Scan to BIM: Step by step process of inserting point cloud data into Revit!

Over the years there have been quite a few interesting and innovative technological advancements which have been fully adopted by AEC industry for enhancing its productivity and Scan to BIM is one among them. Application of Scan to BIM process can be extensively seen in Renovation projects wherein data derived by utilizing laser scanning technology is further used for developing productive 3D BIM models.

Highly effective laser scanners are used for extracting building data during the scanning process wherein point clouds are acquired when laser beams get back to the hardware which were directed towards the structure in the beginning.

Step-by-step method of inserting point clouds in Revit

• For including point cloud data in Revit project, modelers are required to open Revit first.
• Once modelers have the accessibility to Revit, the next step is to convert the available scanned data into effective file formats.
• BIM modelers can use Autodesk® ReCap, for converting raw scanned data into point cloud files.
• So modelers have to transform raw scanned data into suitable point cloud files during the indexing process.
• The outcome of indexing process is the transformation of raw scanned data into .rcp and .rcs file formats.
• Now as soon as .rcp and .rcs file formats become available to users they can easily link the point cloud files within a Revit project.
• In an .rcp file which means ‘Reality Capture Project file’ countless .rcs files (Reality Capture Scan files) are included.
• So for inserting point cloud files modelers are required to click ‘Insert tab’ after which they should be clicking ‘Link Panel’ and they should ultimately select ‘Point cloud’ icon within Link panel.
• After this modelers should identify which file to link in the project.
• BIM modelers can either pick an .rcp extension file or they can select an .rcs extension file as per their requirement.
• For inserting the file in Revit project BIM modelers have to use Point Cloud tool.
• Once a suitable file is selected by modelers they then need to concentrate on how to position a file in the project.
• For positioning a file in project they have to select either Auto – Center to Center option or they can also use an option among Auto – Origin to Origin, Auto – By Shared Coordinates and Auto – Origin to Last Placed.
• Once an effective file positioning option is chosen by modelers they should click ‘Open’ to link the point cloud file in the project.

If the above steps are effectively followed by modelers they can easily link the point cloud files into Revit project.