Scan to BIM: The Evolution of Scanning Technology
The truth is, scanning may be the only cost-effective solution to collect the prevailing world.
You simply can't go into a cathedral, petroleum refinery, or metropolitan multi-use entertainment facility and measure with rulers and expect to get the accuracy you should confidently design renovations.
Laser scanning may be the only way to do it.
Until recently, BIM users would have a group of "asbuilt drawings" put them right into a 3D modeling program and create a computer model to work from. Now, after many years of doing that, the harsh realization has surfaced that there are many discrepancies between your "record drawings" and the actual environment to be constructed.
Whether it's sheetrock and wood, it usually is adjusted to match. But whether it's glass, steel, concrete or mechanical equipment, a seemingly small error can grow very costly as it is much harder to warp and bend. (Putting expensive new equipment into an area that is too small is really a nightmare for the installer, designer, engineer and the insurance company.)
These new 3D laser scanning technologies have dramatically changed the surveying industry - and they have changed it fast. But to essentially understand the evolution, let's take a step back....
2004: 360-Degree Scans
The initial 360-degree scanners came onto the scene around 2004. Before that, if you wished to scan something above your mind, you'd to tilt the scanner back and scan at a steep angle, because so many only had a 120-degree scan ability on the vertical axis. Several companies came out with full straight scanners concerning this time that managed to get much easier.
2006: Time-of-Flight Scans
Another evolution was time-of flight scanners. In 2006, a time-of-flight scanner took about 45 minutes to one hour for a whole 360-degree scan. In the event that you could do 8-10 scans each day, you were doing perfectly. Today, the same can be done in about 12-15 minutes, based on the density you will want scan.
At our firm, our first scanning projects were roads. In an exceedingly complicated area, we would scan 1"X 1". The time-of-fight scanners in the past could collect 4,000 points per second. Now they are able to easily collect 50,000 points per second!
2008: Phased-Based Scans
Today's phase-based scanners collect 2,000,000 points per second and can develop a �-inch x �-inch pattern at a distance of about 100 feet. This is incredible so when fast and dense because the average user needs. The hardware will eventually get better, faster and cheaper, but phase-based scanning works well, stable, and provides the ability to scan almost anything in an acceptable about of time.
Present: Scan to BIM
Today, the big research money is going towards Scan to BIM technology, which converts vast amounts of points in the idea cloud into useful data.
Several companies have begun addressing this including small independent companies like Pointools, which developed a way for scanners to recognize flat surfaces. (No more than this may seem, it is just a huge advancement.) The program will also recognize pipes and model them automatically about 50% of the time. (Another major advancement.)
Now many of the pipe programs are receiving to the same place and advancing the ball. Currently, we are at what I call the "Model T Ford" in software programs, but each year the programs progress.
The next evolution
Having now scanned may highly complex areas in industrial sites, we have had a chance to compare them to the asbuilt drawings. In the horizontal view, they are generally close geometrically to the actual. But in their vertical axis, the pipes and duct work in the asbuilt drawings are rarely correct.
There are many known reasons for this, but most often it is because the procedure is so difficult that when an installer sees a less strenuous path, he generally takes it.
"Record drawings," or asbuilt surveys, are rarely done after the work is complete. Typically, the conversation goes something like this: "Here are the design drawings. Redline any changes that you made."
There is Take a look at the site here of motivation to do a totally new survey. But in case a design team takes these documents and models them to their computer programs, they are unknowingly creating multiple problems for the contractor on the brand new job.
We recently took a couple of asbuilt documents for a complex project, modeled them and then compared them to the stage cloud to accomplish a clash detection to find out potential interferences. The results was eye opening.
Several pipes, ducts, waterlines or fire lines in the ceiling were in the place shown on the record drawings. If these documents had been used, the MEP contractors could have spent ten times our fee "field fitting" the brand new utilities in the old.
With the utility and cost of laser scanning, it might be best if you use one on every renovation project. If for nothing else, insurance! Just one single field fit can sometimes cost far more than the scan itself.
If you scan the surroundings and put the proposed design in to the point cloud, you can tell in just a few momemts where the major interferences will be. We have found conflicts that could have taken up to $100,000 to fix if they had to be field-changed during construction. Some were fatal flaws in the required design clearance which could not need been achieved and a completely new design could have had to been submitted.
Scanning to BIM is a big and intensely important part of surveying. Right now, it is the design software that is trying to meet up with the scanning potential. Already this season, several new programs have come out that are much better at accepting point clouds and computer models, however they still have a long way to go.
Devoid of a design based on a laser scan of the specific environment is really a risk that few designers should take. I understand I wouldn't desire to tell an owner that there is a construction problem which could have already been avoided with a relatively inexpensive laser scan.
Laser scanning has evolved from a "luxury" to a best practice and it's really not a step that any prudent designer should skip.
You simply can't go into a cathedral, petroleum refinery, or metropolitan multi-use entertainment facility and measure with rulers and expect to get the accuracy you should confidently design renovations.
Laser scanning may be the only way to do it.
Until recently, BIM users would have a group of "asbuilt drawings" put them right into a 3D modeling program and create a computer model to work from. Now, after many years of doing that, the harsh realization has surfaced that there are many discrepancies between your "record drawings" and the actual environment to be constructed.
Whether it's sheetrock and wood, it usually is adjusted to match. But whether it's glass, steel, concrete or mechanical equipment, a seemingly small error can grow very costly as it is much harder to warp and bend. (Putting expensive new equipment into an area that is too small is really a nightmare for the installer, designer, engineer and the insurance company.)
These new 3D laser scanning technologies have dramatically changed the surveying industry - and they have changed it fast. But to essentially understand the evolution, let's take a step back....
2004: 360-Degree Scans
The initial 360-degree scanners came onto the scene around 2004. Before that, if you wished to scan something above your mind, you'd to tilt the scanner back and scan at a steep angle, because so many only had a 120-degree scan ability on the vertical axis. Several companies came out with full straight scanners concerning this time that managed to get much easier.
2006: Time-of-Flight Scans
Another evolution was time-of flight scanners. In 2006, a time-of-flight scanner took about 45 minutes to one hour for a whole 360-degree scan. In the event that you could do 8-10 scans each day, you were doing perfectly. Today, the same can be done in about 12-15 minutes, based on the density you will want scan.
At our firm, our first scanning projects were roads. In an exceedingly complicated area, we would scan 1"X 1". The time-of-fight scanners in the past could collect 4,000 points per second. Now they are able to easily collect 50,000 points per second!
2008: Phased-Based Scans
Today's phase-based scanners collect 2,000,000 points per second and can develop a �-inch x �-inch pattern at a distance of about 100 feet. This is incredible so when fast and dense because the average user needs. The hardware will eventually get better, faster and cheaper, but phase-based scanning works well, stable, and provides the ability to scan almost anything in an acceptable about of time.
Present: Scan to BIM
Today, the big research money is going towards Scan to BIM technology, which converts vast amounts of points in the idea cloud into useful data.
Several companies have begun addressing this including small independent companies like Pointools, which developed a way for scanners to recognize flat surfaces. (No more than this may seem, it is just a huge advancement.) The program will also recognize pipes and model them automatically about 50% of the time. (Another major advancement.)
Now many of the pipe programs are receiving to the same place and advancing the ball. Currently, we are at what I call the "Model T Ford" in software programs, but each year the programs progress.
The next evolution
Having now scanned may highly complex areas in industrial sites, we have had a chance to compare them to the asbuilt drawings. In the horizontal view, they are generally close geometrically to the actual. But in their vertical axis, the pipes and duct work in the asbuilt drawings are rarely correct.
There are many known reasons for this, but most often it is because the procedure is so difficult that when an installer sees a less strenuous path, he generally takes it.
"Record drawings," or asbuilt surveys, are rarely done after the work is complete. Typically, the conversation goes something like this: "Here are the design drawings. Redline any changes that you made."
There is Take a look at the site here of motivation to do a totally new survey. But in case a design team takes these documents and models them to their computer programs, they are unknowingly creating multiple problems for the contractor on the brand new job.
We recently took a couple of asbuilt documents for a complex project, modeled them and then compared them to the stage cloud to accomplish a clash detection to find out potential interferences. The results was eye opening.
Several pipes, ducts, waterlines or fire lines in the ceiling were in the place shown on the record drawings. If these documents had been used, the MEP contractors could have spent ten times our fee "field fitting" the brand new utilities in the old.
With the utility and cost of laser scanning, it might be best if you use one on every renovation project. If for nothing else, insurance! Just one single field fit can sometimes cost far more than the scan itself.
If you scan the surroundings and put the proposed design in to the point cloud, you can tell in just a few momemts where the major interferences will be. We have found conflicts that could have taken up to $100,000 to fix if they had to be field-changed during construction. Some were fatal flaws in the required design clearance which could not need been achieved and a completely new design could have had to been submitted.
Scanning to BIM is a big and intensely important part of surveying. Right now, it is the design software that is trying to meet up with the scanning potential. Already this season, several new programs have come out that are much better at accepting point clouds and computer models, however they still have a long way to go.
Devoid of a design based on a laser scan of the specific environment is really a risk that few designers should take. I understand I wouldn't desire to tell an owner that there is a construction problem which could have already been avoided with a relatively inexpensive laser scan.
Laser scanning has evolved from a "luxury" to a best practice and it's really not a step that any prudent designer should skip.
Public Last updated: 2023-06-29 09:36:56 PM
