How 3D Reality Capture Technology Improves Surveying and Mapping Workflows
From capturing vast landscapes and cataloguing intricate transportation corridors, to venturing down underground tunnels or determining stockpiles of mining materials and construction waste, today’s reality capture technology is transforming how surveying professionals map and measure the world in which we live.
Download this guide to learn:
- How to streamline end-to-end workflows using advanced scanning technologies
- The role of cloud-based software in enhancing speed, flexibility, and productivity
- Why reality capture reduces rework through fast, accurate data capture
- How to deliver results faster, without compromising on quality
How 3D Laser Scanning Technology Can Transform Your Surveying and Mapping Workflows
Discover how 3D laser scanning hardware and software solutions helps increase profitability by improving the accuracy of an assortment of infrastructural and terrain-based maps while reducing the time needed to generate these results for both existing projects and new or expanded builds.
Example: Construction of a new building or highwayTo map terrain for a new building or highway, for example, surveyors follow a detailed and methodical process that ensures accurate spatial data is collected and used to guide design and construction.
The Traditional Way of Mapping and Measuring
Before the advent of 3D laser scanning, mapping and survey used a combination of manual, optical, and electromechanical tools.
For on-the-ground calculations, surveyors used measuring chains or steel tapes. This method was labor-intensive and error-prone.
To measure horizontal and vertical angles surveyors used theodolites and transit levels.
In the late 20th century, total stations combined theodolites with electronic distance measurement (EDM) technology enabled faster and more accurate distance and angle readings, recorded electronically.
Things Begin to Change:
It was during the latter 20th century and early 21st centuries when the pace of change increased.
Satellite aerial photogrammetry began to augment airplane-based aerial photography to help map large areas. While effective, this required significant post-processing, and lacked ground-level detail.
By the 1990s, global positioning systems (GPS) took surveying one step further by enabling the capture of geospatial coordinates with satellites and survey-grade accuracy.
The Introduction of 3D Laser Scanning:
In the early 2000s 3D laser scanning began to transform modern surveying and mapping through the technology’s ability to capture millions of data points in minutes, enabling highly detailed point clouds of real-world environments.
Today, rapid innovation has led to smaller, faster, and more affordable terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) and mobile scanners with improved CAD, GIS, and BIM integration. Surveyors increasingly rely on these devices to generate topographic surveys, infrastructure modeling, and construction verification.
It is within this exciting arena where FARO technology excels the most.
Download the complete guide to learn more about how FARO 3D technology can save you significant time and money on a wide range of surveying and mapping tasks, from large aerial terrain maps, to the finest infrastructural details for aboveground or belowground utility and transit corridors and beyond!