In a system or method where three-dimensional data is acquired as a sequence of frames of data along a camera path, disparate sequences are related to one another through a number of geometric stitches obtained by direct registration of three-dimensional data between frames in the disparate sequences. These geometric stitches are then used in addition to or in place of other camera path relationships to form a single virtual stitch graph for the combined model, upon which an integrated global path optimization can be performed.
