Facility Scans

Facility Scans: How Does it Work?

3D facility scanning utilizes advanced laser scanning technology to meticulously capture the spatial dimensions and details of a facility or warehouse. The process typically involves the following steps:

1. Remove Equipment and People: Remove any existing equipment and people that you do not want to be captured in the 3D scan. While not always possible, or necessary, taking these steps will provide a higher quality scan. 

2. Route Planning: Prior to beginning our 3D scan, we plan a route to ensure that all necessary features of the facility are captured during the scanning session. 

3. Equipment Setup: Setup the necessary equipment, which typically includes one of the following types of 3D laser scanners: handheld, tripod-mounted, or drones. 

4. Scanning Process: The scanner emits a laser beam that sweeps across the environment, capturing millions of data points (also known as point clouds) as it rotates. The scanner will be positioned in various locations and elevations in order to capture data from different angles and perspectives. 

5. Data Collection: As the scanner captures data, it records the distance and position of each point in three-dimensional space relative to the scanner's position. This process is repeated multiple times from different vantage points to ensure comprehensive coverage of the facility. The number of setups depends on the size of the facility and the level of detail that is necessary. 

6. Registration and Alignment: After all the scans are completed, the individual point clouds need to be registered to create a unified 3D model of the facility. This process ensures all the scanned data points have been aligned and meet the necessary accuracy requirements.

7. Scan Utilization: After registering the scans into a single bundled point cloud, we can begin utilizing the scans. This includes, but isn’t limited to, optimizing equipment arrangement to enhance process efficiency, resolving installation challenges, or simply generating accurate as-built models. 

Benefits of Facility Scans

• Precision and Accuracy: 3D laser facility scans provides unmatched precision and accuracy in capturing spatial dimensions and details of a facility.

• Time and Cost Saving: Compared to traditional surveying methods, 3D laser facility scans can significantly reduce the time and cost associated with data collection and analysis. The scanning process is rapid and efficient, allowing for the capture of greater detail in a fraction of the time required by manual surveying methods.

• Comprehensive Documentation: 3D laser facility scans provide comprehensive documentation of existing structures, offering valuable insights for facility planning, design, and management.

• Enhanced Safety and Risk Management: By capturing detailed information about the facility's layout and infrastructure, 3D laser scans can help identify potential safety hazards and risks.

• 3D Equipment Layouts: 3D facility scanning provides the ability to quickly see different equipment layouts in 3D, eliminating installation interferences during the planning process ,as well as providing the ability of viewing proposed equipment in the facility. 

• Digital Twin Applications: 3D laser facility scanning enables the accurate capture of a physical object's geometry, texture, and color, facilitating the creation of detailed and accurate digital twins for real-time monitoring and analysis.