Leica Cyclone Back Compatability 7.2 to 6.0

In the school of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Kingston University London, we are running Leica Geosystems Cyclone 6.0 on our network, but 7.2 on the Panasonic Toughbook we use with our Leica ScanStation 2 3D scanner. Unfortunately, the 7.2 database is not compatible with older versions, so to get the data out of 7.2 and into 6.0 it must be exported as a point cloud .ptx file and re-imported. It has taken me a little while to work out how to do this as instructions appear to be somewhat limited.

The Export command in Cyclone Navigator seemed a good place to start, so I searched the database directory tree till it became active, which was when I selected a ModelSpace View.

An Export to File dialog is presented, followed by the Export Options dialog, but this just resulted in an exception. Foiled!

It appears, data can only be exported from within an open ModelSpace View using File Export, checking Visible or Selected in the Export Options depending on which data you wish to export.

Importing into version 6.0 is very straightforward. Create a new Cyclone database, then right-click and Import. Select one of your .ptx files and Merge or keep Separate multiple clouds as required.

The point clouds are now in Cyclone 6.0.

There are MultiImages associated with the scans, however, so far I have been unable to convert these. I can  export them from 7.0 as individual images, but get an error in 6.0 when I try and create a new MultiImage folder in the Images folder. 

This is most unsatisfactory, but will have to wait for another day.