3D Facility Scan and As-Built Documentation in industry

Optimize Your Industrial Plant Design with Precise 3D As-Built Surveys

The sigma3D team offers measurement solutions for industrial facilities—tailored precisely to your needs. Using state-of-the-art laser scanning technology, we capture entire factories, machines, piping, and building structures with impressive detail.

We process the data captured during the 3D facility scan into dense point clouds. From these, we create precise CAD models using 3D modeling. Depending on your needs, you’ll receive the data in native formats for common CAD systems or as simplified exchange formats. Benefit from our many years of experience and gain meaningful data for your planning processes that reduces costs and accelerates your projects.

Your benefits at a glance

• Time and cost savings by eliminating the need for remeasurements and optimizing planning processes
• Highest measurement accuracy for your industrial plants and machinery
• Flexible and mobile measurements directly at your site—worldwide
• Data delivery for all industry-standard CAD systems (AutoCAD, REVIT, Catia, NX, Creo, SolidWorks, Inventor, or Me10) and in simple file formats (e.g., DXF, STEP, JT)
• Field-proven solutions tailored to your specific requirements
• Legally admissible documentation of the current condition for legal protection
• An efficient basis for planning conversions, modernizations, and expansions
• Reliable quality assurance through precise comparisons of target and actual conditions

Identify Problems, Increase Planning Certainty

With the data obtained from the 3D facility scan, you can identify and resolve potential problems early on—even before the actual work begins. Especially when it comes to installations or retrofits, you can reliably validate your plans in advance to avoid collisions or unforeseen difficulties. To do this, our team relies on two methods:

Collision analysis:

Collision analysis checks whether existing and planned geometries overlap or come too close to each other. The point cloud is compared with the CAD model to determine:

• Are there any collisions (e.g., “A pipe runs through a wall”)?
• Are there any deviations (e.g., “Was a component installed incorrectly?”)?
• Are installation locations and tolerances correct?

Application Examples

• Plant engineering: Checking whether piping, conveyor belts, etc., collide with other components.
• Construction supervision: Verifying whether construction work conforms to the plan.

Target-Actual Comparison via Distance Analysis of a Point Cloud Against a CAD Model

In the distance analysis, the shortest distance to the surface of the CAD model is calculated for each point in the point cloud. The goal is to determine:

• How much does the actual object deviate from the planned model?
• Where are these deviations located?
• Are the deviations within the tolerance limits?

Application Examples

• Quality control: Verifying whether a component has been manufactured correctly.
• Construction monitoring: Identifying construction deviations (e.g., crooked walls, incorrectly installed elements).
• Tolerance Check: Automatically evaluating whether an object meets specifications.

The term “level of detail” describes the various levels of detail used in the creation of 2D and 3D models. Object density is also frequently mentioned in this context; however, we control this independently. Our focus is rather on the specific details—the Level of Detail (LOD)—of individual objects, such as pipes or cable ducts.

LOD 100 ➞ Rough solid models

LOD 200 ➞ Primitive geometries

LOD 300 ➞ Precise dimensions/positions

LOD 400 ➞ Precise elements

LOD 500 ➞ As-Built

See for yourself the precision and level of detail in our 3D facility scans. In our interactive online viewer, you can explore a robot cell from a real industrial facility in various display modes and test different tools, such as measurement tools.

Navigate freely through the facility, zoom in on details, and switch seamlessly between views. This gives you a firsthand look at how our laser scanning technology captures complex industrial structures and how the data can be used in your planning processes—all directly in your browser, with no installation required.