Choosing The Right 3D Laser Scanner For Your Building Survey

When it comes to modern geospatial technology, particularly in 3D laser scanning, there are several avenues that can be taken to ensure a building survey succeeds.

Options are available depending on what you need to use the 3D laser scan for. Contact us with your criteria such as building size, location, and desired deliverables; we can recommend the 3D laser scanners and survey methods that should be used for your measured building survey. 3D laser scanners come in a variety of types, each with their own competitive advantage and applications.

Virtual tours have become an increasingly popular tool for businesses and organizations looking to showcase their spaces and bring them to life. Traditionally used by real estate agents and vacation rental platforms for marketing purposes, the potential applications for virtual tours go beyond simply showcasing spaces.

Imagine having a 1:1 interactive 3D model of your space for virtual training and ongoing facility management. As the world shifts towards a hybrid approach to the workplace, businesses of all sizes are turning to virtual tools to enhance their training and facility management strategies. From small and growing businesses looking to attract top talent to large enterprises seeking to streamline virtual training and remote facility management, virtual tours can help drive innovation and efficiency in any organization.

Attract Top Talent With 3D Virtual Tours

Today’s job market is more unpredictable and competitive than ever before–not for job seekers though, but for employers trying to fill open positions. And in today’s tenuous economy, employers need to find faster and more cost-efficient ways to hire and bring new staff on board.  And because hiring great people is key to the growth of a business, the speed with which our people go from novice to contributor can be a big competitive differentiator.

Despite all of that, many companies ignore the impact of not having an effective and cost-effective onboarding program and continue dumping more and more time and money into recruiting. What’s worse is that after hiring and onboarding, it’s equally important to be sure the people you hire are likely to stick and stay. 

Did you know that 90% of new hires make their decision about whether they want to stay or go within the first 6 months of employment? So if you’re going to the trouble and expense of recruiting and hiring, creating an onboarding experience that makes them want to stay makes good business sense. 

Over the past year, more and more large corporations have begun finding unique ways to create more user-friendly and innovative onboarding experiences using virtual tours. 

Virtual tours give new employees a snapshot of their new workplace before ever being physically present. Corporate candidates can virtually visualize their new career with your company – looking forward to their first day in the workplace, perfectly comfortable already knowing the layout and the setting through the virtual tour.

User Onboarding and Virtual Training

Integrating 3D Virtual Tours into virtual training programs can provide new employees with a comprehensive introduction to your facility and its operations. Its how to make virtual training more engaging. This method of onboarding is both engaging and safe, as new workers can familiarize themselves with the space from the comfort of their own office or home. In addition to allowing them to virtually walk around the building and get a sense of the layout, 3D Virtual Tours can also include multimedia tags to label equipment and provide relevant information, as well as embedded training videos on how to use specific equipment. By including important procedural safety rules and WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System) materials, virtual tours can help make onboarding faster, more effective, and more efficient without disrupting normal workflow.

Safety First

One of the major benefits of virtual training is the ability to provide new hires with a comprehensive introduction to your facility without disrupting daily operations or introducing unnecessary risks. This is especially useful in high-capacity or high-risk environments with dangerous machinery, where in-person tours may be difficult to plan and manage safely. Virtual tours allow new employees to familiarize themselves with the space without interference, and the added benefit of including multimedia labels, informational text, videos, photos, or links to web pages allows for more detailed explanations of dangerous machinery without exposing those unfamiliar with the facility to injury. Overall, virtual training with 3D Virtual Tours can be a safer, more efficient, and more effective way to onboard new employees in a variety of environments.

Get all the Info – the First Time

In-person onboarding can be a fast-paced and overwhelming experience for new employees, particularly when multiple people are being onboarded at the same time. This can make it difficult for new hires to ask questions or fully understand everything they are being taught. The person giving the tour may also be rushed or forget to cover important details, leading to gaps in knowledge.

Multimedia tags in virtual tours provide new hires with the ability to revisit and review information that they may not have fully understood during the initial tour. They can re-read text, re-watch videos, take notes, and know exactly where in the tour these resources were mentioned, allowing them to use them effectively on the job. In addition, virtual tours can include frequently asked questions to provide new hires with the information they need without having to ask for it. This helps to ensure that new employees have a comprehensive understanding of their new workplace and are prepared to succeed in their roles.

Training Made Easier and More Effective

For businesses that require equipment training, onboarding new employees can be a time-consuming process. However, virtual tours can make this process more efficient by integrating job or task-specific lessons. With virtual tours, new hires can review the location of different machinery and access multimedia tags to visit webpages with quizzes or lessons or watch videos that explain how the equipment works. This flexible approach to onboarding allows new employees to learn at their own pace and when they are most receptive to new information, resulting in more effective training. Studies have shown that this type of flexibility can improve the effectiveness of onboarding and training.

Save Time and Money

Virtual training environments can save time and money by eliminating the need for travel, whether it is sending training staff to field offices or flying new hires to the corporate headquarters. While in-person meetings are important for creating an inclusive workspace and providing hands-on training in certain industries, incorporating virtual training into onboarding can free up senior employees to focus on their own duties and allow new hires to learn the ropes at their own pace. This can be especially beneficial for industries where safety is a concern, as remote visits allows for a safer and more thorough introduction to the job without the risk of injury or feeling overwhelmed. Additionally, virtual training can be more cost-effective as it reduces the need for travel and accommodations.

Scans In, Pointclouds Out

In January 2022, Point3D was contracted to document the existing conditions of a commercial office building in Toronto, Ontario using 3D Laser Scanning. The project consisted of nearly 300 scan setups collecting millions of LiDAR measurement references, hundreds of 360-degree images, and infrared sensor data.

Each 3D scan was cleaned and registered with multiple links to ensure an accurate point cloud bundle. The combination of all 3D scans captured produced a dense, RGB-coloured point cloud providing a full understanding of the building’s dimensions and current condition. After registration was complete, a registration report confirmed the overall accuracy of the building spatial data. Essentially, this point cloud serves as a dimensionally accurate digital twin of the actual building.

Once digitally constructed, the final point cloud is exported into .RCP and .LGS file formats for both designers and non-technical project stakeholders to view. The video below shows the process of registering the 3D Laser Scan data in Leica Register360.

The benefits of introducing point clouds into the as-built development workflow are literally immeasurable.

For project delivery, the finalized or registered point cloud is typically made available in two formats. The first file format, .RCP, is specifically for professional architects and engineers. The second, .LGS, is a lightweight and easily accessible version of the point cloud which is accessible to almost anyone. While both formats are provided and can technically be opened for free (.RCP with Autodesk Recap, .LGS with Leica Truview), we have the following recommendation:

• The .RCP point cloud: Used with the Autodesk suite of products including, but not limited, Autodesk Revit, Autodesk AutoCAD, and Autodesk Civil 3D. The point cloud along with Autodesk Recap Pro is used to create Building Information Models eliminating the need for repeat job site visits for measuring and modelling.
• The .LGS point cloud: Preferred by some designers for use with measuring and visual confirmation of as-is building conditions, the .LGS file can be faster to load on most machines than Autodesk Recap. There are also additional features such as HDR images and IR-sensor information exclusive to the .LGS point cloud file. Also, it shouldn’t be discounted that the .LGS can be easily downloaded by any project or company stakeholder. The .LGS point cloud used with Leica Truview allows users to explore the point cloud similar to a virtual tour. This has proved  to be an efficient way to receive boots-on-the-ground building intelligence without actually having to show up on site.

While .RCP and .LGS files are the most popular with our clients, Point3D is able to provide other industry standard formats such as .e57, .pts/.ptx, and .las, depending on the intended use downstream.

Why Point Clouds for As-Built Conditions?

By using point clouds captured with a calibrated laser scanning device and properly registered by a competent point cloud specialist, architects, engineers, and forward-thinking developers can efficiently produce accurate as-built drawings at scale. While an architect and apprentice can no doubt properly measure the existing conditions of a building, there exist many areas where major human-error can occur throughout the workflow. At scale, missed measurements, inaccurate measurements, and poor documentation practices can cause disaster to a project’s timeline. That’s why we are seeing more architects and developers in Toronto and Ottawa looking to Point3D Commercial imaging to promptly provide documentation by capturing point clouds with 360-images to produce Revit as-built models and AutoCAD as-built drawings. The benefits of introducing point clouds into the as-built development workflow are literally immeasurable.