TruePoint Laser Scanning, LLC., a 3D laser scanning company that uses LiDAR and phased-based technology, and Ground Penetrating Radar Systems, Inc. (GPRS), a provider of concrete scanning and underground utility locating services, are sister companies that began teaming up in 2011 in order to tie their respective technologies together for the benefit of their clients, accentuating both companies’ passion for a high level of customer service.
Utilizing 3D laser scanners
TruePoint is able to provide detailed and accurate as-is condition deliverables, serving multiple industries. The data collected from laser scanning can provide information on support analysis, design, and prefabrication. Laser scanning technology is not only accurate and efficient, but it is also a safer method of capturing this vital information since the technicians can do most of their scanning safely from the ground. TruePoint is dedicated to capturing data efficiently and accurately, analyzing it, and defining the results the way the clients request them.
Similarly, GPRS uses the latest ground penetrating technology to provide its clients with essential information both underground and in concrete structures. Since 2001, GPRS has provided its services to a wide client base, including both commercial and residential clients. The information is collected quickly, reliably, and safely, reducing both risk and costs for clients. The technology of GPR is a simple send/receive technology. The radar only needs access to one side of the concrete, allowing for numerous applications of the technology.
While both companies use precise and efficient technologies, laser scanning, which TruePoint uses, is limited to line of sight. GPRS, though, can see underground or into concrete. Tying these two technologies together gives the teams and their clients a more complete and comprehensive look at a site and is ideal for projects that require locating underground utilities or items embedded in concrete and delivery of the documentation of the findings in a CAD format.
In one such example, TruePoint and GPRS combined their technologies and skills in order to create a permanent record of the locations of rebar, post-tension cabling, and electrical conduit in the concrete of a parking garage structure. Typically, GPRS marks their findings directly on the surface in real time so that the client can begin cutting or drilling. However, sometimes clients request to have this information permanently recorded in a useable and accurate format.
By combining GPRS’s radar technology with TruePoint’s laser scanning technology, the two teams were able to document the markings of the parking garage in a 3D CAD model (examples below), creating a permanent record of the locations of the findings. Not only did TruePoint create a 3D CAD model showing the locations of the findings, but it also was able to capture the details of the surrounding columns, walls, floor, and ceiling, which were then aligned to the clients existing model.
The added benefit of having the information available in the form of a point cloud or a 3D Model is that the engineers, architects, and all others involved in the project can also have access to the information and will be able to overlay this data into their own model in order to assist with both the planning and implementation phases of a project.
Another client who benefitted from the teamwork of the two companies was in the pre-planning phase of a renovation project and needed to layout their anchor points. The client realized that they would be likely to hit rebar, hollow core cells and post-tension cables within the concrete floor and wanted to minimize the number of hits.
As with the parking structure case, GPRS marked its findings directly on the surface of the concrete. Transferring these markings manually into a CAD model would have been a slow and not particularly precise process and would have required post-field manipulation in order to get it into a CAD file. However, with TruePoint following behind GPRS in the process, not only were the necessary GPRS markings and the surrounding building structure captured accurately, but all of the information could be tied to the building’s coordinate system too, giving the client the ability to know the exact location of any marking within the structure’s coordinates. Moreover, the 3D model that TruePoint provided the client allowed the engineers on the project to import it into CAD to lay out their coring plan.
Both TruePoint and GPRS work closely with their clients to deliver a high level of service, delivering the data the way that the customers want it delivered.
Photos, videos and job stories of Laser Scanning and Ground Penetrating Radar available on line at http://truepointscanning.com/ & http://gp-radar.com/.