3D Laser Scanning - Revit Workflow

[sfraney]

Hi Everyone,

I know this topic has been discussed in the past but I was wondering if anyone has had any recent experience with using 3D laser scanning of as-built conditions of interior building spaces and what the workflow is with Revit Architecture.

We've had a few clients that have mentioned this 3D scanning service but am hesitant about what it can do and how well it works with Revit.

Any guidance with theis topic would be great!

[patricks]

Just working from logical thought here, not have any experience with it myself...

Seems to me like whatever information is generated from that 3D scanning could be used really only to generate a mass in Revit, if anything at all. Then from that mass you would have to create the existing walls, doors, other elements, etc.

[greg.mcdowell]

The one experience I had turned out to be sort of a let down since the model produced by the scan was polygonal instead of solid and, while it looked good in other applications, was next to useless in Revit as a model. About the only thing that I think they're going to be useful for is to create floor plans, sections, elevations, etc. that we can trace over with Revit families.

Laura Handler in her blog Bim(X) has some good information on this topic. They took it pretty far from what I rememberd. I think they eneded up making new families for a lot of the items in order to accuount for out of square and plumb conditions. Sounds like more work than typically necessary. Afterall, buildings aren't machines regardless of what Le Corbusier said. lol

[david.kingham]

Most laser scan companies will convert the point cloud into autocad solids which you can then import into Revit (and make your model very slow) it's on their wishlist to be able to bring in point clouds but I wouldn't expect it to happen anytime soon. NavisWorks handles point clouds very well though....

[benmay]

I have looked into this in detail as well, I have a project where we have laser scans for around 300m of existing building facades. I was looking to use this in my Revit model somehow, but even with the data exported through cloudworx into a simplified 3D solids format you end up with a file size of more than a gigabyte. Even on a powerful machine Revit cant really handle that amount of data even before you add your own model

I think the only real way at the moment is to use software like Navisworks as suggest to do any co-ordination and clash detection

[truevis]

Laser scans are very useful but bring plenty of problems. Easiest is to have them converted to ACAD 3D solids, and import into a dumb in-place family in Revit.

If you try to trace them exactly in Revit you will have plenty of problems with the slight angular variations, etc.

If you take the ACAD and put in a mass family to make wall by face, etc. it's also painful as Revit walls really don't do well when they have small angles from square. If Revit would make a wall by face and have it stay where you put it without trying to find "relationships" it would work better.

[aggockel50321]

These guys seem to have a lot of interesting software solutions for building surveying...

[thiele]

Point-Cab is a software what converts the millions of points into a scaled image file. You can use the image as a background reference.

Every image comes with the orientation of the laser scanning project and of course with a coordinate of each corner. So it is easy to place in Revit. We will a show a movie in a few days. So far you can take a look to the AutoCAD movie what shows basically the same steps under: http://www.laserscanning-europe.com/en/point-cab-layout

Thanks

[Beau.Turner]

Avatech/IMAGINiT released an application last week that allows you to take point cloud files (.pts and .ptx) and import into Autodesk Revit 2011 (for Architecture, Structure and MEP). Details here: http://www.avatech.com/ScanToBIM and you can request a free trial.

This allows you to view the point cloud inside of Revit and interact with the clouds to create reference geometry as well as to use geometry recognition to create native revit objects (ex. walls, ducts, piping, etc...).

Disclaimer, I am the product manager for the Scan To BIM product.

[twiceroadsfool]

Avatech/IMAGINiT released an application last week that allows you to take point cloud files (.pts and .ptx) and import into Autodesk Revit 2011 (for Architecture, Structure and MEP). Details here: http://www.avatech.com/ScanToBIM and you can request a free trial.

This allows you to view the point cloud inside of Revit and interact with the clouds to create reference geometry as well as to use geometry recognition to create native revit objects (ex. walls, ducts, piping, etc...).

Disclaimer, I am the product manager for the Scan To BIM product.

We've used Scan to BIM in our office, as well. We've made some great use of it on a couple of pilot projects.