A compact digital 3D imaging system based on laser triangulation was designed for applications requiring a rapid response on remote sites. Heritage, forensic and industrial applications are among the best fields to benefit from this new technology. This paper focuses on such aspects as the acquisition, calibration, verification, and model creation. These aspects were all optimized to create a versatile system that is compact, i.e. hand portable to a remote site. Emphasis is placed on accuracy verification and monitoring which are critical factors for obtaining high-quality reconstruction of 3D models from multiple range images. A summary of the experimental results acquired in 1997 and 1998 at a number of sites in Italy is presented in this paper.