Trust but verify. It’s a time-honored treaty enforcement principle. It also works well as a basic mantra for BIM (building information modeling)-based building construction. Just ask the Virtual Design & Construction (VDC) Team at Gilbane, a family-owned and operated construction company. Armed with a phase-shift laser scanner, a Gilbane VDC engineering team recently documented measurement discrepancies on a high-profile building construction project.
Gilbane specializes in the high-wire world of at-risk construction. On occasion, Gilbane is called in to rescue troubled projects. Recently the Gilbane VDC team was summoned to do just that. John Tocci, Jr., Director of the VDC Team sets the stage: “The work involves a new corporate campus, the headquarters of a Fortune 500 company. For various reasons, the previous construction manager was terminated. That happened on a Friday. My team took over the job on Saturday. By Sunday afternoon we were laser scanning part of the project in order to reconcile measurements for Monday morning meetings.”
Trade contractors desperately needed reliable benchmarks to accurately set walls, ducts, pipe, conduit locations, and other assemblies. Then there was the elevator shaft. Laser scanning verified two-inch variations on all sides, with the elevator opening three inches smaller than it should be. There was a new sheriff in town and the trades eventually rallied to the Gilbane VDC team.
A point cloud of modeled as-built conditions.
“We’ve had a number of cases where the field team, trade contractors, or architects have argued with us about dimensions of existing conditions, Tocci stated. “We’ve been right every time. It underscores the fact that BIM and VDC, no matter how established we think it is, is still an emerging technology.”
As Gilbane discovered the anecdotal side of laser scanning pales in comparison to the dramatic ROI story. “Our first laser scanner paid for itself in the first week of operation,” Tocci reports. “We conservatively calculate we saved about $150,000 on the first project we scanned.” Just one week? Understandably, that kind of near-instant payback may strike some as too good to be true. Believe it, says Tocci. “If anyone wants to reverse engineer the calculations, they’ll quickly see the payback was actually quite larger,” Tocci reports.
“We assigned super-conservative values to all the ordinary construction tasks that scanning eliminates. We factor-in the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing packages on the job. “One week understates it. With scanning, there are no back charges. No finger pointing. No remediation. It’s all because it was measured right the first time,” Tocci says.
Like many risk-adverse businesses, Gilbane takes a careful, deliberate path to integrating new technology into their business. “The Focus3D Laser Scanner changed the industry,” Tocci declares. “When it came out it was three times less expensive than its competitors. Instead of capturing a single point at once, it can capture 978 million points per second. That’s a radically different scenario. It’s so easy for one person to move it around. It captures levels of detail that you didn’t think it could. “It’s an amazing tool. We now verify and find discrepancies that might bite us later on. All that risk goes away. We couldn’t be happier or more impressed,” Tocci says.
More Information:
FARO Technologies
250 Technology Park
Lake Mary, FL 32746
Phone: 407-333-9911 | Fax: 407-333-4181
aec.faro.com
Related Stories
BIM and Information Technology | Mar 4, 2015
Why China's CCTV building needed a WiFi retrofit
It took a year-long retrofit to get WiFi transmission issues solved at China's iconic skyscraper.
Energy Efficiency | Mar 4, 2015
DOE launches crowdsourcing website for technology innovators
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory launched a new crowdsourcing website called the Buildings Crowdsoucing Community to collect and share ideas by innovators for energy-efficient technologies to use in homes and buildings.
Sponsored | BIM and Information Technology | Mar 3, 2015
The great debate: Is 3D PDF really BIM?
You can pull apart buildings, cut through floors, and view simulated animation for assembly instructions all within a PDF.
BIM and Information Technology | Feb 23, 2015
9 best practices for effective laser scanning
JE Dunn’s National BIM Director, Trent Nichols, offers tips and advice for mastering the art of laser scanning.
BIM and Information Technology | Feb 10, 2015
Google's 3D scanning camera leaves the lab
Google is said to be partnering with LG to create a version of the technology for public release sometime this year.
BIM and Information Technology | Feb 8, 2015
BIM for safety: How to use BIM/VDC tools to prevent injuries on the job site
Gilbane, Southland Industries, Tocci, and Turner are among the firms to incorporate advanced 4D BIM safety assessment and planning on projects.
Architects | Feb 5, 2015
Toy around with Ittyblox's ultra-detailed building blocks
For Lego fanatics, time is no object when building a model. For those of us with a little less time, Ittyblox is a good solution.
BIM and Information Technology | Jan 29, 2015
Lego X by Gravity elevates the toy to a digital modeling kit
With the Lego X system, users can transfer the forms they’ve created with legos into real-time digital files.
BIM and Information Technology | Jan 28, 2015
5 crucial lessons from moving BIM/VDC workflows to the cloud
Early adopters of cloud-based model collaboration share what they learned in overcoming their toughest hurdles.