Solutions · Technology
3D Scanning & Digital Capture
Turning things that exist into models you can work with. A part with no drawing, a building with no plans, a component that has to fit something already installed.
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capabilities
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stage engagement
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deliverables
TechnologyScanning 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.
Capability
What this division does
Scan to CAD
A physical part becomes a parametric solid you can modify, not just a mesh you can look at.
Scan to BIM
As-built capture of existing structures, delivered as a coordinated model for renovation and retrofit work.
Reverse engineering
Obsolete or undocumented components measured, modelled and made manufacturable again.
Audience
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
Process
How the work moves
Site capture
Registration
Mesh cleanup
Model
Deliver
Deliverables
What you actually receive
Named artefacts rather than adjectives: the things that exist at the end, and can be checked against this list.
The registered mesh
All passes aligned into one watertight model, cleaned of noise and scanner artefacts.
A parametric CAD solid
Where the job is scan-to-CAD: a modelled solid with editable features, not a frozen mesh.
A coordinated BIM model
Where the job is scan-to-BIM: levels, grids and elements at the agreed level of development.
A deviation report
The captured geometry compared against the nominal design, where inspection is the point.
Engagement
The practical detail
- Typical turnaround
- 3 to 10 working days
- Capture accuracy
- 0.05 to 0.1 mm typical
- Max object size
- Room scale
- Output formats
- STL, STEP, IFC, RVT
- On-site capture
- Available, both markets
- Engagement start
- Booked capture slot
Questions
Asked before commissioning
The questions that come up on nearly every enquiry, answered here so the first call can start further along.
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.