As-built survey for design, BIM and operation
3D laser scanning for existing buildings
Capture while the building stays in use, evaluated into as-built plans, BIM models and CAFM data.
What we do
3D laser scanning of buildings, from the right device to a verified point cloud.
In 3D laser scanning a structure is measured without contact. The result is a point cloud of millions of individual measured points representing the actual state — not the intended state from old documents.
Metrika360 uses terrestrial scanners on a tripod and body-worn mobile mapping systems, supplemented by drones for capturing roof and external surfaces. Which method is used is decided by the task, not by the equipment on the shelf. We settle that before travelling out.
The capture, however, is only the smaller part of the service. Consultation before the project starts, registration into a verified overall point cloud, georeferencing into the desired coordinate system (ETRS89 and DHHN2016, for example) as well as archiving and hosting of the data all belong to it. From the same capture, as-built plans, BIM models, CAFM as-built data or virtual tours arise later, without anyone having to travel out and survey a second time.
What do we scan?3D laser scanning of property and buildings of every kind
We specialise in the rapid three-dimensional capture of large property portfolios. Supporting a new build, capturing complex infrastructure elements, and equally documenting a 1,200-year-old church, also belong to our range of services.
A few examples follow below:
Transport infrastructure (bridges)
Utility infrastructure (treatment plants & waterworks)
Large property portfolios
Historic buildings
Building services (MEP)
Factories and plants of every kind
All kinds of building fit-out
Construction sites of every kind
For architects and designers
A design basis for the refurbishment, and for everything that comes after
Refurbishment in existing buildings rarely fails on the design; it fails on the documents. The old drawing shows a wall thickness of 24 cm; in reality it is 38 cm. That will come to light once the fit-out is already under way. A 3D laser scan supplies the actual state instead of the intended state: every wall thickness, every clear height, every offset as it exists today. From it come as-built plans with areas to DIN 277 or directly a BIM as-built model in which you carry on designing without a detour.
The capture does not end with the design, though. During the construction phase we document progress at agreed intervals, component by component and in the same coordinate system as the first capture, including where things are later clad and nobody looks again. On request we advise on how this construction progress documentation can be coupled to the assessment of work done and thus to the interim invoices of the contractors. After completion we set the built state against the design and evaluate the deviations with a stated tolerance: the as-built comparison.
At the end there is no design model but a representation of the state actually built — and therefore exactly the data basis needed for operation. Anyone who starts this way does not have to have the building surveyed a second time for the CAFM system.
What you get out of it: a basis that lasts from the design stage into operation, instead of three surveys by three providers at three points in time.
For developers and prefabricating contractors
Prefabrication forgives no assumption
An element made in the factory has to fit on site at the first attempt. Timber façades, modular components, prefabricated wall elements: what deviates from the assumption by three centimetres on the existing building can no longer be trimmed at the scaffold. That is why every serial prefabrication starts with a survey that supplies the actual geometry — façade alignment, opening dimensions, storey heights, connection points. Terrestrial, because here the tolerance decides the fit and not the comfort.
On an apartment building in Schwandorf, two parties to the same project commissioned us independently of one another. The developer needed dependable floor plans and living areas to the German Living Space Ordinance for marketing, and mobile mapping ran through the flats for that. The timber contractor needed the exact façade geometry for prefabricating the elements, and the terrestrial scanner was used on the façade and the stairwells.
One building, one trip, two methods, two results for two different purposes.
What you get out of it: elements that fit, because they were made against the measured building and not against a drawing from 1974.
For operators, technical management and building management
Capture while the building stays in use, without shutdown
Hospitals, banks and production sites cannot be closed for a survey. With body-worn mobile mapping systems we capture on the move: up to 15,000 square metres a day in large halls, 3,000 to 6,000 square metres on office floors with many small rooms. Access times, security areas and sensitive zones are agreed in advance; people and number plates are anonymised in line with the GDPR.
That is exactly what decides feasibility on a CAFM project. A portfolio does not go uncaptured because the technology is missing, but because nobody will approve a shutdown. We capture during operation, across many sites, to one uniform capture standard.
What you get out of it: a complete capture, without any area being out of use for the duration of the survey.
For facility managers and commercial building management
The complete data foundation for your CAFM, from one walk-through
A CAFM system needs two datasets, and the two have to fit together. The building: rooms, areas and geometry, structured to DIN 277. And the technical services: lifts, ventilation, fire protection, electrical, structured to DIN 276, cost group 400. Usually two providers, two walk-throughs and two data models come together that nobody can properly marry up. In the end a maintenance item hangs on a room number that is called something else in the other dataset.
We capture both in one walk-through: the building itself, and the technical services together with our partner AdvisoRE. One capture appointment, one data model, one point of contact. Handover is vendor-neutral in IFC, DWG and Excel. Which CAFM system you use today and which you switch to in five years changes nothing about usability. We do not sell a CAFM system and have no interest in pushing one. The system decision therefore stays yours.
What you get out of it: a CAFM system that goes live fully populated, instead of being topped up from Excel lists for two years.
More on this in the room book and under area calculation to DIN 277.
Why commission us?Specialisation in 3D laser scanning
Field work in laser scanning looks simple. Delivering high-quality point clouds that genuinely meet the accuracy requirements, however, takes a good deal of experience and know-how. As soon as a more complex structure or a larger estate has to be captured — or point clouds from several devices have to be combined — practices that do laser scanning only on the side reach their limits. Among the decisive factors are:
- Choosing the right laser scanner for the right purpose
- Understanding how the laser scanner behaves in the field
- Avoiding inaccuracies caused by error propagation
- Know-how in post-processing the scan data
Assuring the quality requirements is only one side of the coin, though. The service also has to be economically viable and deliver our clients a noticeable saving. Alongside quality, high speed from the first enquiry through the capture on site to the delivery of the finished data is therefore a distinguishing feature we put our name to.
Ask our clients, or see for yourself.
How it works
Two methods, and the rule by which we choose.
A good service starts with choosing the right method. “More accurate” is not automatically better; first of all it is more expensive and slower. What matters is the tolerance your task demands: a room book with areas to DIN 277 has different requirements from the prefabrication of a façade element.
We use two capture methods and combine them within the same project where it makes sense. Which combination is right for your building we settle together before travelling out, not on site.
Terrestrial laser scanning
The scanner is set up stationary like a total station and takes a complete scan from every position. The individual scans are then referenced to one another. The method is the slower of the two and the more accurate: with careful choice of positions and with targets we achieve sub-centimetre accuracies across the whole project. We use the FARO Focus Premium and devices of the FARO Focus X series.
We work terrestrially wherever the data becomes a dimension that somebody uses for manufacture, construction or evidence:
- Detailed surveys in plant engineering, where pipework and fittings have to fit to the centimetre
- Infrastructure works such as bridges, tunnels and civil engineering structures
- Façades of tall buildings, where the vertical has to stay dependable across all storeys
- Detailed capture of historic buildings, up to and including the deformation-accurate survey
- Serial prefabrication
Heritage conservation
A 1,200-year-old church has no right angles, no plumb walls and no two identical openings. That is exactly the case terrestrial scanning was built for: what is deformed should be drawn deformation-accurately here, not interpolated.
Infrastructure
On civil engineering structures the effort is decided not by the area but by the geometry. Structure, connection points and component thicknesses can only be captured to the necessary accuracy from the tripod.
Mobile mapping
In mobile mapping the surveyor carries the scanner on the body or in the hand and walks through the building. The device orients itself in space as it goes. That is made possible by SLAM, simultaneous localization and mapping: the scanner continuously determines its own position while building the map of its surroundings. We use the NavVis VLX 2 and the NavVis MLX.
The result is true to size. Inside a building we are at 2 to 3 centimetres — enough for floor plans, areas, room books and BIM as-built models, not enough for connection details. There we add terrestrial capture. What mobile mapping has over terrestrial laser scanning is throughput: up to 15,000 square metres a day in large halls, 3,000 to 6,000 square metres on office floors with many small rooms.
Four characteristics that tip the balance in practice:
- Short downtimes; the capture runs alongside normal operation
- Coloured point clouds and panoramic images at no extra time
- Virtual tours as a by-product of the same capture
- High economy on repeated use, for instance in construction progress documentation
A large site
Where the area defines the project, throughput decides feasibility. A building complex of this size would be neither feasible in time nor economical terrestrially.
Portfolio and operation
On CAFM projects repeatability is added to area: many sites, a uniform capture standard, capture without interrupting operations.
More: room book · CAFM data capture
Spatial reference
Both methods hang on a common control network. We survey it with GNSS receivers from Emlid and tie it to the official reference systems: in position ETRS89 with UTM projection, in height DHHN2016. The data is thereby ready to connect to the cadastre, building application documents and specialist design. Without a control network a point cloud is internally consistent but not located.
What that means in detail is set out under georeferencing.
Side by side
The usual case is the mixed one: mobile mapping for most of the area, terrestrial for the five per cent that really need it.
The two methods do not exclude one another; they complement one another.
| Feature | Terrestrial | Mobile mapping |
|---|---|---|
| Set-up | Stationary on a tripod, position by position | On the move, without fixed positions |
| Accuracy inside a building | Sub-centimetre | True to size, 2 to 3 cm |
| Throughput | Depends on positions, considerably slower | 3,000 to 15,000 m² per day |
| Colour and panoramas | With additional effort | At no additional effort |
| Strength | Detail, structure, connection points, façade | Area, portfolio, live operation, repetition |
| Typical for | Heritage, plant, infrastructure, prefabrication | Floor plans, room book, CAFM, construction progress |
| Limit | Effort on large areas | Connection details and tight tolerances |
Why the distinction between “sub-centimetre” and “2 to 3 cm” is more than a matter of wording is set out in detail under mobile mapping or terrestrial laser scanning.
Pricing
What 3D laser scanning costs
Frequently asked questions about 3D laser scanning
Accuracy, effort, cost
How accurate is a 3D laser scan?
That depends on the method. Terrestrial laser scanning achieves sub-centimetre accuracies across the whole project with careful choice of positions and with targets. Mobile mapping delivers a result inside a building that is true to size at 2 to 3 centimetres. Which accuracy is necessary is decided by the tolerance of your task, not by the budget. We settle it before travelling out and write it into the quotation.
What does 3D laser scanning cost?
The price depends on six factors: area, number of sites, required accuracy, interior or exterior, accessibility including the capture window and, above all, the output format. A bare point cloud is considerably cheaper than a BIM as-built model from the same data, because capture on site is the smaller cost block and evaluation the larger.
Tell us the area, the use and the target format and you will get a dependable order of magnitude before anyone travels out. The route to it is set out under pricing.
How long does the capture take?
With mobile mapping we capture up to 15,000 square metres a day in large halls and 3,000 to 6,000 square metres on office floors with many small rooms. Terrestrially the duration depends on the number of positions, not on the area. The evaluation comes on top separately and depends on the desired result.
Process and preparation
Can you scan while the building is in use?
Yes. We capture hospitals, banks and production sites during operation. Mobile mapping creates no barriers and leaves no tripod in the way; the surveyor simply walks through. Access times, security areas and sensitive zones are agreed in advance. People and number plates are anonymised in line with the GDPR.
Is the laser beam dangerous?
No. The scanners we use work in laser class 1 and are therefore eye-safe. No protective goggles are needed, areas do not have to be cordoned off and public access does not have to be interrupted.
What do we have to prepare?
The most important point is access. Every room that is not opened is missing from the data later, and that usually only comes to light during evaluation. Settle in advance who has keys for plant rooms, server rooms and tenant areas, and whether an escort is needed. You do not have to clear anything out, but what permanently sits behind a cupboard will not be captured.
Does the laser scan through walls, furniture or suspended ceilings?
No. Only what there is a line of sight to is captured. The density of positions and the route therefore determine how complete the result is. Concealed components, for instance service runs above a suspended ceiling, we capture only if the ceiling is opened. Otherwise we mark them as an assumption from existing documents and not as a measurement.
Does it work in the dark too?
The scanner itself needs no ambient light; the geometry is captured completely even in unlit basements and plant rooms. Coloured point clouds and panoramic images, by contrast, do need light. If colour or a virtual tour is part of the result, we plan the lighting in.
Result, formats, further use
What do we receive in the end?
We hand over the point cloud in the vendor-neutral E57 format, and for Revit workflows additionally as RCS or RCP. Derived from it: 2D as-built plans in DWG and DXF, BIM as-built models at LOD 200 to 300 as IFC or native in Revit and ArchiCAD, room books as Excel and area calculations to DIN 277. Scope and format are fixed before the project starts and not only at handover.
Is the data officially located?
On request, yes. We survey a control network with GNSS and tie the capture in position to ETRS89 with UTM projection and in height to DHHN2016. Without that control network a point cloud is internally consistent but not located, and it cannot then be overlaid with cadastral or specialist design data. This has to be agreed beforehand, because adding it afterwards requires another trip. See georeferencing.
Who owns the data, and how long can it be used?
The point cloud is the real asset: it can be re-evaluated years later without anyone entering the building again. On request we take on the archiving, so that later you only commission the evaluation. The E57 handover format is vendor-neutral and therefore independent of whatever software you use in ten years.
Can terrestrial laser scanning and mobile mapping be combined?
Yes, and that is the normal case. Mobile mapping covers most of the area; terrestrially we capture the zones with tight tolerances, that is connection points, structure or façade. Both datasets hang on the same control network and are merged into one verified overall point cloud. You receive one result, not two datasets.
Methods, accuracy and formats
We use two methods, and the accuracy statement belongs to the method:
- Terrestrial laser scanning from the tripod, for the building envelope, façade, structure and detailed areas. Here we work to the sub-centimetre.
- Mobile mapping with a body-worn scanner, for interiors and large continuous areas while the building stays in use. The result is true to size.
Why this distinction is more than a matter of wording is set out under mobile mapping or terrestrial laser scanning. For roof and external surfaces drone photogrammetry is added.
Throughput
In logistics we capture up to 15,000 m² a day, in office buildings 3,000 to 6,000 m² a day. How long a specific capture takes is calculated by the calculator on the as-built data capture page.
Spatial reference and formats
The spatial reference is established via a GNSS control network in ETRS89 and DHHN2016 and is therefore fit for official use — more on this under georeferencing. We hand over the point cloud in the vendor-neutral E57 format, derived drawings as DWG and DXF, areas to DIN 277.