Driving Operational Success with the Precision and Visualization of 3D Space Capture

Imagine for a moment you’re a real estate agent with a stunning older building for sale on the market. The exterior is nothing fun to look at, but the interior is well-preserved from the 1920s, and the bones of the structure are solid. Instead of trying to convince potential clients you have a winning property on your hands, what if you could send them a link to a precise virtual tour they could view from anywhere in the world?

Space capture (sometimes called 3D scanning) is changing how the world documents areas, analyzes crime scenes, and interprets physical spaces. From conducting a forensic investigation to boosting your real estate marketing, taking advantage of space capture is a wonderful way to increase collaboration and visualization.

At Dreiym Engineering, we use Space Capture to preserve forensic scenes, provide training materials for industrial locations, or even offer a new developer insight into how hard-to-reach spaces look. Through using Matterport virtual software, we provide clients with a visual representation that is true to the form and scope of a project.

What is Space Capture?

The basics behind using Space Capture is to digitally replicate a real-world space. Instead of trying to put pencil to graph paper, you are getting an accurate representation of a given area through tools like LiDAR, laser scanning, and photogrammetry. The result is an exact and, more importantly, manipulatable model of a space.

When you do a traditional design for something like an industrial construction site, it is often only 2D or missing the workable scale you need for accuracy. Having a 3D Space Capture allows everyone involved, from plumbers to city inspectors, to provide input on a proposed project before too much investment and potential human error occur.

When performed by an engineering team like ours, these capture models help analyze everything from fire damage to mapping potential electrical systems and arc flashing concerns. The combined technology ensures all the professionals you need input from can explore, measure, and plan without physically accessing the site.

Applications for Space Capture

We use 3D Space Capture with a wide range of clients in Texas and beyond. Some of the more common applications include:

Forensic Engineering

Insurance companies want as many details as possible. Simple documentation is no longer enough, especially when a case goes through legal mediation or lawsuits. With 3D Space Capture, our forensic experts can offer insightful details through detailed modeling and detailed analysis. Cases that study failure analysis are able to “go back in time” and see how the scene would have looked before and after an incident.

Fire Investigations

Investigations into fire damage require looking at spaces damaged by flames, heat, and smoke to find the source and spread of an incident. That is a dangerous situation for judges, insurance agents, and property managers. With 3D Space Capture, our experienced engineers can safely reconstruct scenes, accurately pinpointing the fire’s origin to determine fault.

Electrical & Corrosion Engineering

One of our areas of expertise involved cathodic protection design. That can be challenging, given the number of underground and submerged structures we need to help protect from corrosion. Using 3D Space Capture allows our forensic engineers to better identify corrosion points and plan maintenance and repairs that minimize downtime and ensure long-term reliability.

Construction and Design

The design field is no stranger to models. We’ve all seen the 1:20 scale models that take up an entire board room and are bulky at best to maneuver. The benefit of using 3D Space Capture with construction is you get a visualization anyone on the team can manipulate to better understand a project’s time, money, resources, and allocation needs.

Real Estate

Probably the most common use of 3D scanning technology in today’s market is in real estate. Most agents and teams recognize that the more potential clients can “visit” a property through virtual tours and 3D modeling, the more likely they will be to sell that asset.

Businesses

A wide range of businesses leverage 3D Space Capture for facility management and to improve customer engagement. Imagine a new trampoline park in an area without prior experience with that service. They can design a wonderfully interactive model that is shareable on social media, websites, and other materials – all to boost potential engagement and measure interest in their business.

The potential value of modern Space Capture technology is extremely open-ended. While our team at Dreiym Engineering primarily sees it from the viewpoint of accuracy and collaboration, we are always impressed with the creativity of client requests and new ways to leverage such tools.

Methods of Space Capture

We use several methods for accurately capturing space. The blend of technologies being implemented in any singular scene, project, or location is dependent on the size, scope, and accessibility of a target space.

For example, what we use in a fire investigation will be significantly different from a real estate walk-through. Some of these technical tools might include:

• Matterport: A collaborative software that provides web access to our created models.
• Tagging: Internal “tags” of models that provide detailed information related to how the space is used or historical data.
• LiDAR: Light Detection and Ranging through lasers that measure accurate distances and create high-resolution mapping.
• Photogrammetry: Digitally sewing multiple photographs together into a singular 3D model that may include textures, surface details, and other crucial data.
• Laser Scanning: A useful tool for mapping accurate measurements in more restricted, unsafe, or confined spaces.
• Structure Light Scanning: Projecting patterns onto unique surfaces to capture refined details, often for smaller surfaces or objects.

There are other tools we use, but this gives you a good idea of what to expect. The pros and cons of each depend on the light available during a project and the space requirements.

Benefits of Space Capture

We’ve touched on many of the benefits of having a professional engineering firm like ours apply 3D Space Capture to a project, but as for a quick review:

• You get much better time efficiency as our models help eliminate the need for physical site visits, especially concerning failure analysis, where every minute can help prevent further damage.
• A more accurate model that delivers precise measurements and technological advances on how to install plumbing, look at electrical & corrosion engineering, conduct fire investigations, and more.
• The cost savings provided by reducing labor-intensive tasks and avoiding endless reworking of 2D plans so you remain within budget and on timely deadlines.
• The benefit of enhanced visualization is that it is shareable in virtual or augmented reality webspace, ensuring greater collaboration among stakeholders and professional contractors.
• The chance to better reverse engineer older systems and structures offers fantastic details that can make all the difference when it comes to installation, maintenance, or building.

Every new 3D Space Capture provides specific advantages to our unique clients. The goal is to drive project efficiency and cultivate greater collaboration so that when it comes to spending physical assets, you and your team are more well-equipped to move forward.

Wrapping Up

Dreiym Engineering is proud to serve the great state of Texas and beyond. We offer a boutique engineering team with decades of experience covering everything from forensic engineering to fire investigations and more. Relying on our expertise with 3D Space Capture opens the door to many benefits and precise advantages your project can leverage long before you schedule a new site visit.

Best of all, we document a wealth of physical spaces. Our team frequently works with hard-to-access and potentially risky locations due to our years of work in fire investigations and industrial site enhancement. We know how to get the modeling you need for greater insight.

Get the advantage of Space Capture today by reaching out to our team. We will schedule a time to discuss your project and how we can best offer the reliable insight and reporting that makes us an industry leader in our field.