PointCab - what the name really means

Hi there,

every other day, people ask us "What does PointCab actually mean?". So, here we will give the answer to all who seek knowledge out there...

Top 5 interpretations of the name PointCab:

1. Point Cabinets
2. Point Ca(b)pturing
3. Point Cabine
4. Point Cab (Cab as in engineman's controls, driving cab, captain's control center)
5. Point Taxi

Taking "PointCab" apart:

First, we have to say that we were young and needed the money... PointCab means - Point Taxi.

Ok, I know what you are thinking: "WHAT? Haha, this doesn't make sense at all." Well, you are somehow right. But let me explain our initial intention with the name.

The word "Point":

I mean "Point" seems pretty clear as the context of laser scanning pretty much pushes your head into point clouds and point capturing and what so ever. The laser scanning software takes those captured points out of the point cloud and does some magic to it. PointCab takes those points and reflects them onto an imaginary layer, kind of like in an x-ray. This is awesome since you never miss any details of the scanned objects and layers allow every human being an easy comprehension of the layout results. Most of the time, the layout is all your clients need. 

The word "Cab":

The world of cabs:

Cab equals taxi. Ok, what kind of context does a cab stand in? Most of the time, you will find cabs in traffic on the streets. They compete with other stricter forms of transportation like buses, trains or even planes. They also compete with more personal and singular ways of transportation such as walking, riding a bike or driving ones own car. Ok, so what does that have to do with laser scanning?

Laser scanning in the world of cabs:

Let's assume every passenger of the above mentioned vehicles is a laser-scanning software feature. And every destination of those different forms of transportation is a specific kind of job or client with specific requirements.

So now, let's look again on how much sense cabs make in this kind of surrounding. 

A cab is a vehicle where approximately 1-12 (maybe even more in Asia) people can sit in, speaking in laser scanning terms, this would be 1-12 features. People/features can be picked up really easy and get dropped off really easy. A cab can get to any destination - the closer the destination, the greater is the benefit over the other forms of transportation. With car ferries and monster airplanes you and your cab might even get over the ocean. Cabs follow the same patterns, no matter where you are. You order one, you get in, set your destination, get there and pay. How much more complex are the differences between different train systems at different locations? How many different ticket options are there? I think you get where I am going with this.

Sure, there are benefits with the other transportations forms:

• train - faster and cheaper than a cab over a long distance, only few destinations, lots of passengers/features
• airplane - fastest way to travel long distances, extremely uncomfortable and very few destinations, lots of passengers/features
• bus - cheaper than a cab but uncomfortable and few destinations, many features, maybe even life-threatening in the US
• own car - you have to be a frequent user to have a cost advantage over cabs, any destination you can think of, once chosen the maximum number of passengers is fixed
• walking - very healthy, very slow, very cheap, 1-2 passengers/features

The word "PointCab":

 So, PointCab combines the world of point clouds with the benefits of a cab in a traffic situation.

With PointCab:

• you have a small amount of features which you can easily pick up or drop off
  • layouts
  • views
  • sectional drawings
  • html export
  • pdf export
  • sketching
  • ...
• you have a transparent price structure and cost benefits over other solutions
• you can reach any goal and meet almost every job requirement
  • support of all common laser scanners and data formats
  • support of all common CAD systems and their data formats

So, PointCab basically transports your points to the destination you need them at in a fast, transparent and comfortable way. Simple as that.