New to Everything, looking for some help

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andyTWS
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New to Everything, looking for some help

Post by andyTWS »

Hello all,
My company (a structural steel welding shop) just purchased a GTL-1000, I am a welder by trade and have been promoted to scanner. Our drafting is all currently outsourced and drawn in Tekla. We got the scanner so that I can go to a site prior to our drafter drawing all of our shop drawings and i can give him exact measurements of site conditions. Our shop has seen it too many times where the concrete is wrong which makes our steel not fit correctly. I am currently having trouble giving the point cloud data to our drafter and he is asking me to give him a mesh instead of the point cloud. Does anyone have any thoughts on what software to use? Brandt (company that sold us the GTL-1000) recommended me to use edgewise but my boss is having a hard time spending another ~$8000 after he just bought the scanner. I downloaded the trail for edgewise and it worked great, my only concern is that edgewise pulls walls in perfectly flat and currently doesn't handle walls very well if they have a bow in them. I have also tried cloud compare and meshlab. Both programs did not work very well for me as I have no idea what I am doing.
Any recommendations would help.
Thanks in advance
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Re: New to Everything, looking for some help

Post by TommyMaddox »

If you need any assistance with scan to drafting to fabrication workflows that yield prefab grade accuracy and 99.8% fitup rates, we're also headquartered in Calgary and would be happy to support. Can work with your data or ours.

Working from the point data in this case is 100% sufficient with the right tools and meshing is an unnecessary step that introduces error and lots of work/computational time.

We have Edgewise + other softwares and do all of our drafting in house in Calgary
andyTWS
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Re: New to Everything, looking for some help

Post by andyTWS »

Thanks for the reply tommy,
What would you recommend for us to use in terms of programing? Our drafter that uses Tekla is not able to use the point cloud data that I export from Magnet Collage because there is no faces for him to snap a line to. I am basically looking for a cheaper version of Edgewise. It worked great for me when I did the trail with it. But as a I said earlier, my boss is having a hard time spending another big chunk of money right after he just bought the GTL-1000. Would I be able to give my drafter all he needs if we got the AEC Collection from AutoDesk?
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Re: New to Everything, looking for some help

Post by Peyman Bashiri »

Hello Andy,
Please give me a shout. I may be able to assist you.
Thanks
Peyman
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www.aerogeo.com
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Re: New to Everything, looking for some help

Post by TommyMaddox »

There's not really a lot of great options for what you're looking for if you want to supply mesh data to Tekla with GTL-1000 scan data. Tekla seems to only accept PLY and OBJ, which Magnet Collage seems not to export natively.

There's FARO AsBuilt for Autocad that will give you some edgewise-like semi-automation functions but when combined with Autodesk collection likely meets or exceeds the price of edgewise if you're not already in the Autodesk ecosystem. Plus you need to get from Magnet Collage to Autodesk via Recap RCS.

I know there's a Scan to BIM university 101 series of webinars out there that is held by Topcon and Edgewise folks, maybe that would be a good way to get started by viewing the recordings or signing up for new ones.

But without getting too aggressive, getting a scanner and no real situation specific training and support + no real software demonstrates that a true workflow solution wasn't developed and sold, just a spinning mirror box. And that's the type of sale I disliked the most when I was in sales, and the sort of thing I resent the most when getting pitched now.
Probably would have recommended Trimble S7 + FARO S70 for this process. Versatile, quick, cost effective and you can get both from Cansel in Calgary. Native PLY+OBJ exports and RCS if you or any drafting services go the Autodesk route.

As an aside, software and workstation costs in this industry will always seem uncomfortable, but money spent getting the right hardware and software tailored for an optimized workflow is always worth it in the long run when evaluating accuracy and efficiency.

I can't say that there's any recommendations I would make for your current situation other than finding a way to afford Edgewise if you're going to continue using the GTL-1000 system and your outsourced drafting that runs Tekla.
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Re: New to Everything, looking for some help

Post by andyTWS »

Thanks for the reply Tommy,
So basically you are saying our sales rep did a less than stellar job haha. For edgewise do I need to have any other programs to use it efficiently? From my understanding we need to have Revit to work hand and hand with edgewise.
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Re: New to Everything, looking for some help

Post by TommyMaddox »

andyTWS wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:52 pm Thanks for the reply Tommy,
So basically you are saying our sales rep did a less than stellar job haha. For edgewise do I need to have any other programs to use it efficiently? From my understanding we need to have Revit to work hand and hand with edgewise.
I'd have to sit down and go through your whole workflow inputs and outputs and deliverables to make any further recommendations.

At first glance though I don't see why you'd need Revit if you're going Magnet Collage to Edgewise to Tekla (based on what I can glean from your posts), but there could be a need depending on workflow or deliverable specifics.

Maybe there's a lunch visit and chat in our near future
andyTWS
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Re: New to Everything, looking for some help

Post by andyTWS »

Well I will probably just end up getting Edgewise and if I need the AEC Collection then I need the AEC Collection. I don't think we will just get Revit because of how good a deal the AEC Collection is. From my understanding, if my scan data does not line up with the given IFC then the only way to overlay the IFC with the point cloud is through Navisworks? Which is also part of the AEC Collection.
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Re: New to Everything, looking for some help

Post by kderej »

Hello,
if you need to convert point cloud from GTL to mesh in PLY or OBJ try Gexcel Reconstructor. There is 30-day trial of it.
https://gexcel.it/en/software/reconstructor

You can export pointcloud in E57 with polar coordinates from Collage, import it into Reconstructor and then mesh it with different methods.
Also there is option to rent it for months, so it won't be big single cost.

I'm working with both GTL and Reconstructor, so I can give you some tips :)
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