Why are laser scanners becoming more popular on job sites?
Laser scanners have been embraced by many architects in recent years to draw reliable as-builts, but laser scanners are not just an architect’s or surveyor’s tool. Many trades such as electricians, plumbers, framers, solar and even General Contractors (in most cases they are extremely reluctance at first) are using laser scanners with great success.
Importance of As-Built Plans
How do you get measurements from a new job site without a laser scanner?
You better hope your client has a reliable as-built available, otherwise, you’ll be hand-measuring out on the jobsite with a tape measure, a camera, a laser distance meter, some friends and a notepad. Or you feel more confident hiring a team to make an as-built plan and pay them good money to do it.
What contributes to making an as-built unreliable?
With the traditional process of hand-measuring, an as-built could be unreliable due to ineligible handwriting from notes, misreading the tape measure, recording the wrong objects or even leaving information behind. Did you forget to take a picture of the existing equipment? Are you sure that conduit is 2 inches or was it 1.75 inches? Was there enough space in the closet to install the equipment needed? The best intentions and practices don’t always avoid mistakes. We are human and mistakes do happen.
Guessing sounds irresponsible, so why would you guess?
We know that guessing is asking for disaster, but it still happens. Here are some common excuses used when information has been missed or recorded incorrectly:
- “I’m too busy or don’t have the resources to get back to the site.”
- “Job site is no longer accessible.”
- “I (employee) don’t want to get in trouble.”
- “I (Small upcoming contractor) don’t want to look unprofessional on a bid.”
Whatever the excuse is, guessing on a project puts your company’s reputation and income on the line.
Balancing the Scales
Having too few jobs to bill employees can also be costly to a contractor (and even more so to a smaller contractor). Letting good talent go can negatively affect morale and make it less desirable for future talent to join the team.
Scanners are expensive, right?
The human element can be what defines a contractors’ reputation, and there is no true substitution for great employees and as a business grows, you’ll need more. But laser scanners can reduce the dependency on employees and manual measuring. If a contractor is already using CAD in their workflow, introducing laser scanners and point clouds is a simple transition and will give a contractor the confidence to bid bigger, reduce design mistakes, material waste, and wasted wages correcting issues from bad data.
Faster turnarounds with less mistakes will bolster a company’s reputation – with a stronger reputation, more bids will be won.
Jhan Valadao
It's time to level up your Reality Capture game! Learn more 👇
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After completing an Autodesk accredited 2-year course in Digital Design and Graphic technologies in 2012, Jhan became proficient in multiple Autodesk suits such as AutoCAD, Inventor, 3Ds Max and Revit, and has used this knowledge in his career for data infrastructure design, MEP design and special projects management.
Working on several special projects that required unique deliverables, Jhan was introduced to laser scanners in 2016 and designed several work pipelines using point cloud data. He has taken high detail scans and converted those environments into mesh, allowing less powerful machines to view the data. Jhan also can embed point clouds into a game environment to easily share data, and he has even broadcasted entire sites and used them in developing technologies such as augmented reality.
“I believe reality capture and the development of using digital twins is very important, as this technology helps us mitigate costly mistakes, improves site safety and gives us better methods to preserve site data for both construction and historical purposes.”