Sophisticated reconstruction software packages are available from scanner vendors and 3rd party software houses. Tracking systems digitize by positioning a probe on the object and trigger the computer to record the location. The simplest tracker is a mechanical linkage or pantograph. MicroScribe is a similar device marketed more towards the animation industry. Electromagnetic, ultrasonic, optical, gyroscopic and inertial trackers are also used in some commercial 3D digitizers.
Trackers can suffer from interference problems either mechanical or electromagnetic.
Object and environment space and materials need to be considered. Manual tracking systems requiring a large amount of patient, skilled labor, but they can digitize an object directly into polygonal models, eliminating the need for the reconstruction phase. Automated probe tracking systems produce point cloud data that will require reconstruction. Imaging starts with the capture of one or more 2D images that are then used as input to image processing algorithms to create the initial geometry data. Some imaging methods create a point cloud, while others use feature extraction to create an initial topology model.