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Description of Business	9 Months Ended
Description of Business	Sep. 30, 2016
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Description of Business	DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS FARO Technologies, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively “FARO,” the “Company,” “us,” “we” or “our”) design, develop, manufacture, market and support software driven, three-dimensional (3D) measurement, imaging and realization systems. We sell the majority of our products through a direct sales force across a broad number of customers in a range of manufacturing, industrial, architecture, surveying, building information modeling, construction, public safety forensics, cultural heritage and other applications. Our FaroArm^®, FARO Laser ScanArm^®, FARO Gage, FARO Laser Tracker^TM, FARO Cobalt Array Imager, and their companion CAM2^® software, provide for Computer-Aided Design, or CAD, based inspection and/or factory-level statistical process control and high-density surveying. Together, these products integrate the measurement, quality inspection, and reverse engineering functions with CAD software to improve productivity, enhance product quality and decrease rework and scrap in the manufacturing process. Our FARO Focus^3D and FARO Freestyle^3D laser scanners, and their companion SCENE, FARO public safety forensics and FARO 3D software, are utilized for a wide variety of 3D modeling, documentation and high-density surveying applications, including in two of our key vertical markets – Construction Building Information Modeling/Construction Information Management ("construction BIM/CIM") and public safety forensics.