Laser Scanning is a Great Solution for Design Teams, But Alone It’s Not Enough

Laser scanning is a great way for architects, facility owners, and contractors to obtain precise information about the size, shape, and design conditions of buildings. Laser scanned data alone, however, has limited value from a design perspective.

While many project teams want to convert laser scanned information into a 3D Revit model, they find that this process is time consuming. A typical workflow is to review the scan in a tool such as Autodesk Recap, then link the point cloud into a Revit model. Revit provides very basic tools to trace walls in two dimensions, but that’s all. Since modelers’ time is often costly, a better solution is needed to address the wide variety of modeling needs.

IMAGINiT Technologies’ Scan to BIM product provides more advanced mechanisms to extract geometry from point clouds, such as architectural elements, MEP elements, construction geometry, and more. With Scan to BIM, users create these elements directly in Revit. In our next post, we will discuss why firms are adopting Scan to BIM and the benefits they are seeing.