Simply asking for a laser scan survey will add to the cost to get the same result and the 30GB point cloud model delivered will be handed to a design team who will have no idea what to do with the data format. The old and proven ways will be quicker and more economic.

Many surveys will not need to be done by laser scan. This process is, in itself, a skill set requiring training, experience and additional software tools. These ‘dumb’ points act as a guide for those who model BIM components to replicate the ghostly as-built point clouds in BIM components, such as walls doors and windows. The ‘Scan to BIM’ process only caters for the physical 3D representation and will only ever generate dumb XYZ points or meshed surfaces. Myths are easily started but oh so difficult to squash.īuilding Information Models are much richer than their predecessor’s 2D symbolic representations, the density of knowledge captured and layered with BIM provides even more benefits from the fact that building elements are modelled in 3D. In many respects the hype that follows BIM around also leads owners to perceive that in some way less work is done in the process of design and by using a BIM they can magically expect savings of anything up to 30% on design development. I am sorry to disappoint but this just is not the case.

The phrase that so easily slips off the tongue, leads people to think that there is a quick, autonomous and instant way to bring the real world inside a BIM application and have an intelligent model ready to go. Autodesk’s Recap and Autodesk Memento (pictured) are enabling new possibilities from every day imaging devicesĮvery time I write about Scan to BIM, I start off by stating that there is no such thing.

Autodesk memento