AutoCAD 2023 – Working with Laser Scan Data

By Dennis Collin

Laser Scanning has been around for many years now and a common question is how to integrate this data into your main design software. AutoCAD can reference many file formats including Autodesk Recap Project files. When working with Recap, users can switch to scan locations and define scan regions which can be colour coded, cropped or turned off as required.

These groups are available to access once the point cloud is linked into AutoCAD. Recap’s Scan locations and regions are available and can be turned on or off as desired and if required, colour coded. Scan displays can be colour coded according to normal, elevation, intensity. Point clouds can have section planes applied and if necessary, perimeter lines of points can be extracted.  As Recap data is referenced into AutoCAD the cloud file will update when points are deleted and additional scan region selections are defined.

It is also possible to derive boundary elements such as lines and polylines which can be used as a basis for generating floorplans and obtaining information such as areas. Simply create a sectional object and use the pcextractsection command from the command line or the ribbon panel.

Options can be set to balance the time required to generate the section object versus accuracy and number of points to process. Depending on the complexity of the scan the boundary generation can take several minutes, which might be a good excuse to put the kettle on and take a screen break!

Once processed the point cloud can be turned off or unloaded and the resultant linework cleaned up and joined ready to be converted into floorplans or sectional drawings as desired.