LFM Server

LFM Server 4.2 – Introducing Key New Features

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As 3D laser scanning has become easier and more affordable it has become the technology of choice for ‘as-is’ data capture. LFM Server™ enables users to maximize the value of the rich information that laser scanning generates.

LFM Server is the most advanced solution available for accessing pre-registered laser scan data and working with it directly in 3D CAD systems. It is simple to use and offers unrivalled performance and functionality.

There are many different 3D laser scanners and 3D CAD systems in use today. LFM Server has been developed to provide users with maximum freedom of choice of both scanning and design systems. It can read unstructured data from various scanner types; not only terrestrial laser scanners but also hand-held, mobile or aerial scanners.

Designed to work with data from even the highest-resolution scanner, LFM Server enables users to work with datasets of unlimited size and exploit photorealistic, 360° BubbleViews™.

Business Benefits

  • Open on the input
    LFM Server can read a wide variety of 3D data capture formats
  • Open on the output
    LFM Server interfaces seamlessly with all leading 3D CAD systems
  • Unlimited Datasets
    InfiniteCore™ technology enables project datasets of unlimited size to be readily created and accessed
  • Increased Productivity
    The intuitive 360° BubbleView makes it easy to verify clashes, review laser scan data, or simply become familiar with the site
  • Clash-free Design
    Accurate, detailed ‘as-is’ information minimizes the business risks of revamp projects
  • Business Flexibility
    Import scans from a wide variety of scanner types and data formats into a single dataset

For more information about LFM Server 4.2’s great new features, contact us or read more here.

Autodesk ReCap: Making Reality Capture Easy and Affordable

Autodesk Aims to Streamline Use of Point Cloud Data

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A key addition to the complete 2014 portfolio of Suites is Autodesk® ReCap™ product, a family of powerful and easy-to-use software and services on the desktop and in the cloud to create intelligent 3D data from captured photos and laser scans in a streamlined workflow.  Autodesk ReCap is the first industry solution to bring together laser scanning and photogrammetry into one streamlined process. In addition, no other solution on the market provides the visualization quality and scalability to handle extremely large data sets.

The Autodesk ReCap product line comprises two main offerings – Autodesk ReCap Studio and Autodesk ReCap Photo. Autodesk ReCap Studio makes it easy to clean, organize and visualize massive datasets captured from reality. Autodesk ReCap Photo helps users create high-resolution textured 3D models from photos using the power of cloud computing. Rather than beginning with a blank screen, Autodesk ReCap now enables any designer, architect or engineer to add, modify, validate and document their design process in context from existing environments.

For example, a civil engineer can bypass an existing bridge or expand the road underneath digitally and test feasibility. At construction phase, builders can run clash detection to understand if utilities will be in the way. Urban planners can get answers to specific design questions about large areas, such as how much building roof surface is covered by shadow or vegetation.

ReCap Studio is a data preparation environment that runs on the desktop.  Users can import captured data directly into Autodesk design solutions, such as AutoCAD®, Autodesk® Revit®, Autodesk Inventor®, etc., to conduct QA and verification of data. The data can come from non-intelligent, black and white sparse point clouds to intelligent, visually high appealing content. ReCap Studio will ship in Autodesk product and suite installers or be available for free on the Autodesk Exchange Apps store.

ReCap Studio 2

ReCap Photo is an Autodesk 360 service designed to create high resolution 3D data from photos to enable users to visualize and share 3D data. By leveraging the power of the cloud to process and store massive data files, users can upload images on Autodesk 360 and instantly create a 3D mesh model. ReCap Photo is available with Standard Suites entitlement and higher.

ReCap Photo 2

Key features of Autodesk ReCap include:

  • Visualize and edit massive datasets:  On the desktop, ReCap users can view and edit billions of points to prepare them for use in Autodesk portfolio products to enable realistic in context design work
  • Professional-Grade Photo to 3D Features: ReCap unlocks the power of ubiquitous cameras to capture high-quality 3D models, bringing reality capture within reach of anyone with a camera.  ReCap supports objects of any size and range, full resolution for high-density meshes, survey points and multiple file exports.
  • Photo and Laser: ReCap incorporates the best of both photo and laser data capture so that customers can use photos to fill in holes or augment laser scan data. Users can both increase photos scene accuracy with laser points and add photo-realistic detail to laser scans. Create point clouds from photos, align scans and photos and convert professional grade photo to 3D models.

Autodesk continues to invest in developing sophisticated, easy-to-use reality capture technologies. The company has made several key acquisitions including Alice Labs and Allpoint Systems as well as applied its own research and development resources to accelerate the mainstream adoption of these technologies. As customers are looking for ways to easily and accurately capture the world around them, Autodesk ReCap streamlines Reality Capture workflows, making working with Reality Capture data easy, quick and cost effective.

Autodesk is the only company who has combined laser scanning data and photogrammetry into one product family to address and streamline the entire workflow.  Whereas traditional point clouds appear as dots, Autodesk technology can now visualize truly massive point clouds as realistic surfaces. Unique to Autodesk is that users can interact with these huge data sets doing CAD-like operations such as selection, tagging, moving, measuring, clash detection, and object extraction, all with native points. Laser scanning and photogrammetry are historically very expensive and data intensive. Autodesk’s goal is to democratize the process of reality capture so that anyone can capture the world around them to create high quality 3D models.

ILM Hulk Avengers Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk in "The Avengers," courtesy of Marvel Films.

How ILM Used Laser Scanning to Give Life to the Hulk in Marvel’s The Avengers

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Industrial Light & Magic, a division of Lucasfilm Ltd. and now owned by The Walt Disney Company, forever changed the way movies are made and how we as the viewer experience them. The movie-making geniuses have continually raised the bar in computer-generated imagery (CGI) and visual effects (VFX) year after year since the company’s founding by George Lucas in May of 1975. Released today, ILM takes us behind the scenes to show us how they used laser scanning and other tools to transform Mark Ruffalo into the lovable Hulk character that almost stole the show in Marvel’s third highest-grossing film of all time, The Avengers.

Check out more ILM movie magic on their YouTube channel.

Leica Geosystems Cyclone

Leica Geosystems Announces Major Advances in Cyclone 8.0 Software

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Leica Geosystems Announces Cyclone 8.0 Software – Major Advances for “Point Cloud” Office Productivity, Spatial Data Connectivity, and Customization

(Heerbrugg/Switzerland and Hanover/Germany, 9 October 2012) – Leica Geosystems announces the next major release of its flagship software, Leica Cyclone 8.0. In addition to providing further improvements in office productivity for processing as-built laser scan data, Cyclone 8.0 gives users powerful, new capabilities. Users can now directly connect point cloud data with other spatial data sources (such as 3D models) and readily share and re-use modeled data. Leica Cyclone 8.0 is being introduced at Intergeo as supporting software for the new Leica ScanStation P20 ultra-high speed laser scanner.

Office Productivity Gains

Cyclone 8.0 features several enhancements that increase office productivity, often significantly:

[listdot]

  • 20 – 50% faster scan data import
  • Automatic conversion on import to Enhanced Working Format, for faster data processing
  • Automatic creation of all pipe cylinders, with a single click, for an entire project or for a selected set of scan data, even during import
  • Automatic creation of TruView Hotlinks, linking scan points in panoramic TruViews to asset information
  • Easy saving and re-use of complex models created from geometric primitives
  • New “scripting” capability speeds repetitive or customized sequences of model building
  • Fewer clicks and a modern CAD-like interface for popular “Move” and “Rotate” commands[/listdot]

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ClearEdge3D Valve-flange

ClearEdge3D Releases EdgeWise Plant™ 4.0

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Now offers full, end-to-end 3D modeling solution with 9 new features and enhancements including valve/flange placement, demolition tool, custom spec editor, high-definition visualization and more

 

Herndon, Virginia — December 12, 2012 — ClearEdge3D today released EdgeWise Plant™ 4.0, with 9 major new features and enhancements that create the fastest end-to-end pipe modeling solution on the market. The software automates the 3D modeling of complex process plant facilities, cutting up to 85% of labor from the modeling workflow.

Robert Greenhalgh with Ramboll Oil & Gas used the software on a recent North Sea offshore project. “We reduced our 3D modeling time substantially with EdgeWise Plant 4.0,” said Greenhalgh. ”Building standard pipe fittings on top of the powerful automated tools makes 4.0 the complete pipe modeling package.”

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Staples Easy 3D Printing

Staples to offer full-color ‘Easy 3D’ printing service

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FRANKFURT, Germany, November 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ —

Full color and low cost make 3D printing accessible to everyone

In a giant step toward the reality of 3D printing for all, Mcor Technologies Ltd has struck a deal with Staples Printing Systems Division to launch a new 3D printing service called “Staples Easy 3D,” online via the Staples Office Centre.

Staples’ Easy 3D will offer consumers, product designers, architects, healthcare professionals, educators, students and others low-cost, brilliantly coloured, photo-realistic 3D printed products from Staples stores. Customers will simply upload electronic files to the Staples Office Centre and pick up the models in their nearby Staples stores, or have them shipped to their address. Staples will produce the models with the Mcor IRIS, a 3D printer with the highest colour capability in the industry and lowest operating cost of any commercial-class 3D printer.

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Hexagon 3D Laser Scanning

Hexagon Introduces Game-changing Solution for Owner Operators

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Stockholm, Sweden, 12 November 2012

Leica TruView Integrator for SmartPlant® Enterprise Extends the Benefits of Laser Scanning to New Uses in Daily Plant Operations

Through collaboration between Intergraph® Process, Power & Marine and Leica Geosystems, Leica TruView Integrator for SmartPlant® Enterprise significantly improves the way engineering assets are maintained. The solution combines Intergraph’s trusted plant asset management software with Leica Geosystems’ intuitive object information software, extending the benefits of laser scanning from its traditional use of providing accurate as-built information for capital projects to important new uses in daily plant operations.

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Embracing Mobile 3D Laser Scanning

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Source

“Technology is advancing so quickly that it’s slowly replacing the surveyor.” These concerns have been voiced over and over as LiDAR scanning becomes more accessible. The most recent advance in scanning is terrestrial mobile LiDAR scanning (TMLS). This technology collects survey-grade data at highway speeds and at traditional survey costs, and in the transportation discipline it is a safer means of data collection while reducing risk for the entire project. But it has surveyors questioning the longevity of their profession. What is seen as a threat because of efficiency must be embraced in order for surveying to survive. Land surveyors are increasingly missing out on surveying work because they are not advancing in current measurement technologies. Understanding and appropriately responding to non-traditional ways will significantly contribute to the success of the surveying profession and to the clients you serve.

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ClearEdge3D Launches EdgeWise MEP for Autodesk Revit

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Automated Feature Extraction of pipes from point clouds now available for Revit—promises substantial workflow savings of up to 85%

Herndon, Virginia — September 5, 2012 — ClearEdge3D announced today the release of its latest product, EdgeWise MEP™ for Autodesk® Revit®. For the first time, users can bring extracted pipes, conduit and other cylindrical mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) elements directly into Revit. ClearEdge3D’s new MEP solution leverages the powerful feature extraction technology of EdgeWise to automatically extract pipe solids from laser scan point clouds.  These pipe solids can be automatically connected into pipe runs, annotated within EdgeWise MEP, and then brought directly into Revit as fully functional Revit pipe objects. All intelligence extracted by EdgeWise, such as diameter, length, elbow bend radius and more, is also transferred into Revit.

 

Beta testers of EdgeWise MEP for Revit reported modeling time savings of up to 85 percent over their previous workflows. “EdgeWise MEP for Revit greatly enhances the field-to-finish workflow.  It’s the innovation our BIM customers have been asking for,” said Chris Scotton, ClearEdge3D’s President and CEO. “Now users can combine the speed of EdgeWise Automated Feature Extraction with the power of Revit to produce Revit deliverables much faster than ever before.”

 

Working closely with the Autodesk Revit MEP product management team and a group of highly experienced Revit users, ClearEdge3D developed EdgeWise MEP for Revit to dramatically speed the process of modeling MEP as-builts.  “Modeling MEP for BIM has traditionally been a very tedious process,” Scotton continued. “EdgeWise MEP for Revittakes much of the manual modeling out of the workflow and instantly delivers the data straight into Revit as pipe objects, thus reducing  a project’s cost and schedule.  While the current release focuses on cylinder extraction, future releases will be able to automatically extract square ducting, cable trays and other planar objects.”Kelly Cone, Innovations Director at Beck Architecture, recently tested the beta release.  “Edgewise MEP for Revit is a huge step forward in our market. Tasks that used to take us days to complete can now be done in a few hours.” Another beta tester, Devon Kelley at Precision Point, Inc. recently completed a hospital MEP project using the new software. “I am beyond impressed.  I was able to simply highlight all the pipe objects and click the “convert to pipes” button. Revit automatically recognized the pipe size which was incredible. So far it has exceeded my expectations. “

 

To request a live demonstration of EdgeWise MEP for Revit click here: www.clearedge3d.com.

 

About ClearEdge3D

ClearEdge3D was founded in 2006 by two recognized experts and thought-leaders in the field of computer vision, Automated Feature Extraction, and LIDAR data analysis.  The company’s flagship products, EdgeWise Plant™, EdgeWise MEP™ for Revit and EdgeWise Building™, are used by top engineering firms world-wide to optimize their scan-to-model workflow. The company is privately-held and headquartered in Herndon, Virginia.

 

Autodesk and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and other countries.

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For more information, contact:

Janice Starrs

janice.starrs@clearedge3d.com

USA +1 410-991-0582

Rental companies returned to growth in 2011

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Rent the latest LiDAR TechnologiesEuropean firms lag behind as world’s top 100 rental companies’ revenues grow by 13.3% in 2011  [source]

WORLDWIDE equipment rental revenues grew significantly in 2011 as contractors and other equipment users increased their reliance on rental suppliers, according to the latest IRN100 survey of the largest 100 equipment rental companies worldwide, published by KHL Group.

Rental companies in all regions reported revenue growth last year, although European firms lagged behind the rest.

Total rental-related revenues at the world’s top 100 rental companies grew by 13.3% last year, with revenues at the top 10 growing on average by 22.9%, after adjusting for currency changes. The full survey is published in the July-August issue of International Rental News (IRN).

North American rental companies in the list grew, on average, by 17% while European renters reported much more modest growth of 5.9%. US rental giant United Rentals top the list with UK-based power rental company Aggreko at number two.

The 2011 survey reflects wider trends in the global economy, with growth shifting to emerging markets and recovery in the US proving more robust than in Europe. Of the top 100 companies, 44 were from Europe, the lowest number since the survey was started in 2005 and the first time it has been below 50.

Emerging markets continue to increase their participation in the list, with Chinese and Middle East companies in the top 100 for the first time.

Capital expenditure on fleet was also up dramatically in 2011, with the top 25 spenders investing €5.7 billion, gross, in their fleets. This is more than double the €2.5 billion in 2010 and reflects high replacement investment by rental companies in the US, Japan and Australia.

Murray Pollok, the report’s author, said; ‘A mix of factors contributed to the growth in rental last year. Many of the biggest rental companies in North America and Europe saw rental revenues recover from depressed levels in 2009 and 2010, while in developing areas of the world rental companies are expanding rapidly as the rental concept catches on.

‘In addition, many rental firms believe that the current economic uncertainty, and difficulties in obtaining finance, are leading equipment users to source more of their equipment from rental suppliers. This trend is most evident in North America, where rental penetration rates are increasing.’