How Hollis Captures, Processes, Manages and Delivers Reality Capture data

Author: Renata Barradas

Is data processing and producing CAD and other deliverables giving you a headache?

Reality Capture experts know that capturing data is just one step in the process. Processing, managing and delivering data are part of the workflow. Processing and producing CAD and other deliverables can sometimes be the most time-consuming parts of the workflow.

Tim Beach, Chartered Geomatics Surveyor and Measured Building Specialist from Hollis, has been relying on laser scanning in the U.K. since 2003. Hollis is a leading firm of independent real estate consultants with 24 offices in the U.K., Ireland and mainland Europe. Beach is based within the Measured Survey team and is responsible for AEC level-detail projects.

Within his role, he gets to test hardware and software to ensure the solutions are as efficient as possible for their clients. Beach has successfully incorporated laser scanning into existing measured building survey workflows at Hollis.

Within its 25-service offering, Hollis’ measured services integrate into several of the others, such as mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering (MEP) where the team uses laser scanning for plant and environments requiring Revit modelling for clash detection exercises. The unit uses laser scanning for other applications, such as the rights of light (ROL) analysis to examine impacts of new developments, project management for refurbishing and redevelopment of existing buildings.

Hollis owns several Leica Geosystems equipment, including:

• 2Leica ScanStation P40s
• 3Leica RTC360 3D激光扫描仪
• 2Leica TS16and 4 Leica TS12 Total Stations
• 3Leica Builder Total Stations
• 2Viva GS16 GNSS和4个Viva GS08加GNSS
• 4Leica Cyclone REGISTERand旋风寄存器360, 2Leica Cyclone MODEL，12CloudWorx用于AutoCAD，12JetStream Connectors, 2 Cyclone PUBLISHER PRO.

“Hollis has invested quite heavily in Leica Geosystems equipment in recent years. Having tested various hardware and software providers, we chose Leica Geosystems. We found Leica Geosystems gave us the solution that fits best into our business model. We have a number of ScanStation P40’s, total stations and GPS for control and putting our surveys in the correct location海滩说。

激光扫描180,000平方英尺的建筑物

激光扫描11楼180,000平方英尺的挑战。在英国伯明翰中部建筑物，超越了建筑物本身，包括找到可见的位置，可见到已经拥挤的地区的建筑物面孔。鉴于建筑物的规模，其复杂性以及客户时间表和可交付成果，Hollis选择了激光扫描。

To scan each of the rooms on every floor, Hollis had to coordinate access arrangements with all tenants. “Laser scanning in conjunction with accurate survey control allowed us to move around the building, scan what we needed to in the areas we had access to at that time, knowing that we would be able to register the captured scan data together at the end, and be confident that we would be able to get the correct result,”said Beach.

The deliverables requested by the client included standard 2D CAD information of floor plans, elevations and cross-sections. During the project, the client required additional information, including structural soffit and slab details in various locations, a full topographical survey of the immediate surroundings, façade deviation reports and monitoring work.

Data Capture

由于紧迫的期限,霍利斯部署两个teams each with a Leica ScanStation P40 and completed the survey in just five days. Eight-man days on-site were required to capture the inside of the building, plus one day to install survey control around the property and to do the external laser scanning. The team collected data with confidence, without the need for excessive survey control, generating 90 GB of raw data from approximately 1,500 scan positions. The Viva GS08 plus RTK GNSS was used to geo-reference multiple points around the site to transform the data to Ordnance Survey Grid and Datum.

Processing Data

在第一个现场检查日之后，Hollis开始注册捕获的扫描数据。现场的两个调查团队在每天结束时将收集的原始数据发送给当地办公室开始进口和注册。所有注册元件均在白天进行，并且自动对准剩下的一整夜。此工作流程最大程度地减少了处理时间，并允许团队尽早开始CAD工作。总体而言，Beach的团队花了六天的时间进行注册，最终数据库为259 GB。

Beach and his team registered all scans using Cyclone REGISTER with local control and cloud to cloud techniques. Cyclone REGISTER allowed the team to split the registration into logical parts and combine them to generate a final master data set.

“我们发现，云到云提供了网站工作中最大的灵活性和具有如此复杂几何形状的建筑物的注册。能够将您的数据一起注册，并与P40一起使用双轴补偿器，确保我们是confident that the data we are producing is correctly orientated and we don’t have any issues downstream. […] Cyclone REGISTER gave us an incredibly flexible approach to how we undertook the registration,”said Beach.

Managing Data

Hollis has 30 employees in the measured service team distributed across multiple offices who could require access to data for any given project at any given time. To generate the deliverables for the clients, cross-regional teams collaborate using a high-performance streaming and centralised project platform to access data over internal and external networks – Leica JetStream. Using this simplified point cloud access Hollis measured survey experts can import and render full-density point cloud data in real time within CAD applications and share JetStream Viewer files with various stakeholders. Using this approach, the real estate consulting company streamlines collaboration in projects.

“使用Leica Jetstream的使用使我们能够在伦敦中心托管我们的数据，每个人都可以访问。如果我们的区域办公室进行扫描项目，他们可以在一夜之间上传到JetStream Server，向其他所有人开放数据。不是扫描数据但偶尔需要使用数据的团队，我们可以托管和存档他们的项目数据，”said Beach.

使用Leica Jetstream使团队能够在各个位置的各个团队之间传播最终数据集，以按时和预算完成项目。“ Jetstream使我们能够以最有效的方式和尽可能准确的方式完成该项目。”said Beach.

Delivering data

测量师使用激光扫描生成大量数据，这些扫描被捕获，处理和设法提供支持决策的可行数据。

Leica TruView is the collaborative tool Hollis surveying team relies on to share point cloud data and design models. One of the many uses for TruView within Tim’s team is as a Q&A tool to ‘walkthrough’ models and for checking congested environments remotely and safely.

“莉卡Truview提供了来自网站的数据的基于位置的视图。我们使用它使用所有可用信息来生产可交付成果 - 不仅依靠CloudWorx中的切片，在该切片中可能会丢失功能。对于伯明翰中部的建筑项目，我们的团队可以通过建筑物和地板逻辑地将数据分开。Truview允许观众测量，添加几何形状，结合热链接和用于资产管理需求的嵌入地理标签，”said Beach.

从数据收集到交付的完整端到端解决方案

Using a complete reality capture workflow from Leica Geosystems, Hollis produced deliverables of floor plans, sections, and elevations for its client in the most efficient manner. Through re-use of previously-collected data, the team could accommodate the clients’ additional requirements very quickly. Geared with JetStream surveyors saved time by loading and accessing data from one central location, helping to deliver the project on time and budget.

观看海滩，解释Hollis如何将硬件和软件集成到网络研讨会中的不同项目“提高生产率和与Leica Geosystems总体软件解决方案的合作。”