Scan to BIM 2013 FAQ Beau Turner (Director of Business Development) has come up with a Frequently Asked Questions for us about Scan to BIM, I have elaborated on one of the points below.
FAQ For IMAGINiT Scan To BIM
1. What is IMAGINiT Scan To BIM?
a. Scan To BIM is a software add-in for the Autodesk Revit product line created by IMAGINiT Technologies (from the same people who created BIMreview now Autodesk Revit Model Review, IMAGINiT Utilities for Revit and IMAGINiT Clarity & Clarity Workshare). IMAGINiT was the first company to enable you to Import, Visualize and Interact with point clouds inside of the Revit environment with the Scan to BIM product. Works with: Revit Architecture, Structure and MEP
2. What laser scanning file formats does IMAGINiT Scan To BIM support?
a. Scan To BIM runs inside of Revit and since the 2012 version takes advantage of the indexed point cloud within Revit (.pcg). This means you can use any of the following “raw” formats to insert: .fls, .fws, .las, .ptg, .pts, .ptx, .xyb or .xyz
3. What type of tools does Scan To BIM have?
a. There are tools that help with modeling, family creation, placement measuring to/from the point cloud, validation tools such as deviation (difference from what is modeled to the point cloud), interference checking between the point cloud and the Revit model and more. There are also new tutorials that are being shared on a regular basis (available within the product) to get you going and familiar with the tools.
4. Does Scan To BIM only come available as a stand-alone license?
a. With Scan To BIM we have both stand-alone and concurrent network floating licenses. The network license uses FlexLM, same as what you use for Revit. This means that if you have multiple people at your organization that need to use the license, if it is available then they can use all the tools in Scan To BIM.
5. What about the geometry, can others on the team see what is created without having Scan To BIM installed?
a. Scan To BIM uses all native Revit geometry. This means that you do not need any special viewers or other software to see the geometry that is created with Scan To BIM. Scan To BIM only runs inside of Revit, you do not need to bring this in (import) from any external applications. Work directly inside of Revit, where your model exists using native Revit geometry and families.
6. This is my first project, what can I expect?
a. If you are familiar with Point Clouds, Laser Scanning and Revit already then this should be a smooth transition. Most people in this category are able to be up and running by themselves in less than half an hour.
b. If you are familiar with Point Clouds and Laser Scanning but no knowledge of Revit and have done scan to modeling conversions using other software then Revit may be a bit of a learning curve. We would expect that you would go through some focused Revit training and likely need a small amount of time specifically for training with Scan To BIM (typically a 2-4 hour session)
c. If you are not familiar with Point Clouds, Laser Scanning or Revit and never done a scan to model conversion but may have pulled a tape measure and done cad work then you are at a slight disadvantage, not impossible though. For this you will want some Revit training, specifically on the parts that you will need (ie for the type of work you will be doing) as well as a some time specifically for training with Scan To BIM (typically a 4-8 hour session)
7. I need to model Columns, can Scan To BIM do this?
a. In the 2013.1 release of Scan To BIM the answer is yes for both Round and Rectangular columns.
8. I have multiple point clouds that I need to work with in one project, can Revit and Scan To BIM support that?
a. The short answer is yes. The more detailed is that this is a pretty common workflow, especially on larger more complex structures. In addition to Revit being able to bring these in and control placement, Scan To BIM provides additional tools to manage the visibility of the point clouds per view with visibility states. Turn on the visibility state that you need and only those point clouds are visible in your current view.
9. Can I try Scan To BIM before purchasing?
a. We offer a 30 day fully functional trial. This means that you can use this on your own data and take advantage of using every tool that we offer in the product and if you do not have any point clouds, we can even give you a few to work with and not have to wait. Of course if you want to buy or rent a scanner, IMAGINiT can help with that as well. Reach out to your nearest IMAGINiT Sales Rep for more details.
Note: #4 above talks about standalone and network licenses. Standalone is standalone and the Network license is like the Autodesk floating license. If a license is available and a request is make it's granted the license. This differs from the IMAGINiT Utilities for Revit Named License that requires you to have an Options file using an INCLUDE statement. Scan to BIM Network licensing does not require the Options file like the Utilities requires.
Comments