DDemand for 3D laserscanning and relateddimensional controltools and services washotter than ever atSPAR 2005. Civil infra-

structure, transportation, architecture,mining, geosciences—presenters andattendees from these industries and morecame together in an intenseexchange of best practices andsuccess cases May 23-24 inHouston, TX.

The conference numbers pointto surging demand for thesetechnologies and the servicesaround them. Attendance was up76% to 367 registrations, frommore than 20 countries. Nearly70% of the total were end users—asset owner/operators, EPCfirms, surveyors and serviceproviders. Vendors accounted for23%. Press, academics, and oth-ers made up the rest.

Spar Point’s updated marketforecasts tell the same story. Backin October 2003 we projectedthe market for terrestrial 3Dlaser scanning hardware, soft-ware and services would grow20% in 2004 and 31% in 2005.But it turns out the industry isgrowing faster than we predicted.Our preliminary analysis indi-cates the market grew roughly38% in 2004, and is on track for 43%growth this year. The hardware (scanner)segment of the market grew even moresharply last year, up some 47%.

What’s driving this demand? There’sa crushing weight of evidence that thistechnology is replacing existing tools andwork processes because it’s faster, safer,cheaper and, most important, deliversbetter results when executed properly.

Laser scanning for everyday surveywork—a lot of people listened closelywhen Martin Dunn, vice president ofMETCO Services, Inc. (Warren, MI),detailed how his firm achieved this.Instead of looking for “scan jobs,”METCO trains its field technicians inlaser scanning, then lets them decidewhether laser scanning or some otherdata collection tool is right for a particu-

lar job. He described how the firm devel-oped workflows for processing laser scandata that mirror conventional data collec-tion techniques, and other workprocesses that help laser scanning fitsmoothly into existing surveying andengineering methods. (See Dunn’s article“Laser Scanning for Everyday SurveyWork” in the Jan/Feb 2005 issue of TheAmerican Surveyor.)

LaserScanning

Surging Demand,Opportunity &Fresh Product atSPAR 2005>> By Bruce Jenkins

Left: AlbertIavarone (right) ofOptech explainsthe new ILRIS 36D.

Below: TomGreaves, confer-ence organizer andprincipal in SparPoint Research,welcomes attendees.

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Tom Mochty, PS, senior vice presidentand director of survey services atWoolpert, Inc. (Dayton, OH), asked:why invest in laser scanning for civilengineering? “I see myself surroundedby a room full of risk-takers,” he said,not people fixated on the past. Heexplained why Woolpert invested in laserscanning—to meet the urgent need foraccurate as-built data, and to leveragetechnology to “close the gap betweendesign and construction” in order to reinin cost overruns and litigation caused bybreakdowns between the planning,design and construction processes. Aftersetting this challenge, Mochty advisedattendees how to seek out clients andother team partners who are open-mind-ed and want to work together to solvethese problems, and how to overcomeresistance to change.

Jim Flint, PE, vice president ofBohannan Huston, Inc. and head of itsLaser Geomatics division (Albuquerque,NM), described the firm’s use of laserscanning in transportation projects rang-ing from small jobs to Texas DOT’sProject Pegasus. Flint illustrated how thetechnology keeps surveyors out ofharm’s way, and lets engineers revisit asite “virtually” instead of physically ifthe need for additional data is discov-ered post-survey. Especially powerfulwere examples of how laser scan data isused in visualizations to show clientsand the public what a proposed modifi-cation will look like.

Parsons Brinckerhoff (New York, NY)presented a wealth of cases showinghow it uses laser scan data to informcivil infrastructure projects. GIS special-ist Dr. Rachel Arulraj and vice presidentGeorge Moglia, Jr., PE, demonstratedhow laser scanning greatly enhances theutility of 3D/4D visualization for plan-ning, design and construction of civilinfrastructure rehabilitation, both aboveand below ground.

Mike Miller, vice president of survey atRBF Consulting (Irvine, CA), told howhis firm uses laser scanning as a moreefficient way to accomplish many tradi-tional tasks in transportation and civilinfrastructure—topographic design sur-veys, capturing existing roadwayconditions, detailed as-constructed sur-veys, line and grade surveys,architectural surveys. Miller pointed outthat the ability to obtain detailed, geomet-rically accurate, photorealisticdocumentation of complex existing con-ditions for use in civil, structural and

architectural design is especially valuablefor ALTA-type surveys—work that ofteninvolves “small fees but huge amounts ofliability.” Miller described the value ofusing laser scanning in “high-liability situ-ations to document what the site was likewhen we certified it.” In Miller’s view,this in itself may justify investing in thetechnology.

A well-received new feature of SPAR2005 was a series of Technical Seminars.Packed to overflowing, these 50-minutepresentations by sponsors’ key technolo-gists informed attendees about the latesttechnical developments, and the newestand best ways to specify, plan and exe-cute projects.

Announcements at SPAR 2005Attendees met with a bounty of freshhardware and software product, plus aspate of new industry alliances aimed atbetter integrating point cloud data withCAD and design review tools. For prac-titioners who rely on circuitousworkarounds to get laser scan data intotheir design environments, this is aboon. Too, the value of laser scanningfor revamp and modification work ishuge when clash detection and viewingof both point cloud data and CAD geometry is practical in review environ-ments—this kind of functionality pointsthe way to getting operations and main-tenance value for asset owners too.

AVEVA Group plc (Cambridge,UK) demonstrated PDMS integrationwith point-cloud software from bothLeica Geosystems HDS andQuantapoint at SPAR 2005. The result

of alliances first announced at SPAR2004, both integrations are enabled byAVEVA’s new VANTAGE Laser ModelInterface. Leica Geosystems HDS andAVEVA jointly demonstrated LeicaCloudWorx for AVEVA PDMS, whichwill let PDMS users access CloudWorxlaser scan data directly. Quantapointand AVEVA jointly demonstratedPRISM 3D point-cloud data integrationwith PDMS, which will let PDMS usersaccess PRISM 3D laser scan data direct-ly. According to Dan Stephenson, vicepresident, business development,AVEVA, Inc., the new Laser ModelInterface will be included in the nextrelease of PDMS, expected in the thirdor fourth quarter of calendar 2005.Upon shipment the interface will alsoenable PDMS integration of Z+F LFMdata, which was announced and demon-strated earlier.

Bentley Systems Incorporated’s(Exton, PA) long standing in the indus-try was apparent in the extensive list ofBE Award winning-customers who used3D laser scanning in conjunction withBentley design tools—the projects show-cased by Bentley ranged from offshoreconstruction to transit tunnel inspection,steelworks maintenance, a power plantupgrade and more.

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Left: METCObooth at show.Martin Dunn, leftexplains the com-pany's approachto laser scanning.

Below: Jim vanRens (center) withRiegl USA dis-cusses Riegl'sscanner.

Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • July/August • Copyright 2005 Cheves Media • www.TheAmericanSurveyor.com

BitWyse Solutions, Inc. (Salem,MA) announced and demonstratedLASERGen for AutoCAD. Previouslyavailable for MicroStation, LASERGenwas the first software product to let userswork directly with point clouds in CAD.The new version supports AutoCAD2002 though 2006, plus Rebis AutoPlantdata in both design sessions and interfer-ence and masking functionality. It willship late this month, according to vicepresident Brian Ahern. Also new wasSceneManager Version 2, which provides40% smaller file sizes, 6x faster render-ing, filtering and import/export toolsusing industry-standard file formats, anda new Quality Control toolkit; anEnterprise Server edition of LASERGenInterference Manager for global worksharing; and LASERGen for SmartPlantReview V2.0, which lets users load larg-er datasets, perform interactivedimensioning using SmartPlant Reviewcommands, and load two or more data-base volumes at the same time.

FARO Technologies, Inc. (LakeMary, FL), which recently acquirediQvolution, demonstrated the iQsunterrestrial scanner, now badged LS 880,and also exhibited a laser tracker in itsbooth—a first for SPAR and, judgingfrom some of the comments we heard,a technology of high interest to a num-ber of terrestrial laser scanningcustomers.

Hi-CAD Limited (Dingwall,Scotland) demonstrated the integrationof its D.I.M.E.S dimensional controltechnology with its high-resolution 3Dlaser scanning process, to integrate accu-rate tie-in planning with design routingof pipes and equipment throughoutFEED, detailed design and construction.

Also, the company was appointed soledistributor of Z+F’s LFM software prod-ucts for the process industries in the U.S.and Brazil.

InnovMetric Software Inc. (St.Foy, Quebec) presented PolyWorksVersion 9, the newest release of its pointcloud software solution, and highlightedthree key capabilities: its “marker-free”alignment techniques, including best-fitalignment constrainable to known scan-ner positions and/or known controlpoints; accuracy of its generated polygo-nal models; and NURBS surfacing as anew tool to communicate topographicalsurface information. The companydemonstrated PolyWorks’ effectivenessin extracting elements from large pointcloud datasets for export to downstreamapplications such as AutoCAD andMicroStation.

INOVx Solutions (Irvine, CA), apioneer in the application of laser scan-ning to asset management, wasshowcasing its 3-D PlantLINx and relat-ed products for integrating 3D assetmodels with various plant-wide engineer-

ing, operation, inspection, maintenance,and other asset management systems.This is a vector pointing the way toextracting operations and maintenancevalue from 3D laser scanning—the tech-nology is becoming more widespread indesign, and just starting to show up inconstruction. However, there’s no doubtthe future of this industry lies inowner/operator-realized value.

Intergraph Corporation(Huntsville, AL) announced thatQuantapoint and Z+F joined BitWyseand Leica Geosystems HDS inenabling point-cloud data integrationwithin SmartPlant Review 5.1,Intergraph’s 3D visualization and

design review software. Theintegrations, which takeadvantage of Intergraph’sPoint Cloud Integrator mod-ule for SmartPlant Review, letusers review a proposed retro-fit 3D CAD model in thecontext of existing conditionsas defined by the point cloud.Quantapoint and Intergraphjointly announced PRISM 3Ddata integration withinSmartPlant Review 5.1 anddemonstrated a prototype; thiscapability is expected to shipin the third or fourth quarterof calendar 2005, according toQuantapoint marketing vice

president James McGill. At the sametime Z+F and Intergraph jointlyannounced LFM Server for SmartPlantReview and demonstrated a prototype;this software allows SmartPlant Reviewusers to access 3D laser scan data fromZ+F’s LFM Server, which can managepoint-cloud data sets as large as 12 Gb,and will ship this month, according toDirk Langer, CEO of Z+F USA, Inc.

Leica Geosystems HDS, LLC(San Ramon, CA), in addition to itsAVEVA PDMS integration, also demon-strated its newly released CloudWorx1.0 for Intergraph SmartPlant Review,which was also shown by Intergraph. Aprototype of the product was first seenat SPAR 2004. Under the hood isLeica’s Cyclone 5.2 point cloud enginewhich works with the company’s time-of-flight and phase-based scanners. Onthe Intergraph side, the Point CloudIntegrator module for SmartPlantReview is required.

MDL (Measurement Devices Ltd.,Aberdeen, Scotland), the hardware priceleader in this space, showed its

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LaserAce Scanner, a combined reflector-less total station and 3D scanner, and itsC-ALS borehole deployable 3D laserscanning system. The company high-lighted mining and geoscientificapplications of laser scanning—slope sta-bility measurement, landslide prediction,earthwork volume calculations.

METCO Services, Inc. (Warren,MI) showcased its work processes forusing “laser scanning for everyday sur-vey work”—pointing the way to movelaser scanning-based work processes intothe mainstream for civil and transporta-tion infrastructure projects. The firmshowed how it uses laser scanning to pre-pare topographic, boundary andexisting-condition surveys, and to create3D models with information systems ofthe interior of municipal water pumpingstations.

Optech Incorporated (Toronto,Ontario) announced the commencementof production shipments of its modularILRIS-36D scanner. The company alsoannounced the release of an open dataformat, IXF (ILRIS eXchange Format),along the same lines as the ALS air-borne LIDAR data standard now beingestablished.

Quantapoint, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA),in addition to its PRISM 3D softwarealliances with AVEVA and Intergraph,showcased its laser scanning servicecapabilities for process/power and archi-tecture, and demonstrated its new MarkVI scanner.

Riegl USA, Inc. (Orlando, FL) high-lighted its recently announced hybridsensor system based on its long-rangescanner combined with high-resolutiondigital photography, and showed theresults of processing its data using collat-eral orthorectification software fromseveral partners.

Trimble (Sunnyvale, CA) introducedRealWorks Survey 5.0, with new featuresand enhancements for viewing, editingand managing 3D scan data. A new“EasyProfile” function uses a pre-posi-tioned profile (fitted to a cross-section ofthe point cloud) to track through thecloud; feature lines are then automaticallyextracted according to break-points in theguide profile—especially useful for auto-matic recognition of sidewalks, rail tracks,handrails, tunnels and other continuousshapes. Also new is large-database man-agement capability for subdividing alarge project into data subsets that can be

more easily edited in a computer-memo-ry-optimized environment.

Visi Image, Inc. (Houston, TX)demonstrated its 3Dguru phase-basedlaser scanner, and showcased new inte-gration of 3Dguru data withLASERGen and other BitWyse softwaresolutions.

Z+F (Wangen, Germany), in additionto its LFM Server alliance withIntergraph, announced it appointed Hi-CAD Ltd. as sole distributor of its LFMsoftware products for the process indus-tries in the U.S. and Brazil, building onan existing informal relationshipbetween the two companies. Also, Hi-CAD service teams worldwide will usecore Z+F technologies in their servicesbusiness: scanning will be done usingZ+F’s Imager 5003 system, and dataprocessing with Z+F LFM Viewer andLFM Server Software.

Bruce Jenkins is a senior analystwith Spar Point Research LLC inDanvers, Massachusetts. Spar PointResearch is a technology businessresearch firm focused on terrestrial3D laser scanning and relateddimensional control technologies.

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