Scan to BIM: The Evolution of Scanning Technology

The truth is, scanning may be 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 need to confidently design renovations.

Laser scanning may be the only way to take action.

Up until recently, BIM users would take a group of "asbuilt drawings" put them right into a 3D modeling program and develop a computer model to work from. Now, after several years to do that, the harsh realization has surfaced there are many discrepancies between the "record drawings" and the specific environment to be constructed.

<img width="475" src="https://www.jdmcg.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/bim-4.jpg">

Whether it's sheetrock and wood, it really is adjusted to match. But if it's glass, steel, concrete or mechanical equipment, a seemingly small error can grow too costly as it is much harder to warp and bend. (Putting expensive new equipment into a location that's too small is 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 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, in the event that you wished 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 relating to 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 one hour for a whole 360-degree scan. If you could do 8-10 scans a day, you were doing perfectly. Today, the same can be carried out in about 12-15 minutes, depending on density you will want 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 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 will create a �-inch x �-inch pattern at a distance around 100 feet. That 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 going towards Scan to BIM technology, which converts billions of points in the point 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, this can be a huge advancement.) The program may also recognize pipes and model them automatically about 50% of the time. (Another major advancement.)

Now many of the pipe programs are getting to exactly the same place and advancing the ball. Currently, we are at what I call the "Model T Ford" in software packages, but each year the programs get better.

The next evolution

Having now scanned may highly complex areas in industrial sites, we've had a chance to compare them to the asbuilt drawings. In the horizontal view, they are generally close geometrically to the specific. But in https://surveyorwarwickshire.co.uk/best-building-information-modelling-warwickshire/ , 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 whenever an installer sees an easier path, he generally takes it.

"Record drawings," or asbuilt surveys, are rarely done following the work is complete. Typically, the conversation goes something similar to this: "Here are the look drawings. Redline any changes that you made."

There is not a lot of motivation to do a totally new survey. But in case a design team takes these documents and models them into their computer programs, they're 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 stage cloud to do a clash detection to find out potential interferences. The results was eye opening.

Few of the 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 could 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 than 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 would 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 step in 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 much better at accepting point clouds and computer models, but they still have a long way to go.

Not having a design based on a laser scan of the specific environment is a risk that few designers should take. I understand I wouldn't desire to tell an owner that there surely is a construction problem that could have been avoided with a cheap laser scan.

Laser scanning has evolved from the "luxury" to a best practice and it's not a step that any prudent designer should skip.

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Pub: 29 Jun 2023 21:20 UTC
Views: 63