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Get Usable 3D Revit models that Save Time, Reduce Design Clashes and increase Quality
Whatever the stage of the project, our Scan to BIM service can capture the structure in its existing state and provide this information to you in the form of a as-built 3D modeling format such as Autodesk Revit or other standard CAD format. This is an extreme upgrade for architects, engineers and contractors who been collecting as-built information the traditional way, with tape measures and laser beams. Our services is essentially a “turn key” service where you identify the extents of the areas you want scanned, and we provide a 3D model in a reasonably short period of time. The resulting BIM model can support many stages of a design-build project including:
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And many more.
One can now tackle enormously complex shapes and huge sizes with ease. The project team can capture them with exacting dimensions in an exceedingly short time compared to doing it with a tape measure and notepad. There is simply no better way for architects and engineers to capture an as-built model and drawings than scan-to-bim. It is extremely fast, very accurate, and saves trees from all those notepads that would have been needed.
We routinely see levels of accuracy in the 1/8″ range over distances of 100 ft or more. The scans are so precise that customers are often faced with another dilemma – that the scanner picks up everything, even the flaws. The scan show the true conditions fo things, and most of the time things that are supposed to be flat, straight, plumb and/or level are NOT. But our modeling team is adept at surmising the design intent of a structure, so that your BIM model doesn’t contain every little warp or small angle.
The process begins with field deployment of a 3D laser scanner for capturing data on the existing structures. These are state-of-the-art technological marvels with eye safe laser rotating mirrors that can bounce laser beams off of any solid surface. They vacuum up huge amounts of point clouds in an extremely short amount of time. A laser scanner is seen below in action.
Anything nearby that the laser beam hits gets included in the scan. Multiple scans are taken to adequately capture the physical space. The multiple scans are combined together using a computer aided alignment process for extreme accuracy. This process is called registration and results in a point cloud that is essentially a 3D facsimile of the building. The accurate digital representation within the scanner is then transferred to a high speed computer where the data captured is optimized, aligned and transformed into a bim model using bim software.
The data captured is very large in size and requires a large amount of hard drive space and memory to process. This is because the laser scanner captures up to 2 million points per second. But these are more than just data points. Each point is in fact a highly accurate measurement in real world units. This is because first and foremost, the scanner is a survey-grade measurement device, not just a camera.
The scanner is also capable of capturing full color HDR panoramic images at each scan location. After a full day of data capture, you can imagine how many points that adds up to (hint: it’s a lot). The scan to bim process works by filtering, optimizing and reducing the sometimes hundreds of gigabytes of data into useful information like an AutoCAD or Revit model.
There are two main advantages of Scan to BIM.
Gone are the days of using old fashioned methods to collect data on building systems such as the trusty pencil and paper method. Taking measurements using a tape measure or laser beam distance meters takes too long. Laser beams are high speed and accurate, but you still end up only taking one measurement at a time. Plus, the ability of a human to draw an accurate representation of a building can be limited unless you are the Bob Vila of as-built drawings.
Laser scanning and AI point cloud processing technology advancements make it an exciting time to be alive for scan to bim enthusiasts. 3D laser scanning takes over 1 million measurements per second and measures between all visible objects at once. With this digital representation, it has become difficult to justify the pencil and paper method.
