Technology03 / 08

3D Scanning & Digital Capture

Scan-to-CAD, BIM and reverse engineering

3: capabilities
5: stages
4: deliverables

Overview

Scanning answers a question that comes up constantly and has no good analogue answer: what shape is this thing, exactly? A bracket cast in 1994 with no drawing. A building nobody has plans for. A component that has to mate with something already bolted to a wall.

The output is not a picture. It is a model with real dimensions that downstream work can be built on, whether that is a CAD solid an engineer can modify, a coordinated BIM model for a retrofit, or a mesh that goes straight to a printer.

The distinction that matters commercially is between capture and cleanup. Getting points off an object is the easy half. Registering multiple passes into one coherent model, repairing what the scanner could not see, and turning a mesh into geometry with editable features is the work, and it is where a usable deliverable is separated from a large file.

This is a service. Scanning as a service. The scanners themselves are equipment, and live in Shop.

Buy a scanner

What it does

Three things this division does

Scan to CAD

A physical part becomes a parametric solid you can modify, not just a mesh you can look at.

Who it is for

Who commissions this

Engineers recreating a part with no surviving drawing

Architects working on retrofit and renovation projects

Manufacturers needing quality inspection against a design model

Heritage and conservation teams recording what exists

How work moves

From brief to delivery,
in five stages

01
Site capture
Where it starts
02
Registration
Stage 2
03
Mesh cleanup
Stage 3
04
Model
Stage 4
05
Deliver
Where it ends

What you receive

At the end of the job

The registered meshAll passes aligned into one watertight model, cleaned of noise and scanner artefacts.
A parametric CAD solidWhere the job is scan-to-CAD: a modelled solid with editable features, not a frozen mesh.
A coordinated BIM modelWhere the job is scan-to-BIM: levels, grids and elements at the agreed level of development.
A deviation reportThe captured geometry compared against the nominal design, where inspection is the point.

The practical detail

In numbers

3 to 10 working days: Typical turnaround
0.05 to 0.1 mm typical: Capture accuracy
Room scale: Max object size
STL, STEP, IFC, RVT: Output formats
Available, both markets: On-site capture
Booked capture slot: Engagement start

Questions

Asked before commissioning

Answered here, so the first call can start further along.

Still have a question?Ask the team that runs the machines.

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A scan is a dense mesh of measured points: accurate, but with no features you can edit. A CAD model has geometry with intent behind it, so a hole is a hole with a diameter you can change rather than a ring of triangles. Scan-to-CAD is the work of turning one into the other, and it is the deliverable most engineering jobs actually need.

Not directly. Reflective and clear surfaces scatter the projected light the scanner relies on. These are handled with a removable matting spray, which is standard practice and leaves no residue on the part.

Not necessarily. Capture can happen on site for anything awkward to move, and for buildings it always does. Small parts are usually faster to ship in.

If capture is a regular part of your work, very possibly. The scanners are sold in Shop with commissioning and operator training, and this division stays available for the jobs your own hardware is not sized for.

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