Scanning the Lake House
April 6, 2018 | Vaughn J. Mantor
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Architect’s first use of laser scanning saves time, money, and prestige.
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For this first post, we’re looking at a common decision faced by architects. How does the architect know what to charge for certain tasks? Here’s a specific example.
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A professional athlete asked an architect to design some modifications, expansions, and upgrades to his elegant home on a northern lake. Accurate drawings were not available. What does the architect charge for creation of the as-built drawings?
“Transparent” view of laser image.
At first, the architect planned on using 2D CAD drawings in AutoCAD format. He thought he would drive out to the house, which is a three to five hour drive, one way, depending on weather, and take the relevant measurements himself. He planned to return to his office and create the drawings. Based on his situation, he thought he would charge $3,500.
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Second thoughts crept up on him. The house has a crawl space only three feet high. Tough to get measurements there. What if he mis-measures? What if he needs additional measurements? And, very important, can he complete the measurements and initial drawings plus complete the new design before the upcoming meeting with the athlete? It’s winter; driving could be a problem. Could his time be better used?
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Verify 3D solved his problems, saved the architect’s time for better uses, and gave him peace of mind that any design he might do would be based on completely accurate drawings. Verify 3D created the required 2D CAD drawings, and in addition supplied a full Revit model (that’s the image above), and the point clouds.
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As you can see, the crawl space is a cramped space for making measurements. We easily took millions of measurements here.
Image of the full point cloud.
Although we charged more than the architect originally estimated, the overall savings in time and money, the better allocation of resources, the adherence to project schedules, and the satisfaction of his client made the additional cost insignificant.
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We’ll expound on the many uses, advantages, and applications of this technology in upcoming posts. If you’d like a personal explanation or demonstration of the ways laser scanning can help you, see our contact information below.