In some embodiments a scanning method for deriving information about surfaces of objects for a surveying system is disclosed. In some embodiments, the surveying system may include a control and evaluation unit with scanning functionality, such as, for example, a laser scanner or a total station. In some embodiments, the recorded point set of the detected object points is kept available in a volatile memory of the control and evaluation unit and by means of the control and evaluation unit as part of the scanning process an adaptation of the recorded point set is effected depending on at least one point density of the recorded point set. The adapted point set generated thereby, with loss of the recorded point set, is stored in a permanent memory.