Visualization and Management of LiDAR Data

Posted on June 18, 2013 by lidar

This is Lesson 3 in the Basics of using LiDAR Data series sponsored by the University of Minnesota Water Resources Center.

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The BIM Day Out

Posted on June 17, 2013 by lidar

Thanks to Matt Rumbelow for the heads up on the BIM Day Out Conference being held in Perth Australia July 18 and 19. It is being hosted by the Central Institute of Technology Perth. Looks like it should be an outstanding event with all of the leading vendors on board. Wish I could attend.

Posted in Conferences, Education | 1 Comment

Upcoming User Conferences

Posted on June 16, 2013 by lidar

To follow up the recent Hexagon user event Riegl, Optech and Esri will host their customer events over the next 3 weeks and LiDAR News will be there to cover them all. Riegl LiDAR 2013 will take place in Vienna, Austria June 25 – 27. Rumor has it there is going to be an important product announcement. Stay tuned.

Optech’s Imaging and LiDAR Solutions Conference will take place on the same dates in Toronto, Canada. Airborne, terrestrial and mobile tracks will be offered. Lawrie Jordan, Director of Imagery for Esri will provide one of the keynotes.

The Esri User Conference will take place in San Diego, California July 8 – 12. The Esri Survey Summit and 3D Mapping and LiDAR Forum will take place on July 6 and 7. I will be presenting at both of these events.

I look forward to seeing some of you at these events.

Posted in Conferences | 1 Comment

Laser Scanning Used to Create Greatness Awaits Commercial

Posted on June 15, 2013 by lidar

Thanks to Travis Reinke at Scanable for the heads up on this behind the scenes making of a promo commercial for PlayStation. He says they used the FARO Focus 3D to capture point cloud data for camera tracking, creating 3d models for the vfx and terrain modeling for accurate shadow casting. It is pretty amazing to see what it takes to make something like this.

And here is the finished product – all of that for 1 minute and 30 seconds.

 

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Leica Multiworx for AutoCAD

Posted on June 14, 2013 by lidar

As part of the Nova MS50 MultiStation introduction last week Leica GeoSystems announced Leica MultiWorx for AutoCAD. Borrowing on the well established CloudWorx product line, Leica MultiWorx for AutoCAD is a plug-in software that lets users quickly create traditional survey deliverables from scans and images within a familiar AutoCAD interface with additional tools that leverage specific capabilities of the Leica Nova MS50 MultiStation and aid users new to 3D laser scanning.

This is a potentially very important product, given the emphasis that Autodesk is now placing on reality capture. It’s all about democratization and although Leica is not in the consumer market, the MS50 should appeal to a much broader group of survey professionals.

 

 

 

 

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3D BIM Creation Using 3D Laser Scanning

Posted on June 13, 2013 by lidar

Mark Hanna is the founder and President of PrecisionPoint, Inc. a national geospatial professional services firm that provides cutting edge 3D scanning & BIM integration solutions to the Architectural, Engineering, Historical Preservation, Construction, Power/Process, and Facility Management industries.

He will be presenting a webinar on July 16, 2013 from 1:00 to 2:00 PM EDT on the topic of fast tracking the creation of a highly detailed architectural and MEP existing conditions 3D BIM model for a hospital expansion project. Mark has a wealth of knowledge and experience in this field. This should be a great investment of you time

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Data Interoperability is Important

Posted on June 13, 2013 by lidar

The ASTM E57.04 Data Interoperability subcommittee had our bi-weekly telephone conference call yesterday. It seems that, in general, there is not a lot of serious interest in data interoperability as it applies to 3D point clouds. We are not sure why this is the case, but here are some possible explanations:

  1. The current E57 standard, along with LAS are meeting the needs of most users.
  2. People are too busy to devote time to volunteer efforts outside of work.
  3. The hardware vendors are more willing to share their proprietary data formats with the software vendors thereby reducing the need for the use of data exchange formats.

In any case we think this is short sighted. The subcommittee believes there is much to be done to improve 3D data exchange including better support for long term data archiving, mobile LiDAR, multiple waveform data and compression, to name a few ideas.

To address these issues we need the support of a few (5 to 10) key people who are willing to invest a few hours each week to work on these important topics. If you believe that 3D data exchange is important to the future growth of our industry please contact me to discuss how you can be of help. There is a large open source community who just need direction.

Posted in Data, Standards | Leave a comment

SuperScan – Digitizing the World in 3D

Posted on June 11, 2013 by lidar

Thanks to Michael Raphael at Direct Dimensions for this valuable tip. SuperScan is a project by Science Visualization that involves a number of vendors and organizations who are involved with 3D reality capture and manipulation. Science Visualization is a small firm in Maryland that specializes in producing traveling exhibitions for science museums. They are creating a show around 3D scanning – called SuperScan. It also includes gigapixel photography, which is also amazing.

I am working on contacting them about a full length story.

Posted in Consumer | 1 Comment

3D Public Safety Resource

Posted on June 10, 2013 by lidar

Tony Grissim and his team at Leica GeoSystems continue to advance the use of 3D laser scanning as it applies to public safety and forensics. Recently they have developed a new website that is a valuable resource for all those who are involved in this vitally important effort.

Posted in Forensics, Technology, training | Leave a comment

The Smithsonian’s Laser Cowboys

Posted on June 9, 2013 by lidar

In this Engadget article they detail how the Smithsonian’s Digitization group, AKA the Laser Cowboys is/are making use of 3D laser scanning to preserve the collection. It’s a fascinating article about the work this 3 person group is doing with 3D technology.

Posted in cultural heritage | 2 Comments