Streamline your facility management workflow with cutting-edge 3D reality capture technology that transforms complex jobsites into accurate, shareable as-built drawings.
Leave it to the International Facility Management Association (IFMA®) to provide an exceptional definition of facility management. “[Facility management] ensures the functionality, comfort, safety, sustainability and efficiency of the built environment - the buildings we live and work in and their surrounding infrastructure.”
While facility management is a centuries old profession (even if it wasn’t always called that) recent technological advances have made facility management a far more streamlined and accurate process. Namely, this is due to digital tools, hardware and software alike, where it has become easier than ever to capture accurate measurements and update drawings in real time.
If you're a facility manager, owner, operations manager, or someone looking to improve your documentation processes and save precious time, read on to discover how implementing modern solutions to as-built drawings can completely transform your workflow.
What Are As-Built Drawings?
As-built drawings are detailed documentations of how a building or facility exists after construction is complete, showing any changes made during the building process compared to the original design plans. In construction, as-built drawings serve as the official record of installed systems, structural modifications, and final dimensions, essentially creating a roadmap for future maintenance, renovations, or expansions.
While traditional processes required manual measurements and sketches, today's automated as-built documentation is more accurate and efficient, making it significantly more useful for long-term facility management. For example, Sphere XG automates the process of creating as-built drawings, generating them directly from your scan data and freeing you up for higher value work.
From 3D Data to Professional As-Built Drawings
FARO Sphere® XG’s powerful floorplan generation feature converts your detailed 3D scan data into precise, simplified 2D representations of room layouts. The 2D floor plans generated from your scan data offer a high-level overview that anyone can immediately understand, whether they are facility managers, maintenance crews, or even future design teams. What’s more, automating the process of creating as-built drawings allows for more accurate images, without the hassle of manually drawing it out; thus, saving time for your team to perform other important tasks.
The 2D floor plans maintain complete spatial accuracy and relationships. Every wall thickness, every door location, every mechanical element is precisely represented based on Blink's 3D scans.
The captured scans can also become the foundation for creating precise as-built CAD drawings that reflect the reality of your jobsite. If needed, the scan data can be exported into many file formats that can used for further workflows such as the BIM process.
Capturing Your Jobsite in a Blink
The FARO® Blink™ Imaging Laser Scanner makes reality capture approachable to all skill levels with intuitive workflows that make 3D capture accessible to everyone on your team: even beginners with no scanning experience.
As-built documentation capabilities, integrated into the Blink scanner, deliver stunning visual results without demanding specialized technical expertise. A guided scanning workflow walks you through a step-by-step process, whether you're documenting a renovation project, capturing existing conditions for a retrofit, or creating comprehensive facility records.
Not only that, but Blink is also a perfect solution for capturing sites with a balance of speed and accuracy. One Blink scan takes less than 30 seconds, meaning you can create a detailed 3D record of your entire facility in one day.
Seamless Data Management with Sphere XG
Once you've captured your jobsite, your scan data uploads directly to Sphere XG: a cloud-based platform that transforms raw 3D data into visual point clouds that your entire team can work with collaboratively. Sphere XG is a single source of truth that presents 3D data and 360° photos of your facility in a way that makes sense to everyone, from project managers who need quick overviews to engineers who require detailed measurements.
The collaborative features are especially useful for teams spread across different locations or working with multiple stakeholders. Sharing data becomes as simple as sending a link: no need for extra-powerful computers, coordinating file transfers, or wrangling file format issues. Your clients, consultants, and team members can access the data on Sphere XG from anywhere, making project coordination smooth and hassle-free.
Facility Management Made Easy
In the decades since 3D laser scanning was first introduced, it’s hard to overstate the radical transformation the technology has had on facility management and overall building maintenance. Even as recently as 25 years ago, manual measurement’s “two Ts,”-- total stations and tape measures – were the order of the day.
Floors, rooms, walls and more were measured by hand. Reliant on blueprints and paper drawings, facility teams managed physical copies of architectural plans, often large-format blueprints stored in filing cabinets or plan rooms. Locating accurate as-built documentation often proved challenging, especially for older buildings that had undergone renovations over time.
All of this amounted to a labor-intensive, error-prone process. And that’s where FARO is making a material difference.
When you combine the user-friendly capture capabilities of the Blink scanner with the collaborative power and conversion features of Sphere XG, facility management becomes a manageable, efficient part of your workflow.
No more guessing about existing conditions or expensive site revisits for updated measurements: you get accurate, shareable, usable documentation that serves your project from initial planning through long-term facility management.
Discover more about FARO Blink and start transforming your facility management approach today.