workflow guidance, and technical support needed for a successful real estate implementation.
Leverage support from our in-house survey department, including:
Hardware & software supply: We provide PortalCam, L2 Pro, K1, and all associated XGRIDS software and cloud services.
Expert onboarding & training: Our specialists deliver hands-on training covering:
Workflow support: Operational training and support, including best practices and data processing.
From consultation to deployment, we assist with selecting the right tools and building the right workflow for your real estate needs.
Summary
The XGRIDS ecosystem provides a powerful, flexible, and scalable reality-capture solution for the real estate industry.
Whether you need high-quality visuals or accurate spatial measurements, the XGRIDS ecosystem delivers a complete end-to-end workflow.
And heliguy™ as your dedicated hardware and onboarding partner, can help you adopt high-performance reality capture with complete confidence.
