Faro Focus import, colors missing

[fifteen3617]

Hi,

I've found several old threads about this topic, some 9 years old, and I'm wondering if the issue has been fixed and I'm just not importing correctly.

Importing a Faro Focus scan project folder (the unit is from roughly 2022) the cloud imports fine, but colors are only greyscale (seems like intensity-based). When importing there is a popup asking to import rgb colors (yes) or luminosity (no). Clicking either one leads to the same result, no rgb colors. Faro Scene or Autodesk ReCap import colors without problem, as was the case with some previous threads about the issue.

Has anyone gotten Faro fls scan projects to import with color? I'm aware that the Focus units have changed throughout the years, and for example scans from the new Focus (the one with the internal SSD) won't import at all. But perhaps since my unit produces data that CC can handle, the colors could be processed as well?

[fifteen3617]

Tried to do some uninstall-reinstalling again today. Perhaps this is related to Faro stopping development of their SDK? Found a piece of news on their SDK download site saying they won't develop the Faro LS SDK anymore.

In any case, the SDK seems to be newer version in the 2025-05-31 CC release than it was about a month ago when I last installed. But for some reason the latest SDK (from 2022 or something) seems to be still newer than the newest CC has in the current installation package?

The Faro Focus I have is a 2022 unit, so perhaps it's the outdated SDK that causes the colors to be completely ignored when importing? I tried uninstalling the Faro SDK that comes with CC installation, and installing the one downloadable from Faro site, but that causes an error in CC (not finding the SDK).

Absolutely no experience in software, but to me seems plausible that above is the reason for the colors being unable to be imported. So not a Cloud Compare problem per se, but more of a Faro software "lock" feature.

[daniel]

Yes, we need to move to the 'Faro Open' SDK... more work for us!

[fifteen3617]

Is that something that completely replaces the Faro LS SDK? I couldn't find any info on that, but I'm glad if EOL for the LS SDK doesn't mean EOL for using CC to open Faro scans. Thanks for the hard work in advance!

[daniel]

Oh, so it's now called the Faro Scene API... https://knowledge.faro.com/Software/FAR ... dalone_API

[Marco]

Hi!

I'm new to CC. I downloaded the latest version available online, 2.14.alpha (09/13/2025), and installed the Faro plugin during installation.
Still, I can't open FLS files from my FARO laser. Can you help me resolve this?

[daniel]

The Faro LS SDK installed with CloudCompare is a bit old (and now deprecated by Faro). Maybe more recent versions of FLS files are not compatible.

Sadly, Faro has not answered to my request to access the new Faro Open SDK that replaces the old LS SDK...