Scan to BIM

A modeled building, not a point cloud. The captured scans are registered into a single coordinated cloud, cleaned, and set to your project coordinate system. From there a modeler builds the elements your project needs. That means walls, floors, ceilings, structure, and openings, plus the mechanical, electrical and plumbing runs when those are in scope. The deliverable is a Revit model tied to your template, plus the linked point cloud so anyone can check the model against the scan. Floor plans, elevations, sections, and reflected ceiling plans come off that model. What gets modeled and how tightly it follows the cloud is agreed before work starts, because that decision drives most of the effort. The same team can carry the project into construction documents once the existing conditions are settled.

Accuracy is a specified number, not a property of the scanner. The U.S. Institute of Building Documentation publishes a Level of Accuracy specification for existing conditions. It separates the measured accuracy of the survey from the represented accuracy of the model. Those two are different, and confusing them is where disputes start. A scanner may capture within a few millimeters while the model deliberately simplifies a bowed wall to a straight one. Which is correct depends on what the model is for. A renovation of a tight interior needs the deviation preserved. A schematic study does not. So the level of accuracy and the tolerance per element category belong in the scope before modeling begins, with a note in the model recording what was simplified. That note is what protects your firm at the moment somebody measures on site.

The scanning happens on site with your own crew or a local survey firm, and we do everything that happens after. Capture needs someone physically in the building with a terrestrial scanner or a mobile system, so it is not remote work. What is remote is the part that takes the longest: registration, cleanup, coordinate alignment, and the modeling itself. Ahead of the visit we help write the capture specification. That covers scan density, the target and control strategy, the areas that need ceiling access, and the deliverable formats. A bad capture cannot be fixed by good modeling, so that briefing is worth the hour it takes. Laser scanning is also a controlled activity on site, and OSHA publishes the laser safety requirements that apply. Bring us one building and we will tell you what to ask your scanning contractor for.

Registered point clouds in E57, RCP and RCS, or LAS and LAZ, with the registration report and the control data that goes with them. Raw scans in a manufacturer format work too, since registration can be done on our side. That adds a step you may not need to pay for. Panoramic imagery is useful and worth asking your scanning contractor to include. What comes back is a Revit model on your template, the linked cloud, and the sheets your project needs. Native files are delivered in the version your office runs, not the newest one. A model in a version you cannot open is not a deliverable. IFC exports are available where a consultant needs them. Agree the exchange formats in the first meeting rather than at handover. It is a five minute conversation that prevents a week of file conversion at the end of a project.

On anything large, geometrically awkward, or costly to visit twice. A scan captures the whole building once, including what nobody thought to measure, which is usually what stops the project three months later. Hand measurement still makes sense on a small, orthogonal space with good record drawings and easy access. The break point is not really size, it is the cost of being wrong. Does the renovation depend on a slab thickness, a bowed facade, or the real clearance above a ceiling? Then the scan pays for itself the first time it prevents a redesign. Complex facades, historic buildings, industrial spaces, and occupied buildings with limited access are the clearest cases. Complex facades and occupied buildings usually reach that point sooner than anyone expects. Compare the scan against what your last set of field verification hours actually cost.