Hi all,
First of all greetings from Malta.
I am a steel fabricator who is looking to enhance my site measuring times. I have only recently started to interest myself in the world of 3d scanning, and have absolutely no clue, into what and where I need to start to find solutions which are good for what I need.
Basically I need something which can accurately give me site measurments on which I can then build my 3d models of whatever I will be fabricating, be it staircases, mini bridges inside homes, or even external mini structures.
I am not a surveyor, but obviously I have experience of meausuring sites in a very conventional way. I am also quite fluent in autodesk autocad and autodesk fusion 360.
Opinions, pointers and what to do and not to dos are welcome.
Regards
chris.
Greetings from malta
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Re: Greetings from malta
Hi Chris,
For steel fabrication work I'd probably be looking at a scanning total station like the MS60. This is a precise instrument well suited to large objects, as opposed to whole buildings our outdoor areas, which also allows you to survey specific points. These can then be used as control for rigid body transformations for your scan work so that you can align objects scanned in one grid system (e.g. on the floor) into another grid system (e.g. in-place in the building). This can be useful for clash detection as well as visualization, checking and setting out / positioning / dimensional control. Topcon and Trimble also offer scanning total stations, GTL1000 and SX10 / SX12 but for my money the MS60 would be quite a bit more accurate (and possibly expensive!). A scanning total station will also be an excellent tool for establishing site control in the hands of a surveyor.
Like buying any new kit, I'd recommend putting together a comprehensive wish list of exactly what you're trying to achieve in terms of functionality and accuracy and invite the different vendors in to do a proof of concept. Hint, make them use your data on your site, don't accept "here's one I did earlier videos" or sample data. Give them a chance to prep the demo and for a live demo don't expect everything to go 100% smoothly on the day. Personally, I think a scanning total station is going to provide way more in this context than a static scanner or mobile mapping solution so I'd tend to look at these first. You'll also want to look at the full solution including software. While we do control adjustment, rigid transformations and direct input of scan data from MS60 in SCC (obligatory shameless plug!), I'd also recommend looking at more dedicated solutions such as ClearEdge.
Best of luck with it,
Shane
For steel fabrication work I'd probably be looking at a scanning total station like the MS60. This is a precise instrument well suited to large objects, as opposed to whole buildings our outdoor areas, which also allows you to survey specific points. These can then be used as control for rigid body transformations for your scan work so that you can align objects scanned in one grid system (e.g. on the floor) into another grid system (e.g. in-place in the building). This can be useful for clash detection as well as visualization, checking and setting out / positioning / dimensional control. Topcon and Trimble also offer scanning total stations, GTL1000 and SX10 / SX12 but for my money the MS60 would be quite a bit more accurate (and possibly expensive!). A scanning total station will also be an excellent tool for establishing site control in the hands of a surveyor.
Like buying any new kit, I'd recommend putting together a comprehensive wish list of exactly what you're trying to achieve in terms of functionality and accuracy and invite the different vendors in to do a proof of concept. Hint, make them use your data on your site, don't accept "here's one I did earlier videos" or sample data. Give them a chance to prep the demo and for a live demo don't expect everything to go 100% smoothly on the day. Personally, I think a scanning total station is going to provide way more in this context than a static scanner or mobile mapping solution so I'd tend to look at these first. You'll also want to look at the full solution including software. While we do control adjustment, rigid transformations and direct input of scan data from MS60 in SCC (obligatory shameless plug!), I'd also recommend looking at more dedicated solutions such as ClearEdge.
Best of luck with it,
Shane