Trends Winter 2017 | Page 16

Proposed power turbines inside existing Byllesby Dam powerhouse modeled from HD scan data. Fusion of modeled existing dam, spillway, and powerhouse with point cloud data. Continued from page 14 Individualized solutions HD scanning can also increase efficiency and expedite processes. Say, for instance, operators of a dated substation wanted to add equipment to the structural steel and needed to measure a bolt pattern. The electrical current would not allow for measurements by hand, so operators would have to temporarily de-energize the substation. HD scanning would allow the data collection to occur while the equipment is operating. HD scans are helpful with transportation projects, too, particularly in busy roadway corridors. “We’ll use it to collect all the data we need and then extract the data in the office where it’s safer – as opposed to the surveyor walking down the road physically collecting the data,” Cappeart said. In addition to transportation design, other applications 16│ TRENDS for HD scanning include bridge and overhead obstruction clearance, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, substation and utility infrastructure, change detection (load stress and settling), and emergency road and structure design. Severe flooding wiped out roads and structures throughout northern Wisconsin in July 2016. Repairs were urgently needed, and within two days an Ayres survey crew mobilized to one affected project site, using the HD scanner to capture the needed data without having to access the unsafe washout area. “HD scanning offers a way to get in and get out quick with more data than you could ever get with traditional survey,” Ingram said, explaining that while traditional survey might collect data at 10-foot intervals, the HD scanner picks up detail at 1/8-inch spacing. “The density is hundreds of times more dense.”