Category Archives: Lidar/Imaging

Creating a 3D model with Autodesk’s 123D Catch application starts with taking 30 to 70 photos of a subject.

123D Catch for the Masses

How to Make A 3D Model of Your Sleeping Cat Stereoscopic imaging, better known as 3D, is not new. In the 16th century, “binocular” images were viewed cross-eyed. In 1838, Sir Charles Wheatstone invented the stereoscope to give depth to images. It presented two offset 2D images separately to the left and right eye of...

This hologram of a church in Texas was built from a combination of airborne and terrestrial lidar scans.

Wizardly 3D

Above: This hologram of a church in Texas was built from a combination of airborne and terrestrial lidar scans. More than just illusions, hologram technology is booming. Every once in a while a new product or technology comes out that makes you do a double take and think, “Wait, what is that?” This happened to me...

Proposed 3D design software will enable users to create and work with such images as this oil sands facility drainage analysis

True 3D Design

New geospatial software combines the appeal of games with the rigor of applications. It’s never been done before: applying the rigor and disciplines of civil engineering, mining engineering, hydrology, and even classic survey field-to-finish to game-like 3D design.  Sure, CAD operators have had 3D viewing for years, which they use to review the results of...

HoloLens users are able to see both the real world around them and virtual-reality objects, such as design features that have not yet been built.

Blending Realities

A 3D design and visualization tool with phenomenal potential in the AEC world is coming from a collaboration between Microsoft and Trimble. Imagine designing an object, in 3D and color, using only gaze, gestures, and voice (GGV) commands. Imagine designing an entire building the same way—or modifying an existing one. Imagine moving in a physical...

Imetrum’s portable, long-range, camera-based monitoring system was used in the benchmarking trial.

Optical Monitoring

Above: Imetrum’s portable, long-range, camera-based monitoring system was used in the benchmarking trial. How reliable are optical monitoring techniques for civil engineering structures? Editor’s Note: Camera-based systems have long been used in industrial metrology for manufacturing, materials testing, and integrity monitoring. Now they’re finding utility in the “macro” realms of AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction). Many people in the...

This image, created with Woolpert’s online QC tool eQAS, illustrates the ability to review sign data from multiple perspectives and provides lidar and image data at the location of each sign.

Signs of Change

Above: This image, created with Woolpert’s online QC tool eQAS, illustrates the ability to review sign data from multiple perspectives and provides lidar and image data at the location of each sign.  One collect, multiple uses. A mobile mapping system (MMS) is a versatile tool capable of creating both GIS asset inventories and design-level mapping...