Point Clouds Go Mainstream…

By Nick Harris

With the increase in popularity and adoption of point clouds, it appears they really have gone mainstream.  Locally the BBC reported on the use of point clouds throughout Norfolk in assisting the Broads Authority in the ongoing restoration of their wind pumps. The technology is being used to capture not only the external façade of the wind pumps, but also the internal mechanics, a true collaboration of both the architectural and mechanical worlds.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-norfolk-41759889/norfolk-broads-windpump-restoration-mapped-by-3d-lasers

The benefits of point clouds are becoming more and more obvious to many industry sectors. Ranging from product scanning, existing asset scanning, surveying and even construction validation. These all utilise this type of data capture and help to reduce time to convert the data to a model based environment, improve accuracy and reliability, as well as significantly reducing the time taken to capture current conditions.

Look at these Cadline Community links to learn more about how you can introduce point clouds into your workflows.

Faro PointSense and Revit

https://www.cadlinecommunity.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/115003704209-PointSense-for-Revit-Create-Toposurface-From-Point-Cloud

CAD Models and Recap 360

https://www.cadlinecommunity.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/212782305-Import-CAD-Models-in-Autodesk-ReCap-360-Pro

Point clouds and laser scanning hardware

https://www.cadlinecommunity.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/213433729-Autodesk-University-2016-Reality-Capture-with-Leica-BLK360-ReCap360-Pro