The simple truth is, scanning is the only cost-effective way to collect the prevailing world.
You simply can't get into a cathedral, petroleum refinery, or metropolitan multi-use entertainment facility and measure with rulers and be prepared to get the accuracy you have to confidently design renovations.
Laser scanning is the only way to take action.
Up until recently, BIM users would have a set of "asbuilt drawings" put them into a 3D modeling program and develop a computer model to work from. Now, after Have a peek here to do that, the harsh realization has surfaced there are many discrepancies between your "record drawings" and the actual environment to be constructed.
If it's sheetrock and wood, it might be adjusted to fit. But whether it's glass, steel, concrete or mechanical equipment, a seemingly small error can grow too costly as it is a lot harder to warp and bend. (Putting https://anotepad.com/notes/57mnb8h4 into an area that is too small is really a nightmare for the installer, designer, engineer and the insurance provider.)
These new 3D laser scanning technologies have dramatically changed the surveying industry - plus they have changed it fast. But to really understand the evolution, let's have a step back....
2004: 360-Degree Scans
The first 360-degree scanners came onto the scene around 2004. Before that, in the event that you wanted to scan something above your head, you'd to tilt the scanner back and scan at a steep angle, as most only had a 120-degree scan ability on the vertical axis. Several companies arrived with full straight scanners about this time that managed to get much easier.
2006: Time-of-Flight Scans
The next evolution was time-of flight scanners. In 2006, a time-of-flight scanner took about 45 minutes to 1 hour for a complete 360-degree scan. In the event that you could do 8-10 scans each day, you were doing perfectly. Today, the same can be carried out in about 12-15 minutes, with respect to the density you want a scan.
At our firm, our first scanning projects were roads. In an exceedingly complicated area, we'd scan 1"X 1". The time-of-fight scanners back then could collect 4,000 points per second. Now they can easily collect 50,000 points per second!
2008: Phased-Based Scans
Today's phase-based scanners collect 2,000,000 points per second and will create a �-inch x �-inch pattern far away around 100 feet. This is incredible so when fast and dense because the average user needs. The hardware will eventually progress, faster and cheaper, but phase-based scanning works well, stable, and provides the opportunity to scan almost anything in a reasonable about of time.
Present: Scan to BIM
Today, the big research money is certainly going towards Scan to BIM technology, which converts billions of points in the idea cloud into useful data.
Several companies have begun addressing this including small independent companies like Pointools, which came up with a way for scanners to recognize flat surfaces. (As small as this may seem, it is a huge advancement.) This program may 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 have been at what I call the "Model T Ford" in software programs, but each year the programs get better.
The next evolution
Having now scanned may highly complex areas in industrial sites, we've had to be able to compare them to the asbuilt drawings. In the horizontal view, they are generally close geometrically to the specific. 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 frequently it is because the process is so difficult that when an installer sees an easier 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: "Listed below are the look drawings. Redline any changes that you made."
There is not many motivation to do a completely new survey. But if 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 set of asbuilt documents for a complex project, modeled them and compared them to the point cloud to do a clash detection to find out potential interferences. https://hines-mccurdy.federatedjournals.com/how-bim-helps-through-the-construction-phase was eye opening.
Several pipes, ducts, waterlines or fire lines in the ceiling were in the area shown on the record drawings. If these documents have been used, the MEP contractors could have spent ten times our fee "field fitting" the new utilities inside the old.
With the utility and cost of laser scanning, it would be best if you use one on every renovation project. If for nothing else, insurance! Just one single field fit will often cost far more compared to the scan itself.
If you scan the environment and put the proposed design in to the point cloud, you can tell in just a few minutes where the major interferences will be. We've found conflicts that could have taken upwards of $100,000 to repair if they needed to be field-changed during construction. Some were fatal flaws in the required design clearance which could not have been achieved and a totally new design would have had to been submitted.
Scanning to BIM is really a big and extremely important part of surveying. Right now, it's the design software that's trying to meet up with the scanning potential. Already this year, several new programs have come out that are far better at accepting point clouds and computer models, but they still have a long way to go.
Devoid of a design predicated on a laser scan of the specific environment is a risk that few designers should take. I know I wouldn't desire to tell an owner that there surely is a construction problem that could have already been avoided with a relatively inexpensive laser scan.
Laser scanning has evolved from the "luxury" to a best practice and it's not just a step that any prudent designer should skip.