3d Laser scanner

[hoss]

Hi,

 

I after some information for a 3D Laser scanner, which can gather some information and produce a CAD drawing, i.e for a plant room

I have searched alot but most of the companies are based in the USA.

Does anyone know about a UK based company selling something like this.

 

Thanks

[ReMark]

Faro Industries UK Ltd.

 

http://faro.com/content.aspx?ct=uk&content=pro&item=5

 

Z+F

 

http://www.zf-uk.com/about-us

[M76]

The 3d laser scanner doesn't produce a cad drawing. It produces a point cloud, and you need specialized software to create a cad drawing from it.

[ReMark]

Wouldn't most companies that sell 3-D scanners also include the necessary software to make use of the collected data?

[JD Mather]

The software that comes free with scanner will most likely not fullfill (any) users need.

Expect to pay as much for usable software as paid for the scanner itself.

$8-30k ouch!

http://www.dirdim.com/prod_software.htm

[Organic]

30K for a laser scanner would be cheap from what I've seen. Point clouds are a nightmare in my opinion.

[JD Mather]

30K for a laser scanner would be cheap from what I've seen. Point clouds are a nightmare in my opinion.

 

Uhhmm that is $30k for a decent scanner and another $8-30K for decent software.

[Demesne]

Uhhmm that is $30k for a decent scanner and another $8-30K for decent software.

 

More like £60k for the scanner and £15k for the software. But it depends on the software moduals you need.

 

I use the Leica C10 scanner with Leica Cyclone software for registration of point clouds and Leica CloudWorx for manipulation of point cloud data in AutoCAD. We got the scanner and software for about £75k, and that was discounted! More expensive than FARO or Z+F, but much better for us. There are modules within the software that allow you to 'best-fit' pipes and steelwork to the point cloud, which may be what you'll need.

 

You can hire a C10 for £500 per day direct from Leica. This hire also comes with a few weeks unlimited use of the software. Survey companies will charge about £750 per day for the site work and £250 per day for CAD so at least £1k before you have anything back. I think SCCS also hire out scanners, but I'm not sure.

 

Leica run a four day HDS (high definition surveying) training course in Milton Keynes every now and then which is a must if you don't already have experience using the software. SCCS also run a HDS course down in Cambridge but I've not been on that one.

 

You'll not get a scanner that produces drawings. Basically, sanners take millions of measurements to produce a 3D point cloud - a digital three dimensional representation of your scanned objects, being made up of points. You then have to take the point cloud and extract the information you need from it, which can take time.

 

Dink - Point clouds aren't all that bad. You just need to know how to handle them.

 

A few starting points:

 

Leica contact for HDS: Steven Ramsey 07766 310 915

 

http://hds.leica-geosystems.com/en/index.htm

 

or

 

http://www.sccssurvey.co.uk/category/show/6

 

 

 

Regards

Demesne

Edited February 3, 2012 by Demesne
Added external links.

[hoss]

Thanks alot guys

I am going to make few phone calls and pass the info to the boss.

 

Thanks again for your help

[Tyke]

Trimble also do several scanners and they have their RealWorks software for manipulating the point cloud, and they are not as expensive as Leica. Both Leica and Trimble are good, but both have their advantages and disadvantages but neither automatically produce a CAD drawing from the point cloud. Their is a company here in Germany called Kubit ( http://www.kubit-software.com/) that does some very nice software (I saw it demonstrated on INTERGEO in Nuremberg in November) and it can do automatic pipe recognition , producing 3D solid objects semi-automatically from the point cloud. They market their software in the States too. I'm going to their offices in Dresden in March to have a day looking at it and trying it out on some point clouds we produced when laser scanning a castle (Facades and every room) in December last year. The problem with point clouds is their size. Our last project produced over 400 GB of data, all of which needs to be backed up, but that's another problem.

 

Dink - The step into point clouds is like the step from pure 2D CAD work into full 3D visualisation, but bigger. I have a surveyor who has made the transition and she is now very good, but it took a long time to get there and there's still loads of room for improvement.

 

We hire in the scanner and software at the moment and will buy one when there are enough contracts there. The prices we are currently paying in Germany are very similar to those quoted by Demesne.

 

In my opinion AutoCAD has a long way to go in their efforts to work with point clouds and there is an absolute basic need to able to produce surfaces from a selection of points, similar to a DTM but more flexible. In a DTM you can't have overhangs or vertical faces, but for point clouds it is an essential. You need to able to produce non planar surfaces and as far as I know no software can do that at the moment. There is a need to produce an edge between intersecting surfaces. Also it would be nice to be able to automatically recognise stanchions, beams and other regular solid objects. But here we have the big difference between planning and as built. AutoCAD is really for design work and not intended for for accurately documenting existing objects, that's more a job for laser scanning and the appropriate software, it is not there yet, but it will be one day.