Laser scanning undoubtedly has the following long-term benefits:

• the exhaustiveness of scans;
• the elimination of errors and omissions from scans;
• the generation of 3D files which are a faithful reflection of reality;
• the accuracy of files;
• speed of measurement;
• time-saving and the reduction of errors in engineering design analyses.

The drawbacks, which will lessen as future technological advances are introduced, are as follows:

• the slightly higher cost, in comparison with a manual survey;
• the size and weight of equipment;
• the size of the resulting files;
• the softwares required for the processing of point clouds.