Turn a Wind Tunnel into a Digital Model in under an hour!

SWE and ASME members watched as a Leica Scan Station 2 3D Laser Scanner operated by WSP Sells scanned the wind tunnel at DWC into a digital point cloud model in under an hour! During the scanning process, a presentation on 3D Laser Scanning was given by Darren Hardy and David Prince, both of WSP SELLS. WSP SELLS has used the laser scanner for many different disciplines within the engineering fields, including interior and exterior of buildings, construction sites, bridges, railroads, substations, etc. One of the examples presented last night was a building deformation survey using the 3D Laser Scanner over the traditional survey methods to monitor and catalog the movement of an existing building while a new addition for the existing building is being built. They concluded their presentation by providing a point cloud model of the wind tunnel that was scanned along with digital images taken from the digital camera system embedded in the scanner.  Measurements were made on the structure inside their software and were immediately compared with field measurements using a tape measure.  The two compared spot on. The software even allows the user to color the model using imagery data from the digital images. Pictures of the event are posted here.