This paper on "Scanning Technology in Civil Engineering" was presented at the NAFEMS World Congress on The Evolution of Product Simulation From Established Methods to Virtual Testing & Prototyping - 24-28 April 2001, The Grand Hotel, Lake Como, Italy.

Summary

Getting the quantities of the different materials used to construct a structure is often not so easy. The drawings of the structure are not always updated after an addition to the structure or even within the construction process of the structure. Hand-made measurements or the more usual surveying tools are the well known tools. In this field the new developed scan technology can become a very useful tool in this case. Not only in the 'as built' case, but also during construction.
Scanning technology is a rather new product in the field of civil engineering. However, this technology which is coming originally from the land surveying and the petrol industry is a very handsome tool to get a 3D model of an 'as built' structure. The civil engineering division in the Netherlands maintains a lot of structure. A large part of these structures are constructed in the pre-digital period. So, the CAE models of these structures are not kept on a disk or a CD in a digital way as a backup.
The paper describes the scansytem itself, the process of scanning, transforming the clouds of points to surfaces and from surfaces to a basic geometry. Additional to this paper items, some general possibilities of the new technology, dedicated to civil structures (three steel structures) in detail will be described.