Is 3D Laser Scanning Becoming a Necessity Rather Than a Luxury in Modern Construction and Facility M
3D laser scanning has rapidly evolved from a specialized, high-cost technology into a more accessible and widely adopted solution across construction, architecture, and facility management. By capturing highly accurate, real-world data and converting it into detailed digital models, it promises better planning, reduced rework, and improved coordination.
But the real question is—are we at a point where projects can no longer afford to not use it?
On one hand, proponents argue that 3D laser scanning minimizes errors, enhances clash detection, and provides a reliable “as-built” reference that traditional methods simply can’t match. It’s particularly valuable in renovation, heritage preservation, and complex infrastructure projects where precision is critical.
On the other hand, some still view it as an added cost rather than a core requirement—especially for smaller projects with tight budgets. There are also concerns about data overload, the need for skilled professionals, and integration challenges with existing workflows.
So where does the industry stand today?
- Is 3D laser scanning truly delivering measurable ROI across all project types?
- Are smaller firms being left behind due to cost and expertise barriers?
- How does it compare to traditional surveying methods in terms of long-term value?
- And most importantly—will it soon become a standard expectation rather than an optional upgrade?
Let’s discuss—what has your experience been with 3D laser scanning services?
Comments
-
"where does the industry stand today?"
With a SLAM equipped smartphone?0 -
We had a very old underground drain 3d scanned, your comment "data overload" the resulting file whilst super impressive we could see the dimples in stone blocks, the file was about 10 Gb. It was produced as a fly though.
Without the correct software to interrogate the data, we had a movie that was all. It was an expensive task as involved underground setups. But we had no idea what was down there.
0 -
lidar on an apple smart phone is quite good. It’s reasonably accurate to 5mm in most cases and combined with some site measuring it’s worked well.
0 -
That's real feedback! Thanks.
0 -
My iPhone Lidar tests inside rooms were overall also mostly reasonably accurate.
But if you rotate your scan and come back, so scanning Wall areas a second time, you may get another layer of points, easily 10 cm off of the former points.
Another problem is that the noise (distance between neighboured points) is usually too high and the density too low for Bricscad finding/accepting planar faces. If you force it by selecting/snapping to more than 3 points, you may get strange results.I had expected more from Lidar.
I think more exciting than Lidar Point Clouds is Apps that use Apple's Room Plan API to create a reduced rectilinear Model. The signal to noise ratio (information vs file size) is much more appealing to me. You can go from room to room and so in the best case scann a whole plan of a house. Including some "AI" to also document Doors, Windows, Furniture, …. (as Cubes).The problem here is that the 3D Meshes are soooooo bad (from a Mesh Modeling view) that there is no chance to clean them up in a 3D Mesh App to something useful. These work as dummies for snapping and recreating geometry only.
TL;DR;
An iPhone Pro is by far no Faro or Leica replacement.
(But it may help verify you old school manual measurements, sketches, notes and or what you forgot, so you likely need to return to site 30% less)
0 -
alleges that iphone updates have significantly regresssed its accuracy and usefulness.
AECMag Mar/Apr 25 has an article about Polycam, getting better results than the raw Apple ap. I'm sure I also saw another, more in depth AECMag article, about another Ap that combined the Apple capability with something else, to great effect - but can't find it. Anyone?0 -
Depending on the project, 3D scans are used for “as-built” references and are necessary to design temporary structures to.
We request the 3rd party surveyor contractor to scan the area we need.
Typically they’re supplying us with DXF files with 100k + 3d faces.
As is ALWAYS the case in BricsCAD, performance is atrocious, super low framerate trying to orbit, pan, move, mirror, rotate etc and BricsCADs tools to convert the 3d faces into a singular entity fail.
Import the DXF into Rhino 100+ FPS, silky smooth orbiting, panning etc, BricsCAD WTF?
Surveyor send a few scans as a single STL mesh which seems to perform better, but still not anywhere as smooth as Rhino.
For other projects, we’d love a drone scanner like the BLKFLY, but we’d need the software chain to convert the point clouds to 3d solids. Processing plants of structural steel, vessels etc.
link below is one such situation BricsCAD fails to provide usable result with it’s available toolchain:
1
