We have a survey and alignment group who uses laser scanning to scan our industrial facilities/equipment and manipulate/translate that point cloud data
into solids or shapes in a 3D model to be used to create as-built drawings. They use Cyclone and Mechanical Desktop. However, we are looking at other software,
like Bentley Descartes and Pointools as well as looking at what Solidworks Scan to 3D can do. most of the items scanned in the facilities are piping, electrical and mechanical equipment. Does anyone have any experience with Scan to 3D ? How about Reverse Engineering ? Any good reccomendations on what software will best help me
to easily manipulate and organize the point cloud data and then easily convert it into meshes/surfaces or solids for my desired 3D model? I would appreciate your comments and suggestions.
To clarify what I'm looking for....We as-built large industrial areas here at the Laboratory where I work. Specifically, complex piping systems with large mechanical equipment and electrical components all in very large buildings. I'm a piping designer, so I'm interested in capturing what's there, making it a 3d model and modeling in any piping design modifications with Solidworks Routings. Therefore, I'm interested in taking the point cloud data that Survey and Alignment had produced (using their Cyclone software) and manipulating the point cloud data (layering, clipping, sections,etc) and then modeling into 3D solid shapes/objects from the point cloud data. So what I'm looking for is a good software that will work seamlessly with Solidworks in translating or creating that 3D model from the point cloud. I've tried Scan to 3D a little. However, it seems to be geared more to small scanned parts and doesn't seem to be able to handle a large number of points. My part I tried had about 4,000,000 points and it was painfully slow processing it. Any suggestions for a 3rd party software that works with Solidworks and perhaps can process large amounts of data while having a lot of functionality ? Thanks! Wesley