LAZ-R-BOY

During the industry slowdown of the summertime, product representatives and industry people looking for business start making the rounds to various architect’s offices to give “lunch’n’learn” presentations. Sometimes you can get industry continuing education credits for attending these lunches, sometimes not. Generally speaking, if it’s a CE credit, they’re about half as interesting since the rep’s aren’t supposed to include any manufacturer specific info or samples into the presentation. They bring food too, usually sandwiches, which is also a big draw since it means I can save my lunch money. Anyway, today’s lunch presentation was given by a metal panel manufacturer/installer, and at the end of the presentation they showed off their laser capabilities.

 

When I came into the conference room, they had set up what looked like a large laser level. Actually, it was a laser scanner. Whereas a laser leveler maybe runs you a few hundred dollars for a really good one, a Leica laser scanner runs close to a hundred THOUSAND dollars. And that doesn’t even include the price of the software you need to interpret the data. At it’s heart a laser scanner is really a very accurate distance reader. The laser revolves like a wheel and the whole assembly rotates around allowing the laser to touch every surface, taking thousands of measurements every minute down to a millimeter of accuracy from a distance that can vary from several hundred feet to several miles, depending on what is being scanned. The end product is a 3D cloud of points which be processed into wireframes or left as is for points.

 

As an architect, I can see three really great uses for this technology, fabrication, as-builts, and existing conditions. If the building you are designing is going up and has kind of an odd shape, before the contractors install a metal panel skin which has 1/16” tolerances, the scan would provide the manufacturer with an entirely reliable set of dimensions to work off of to ensure the skin goes on fitting perfectly. As-builts, or the drawings you hand to the owner at the end (remember that the story you set out to tell is never quite the same story you get at the end), would be perfect use of the laser scan since it would tell you exactly where everything is, plumbing, piping, structural elements, the works. And if I was going into an existing building for renovation, or retrofit or even gutting the place to start over, an accurate drawing of what is actually already there would be invaluable.