The subject of “3D technology” is always an interesting one, because while there is an overarching theme of visualizing data in three dimensions, the actual topics can come in different forms. This week’s roundup of stories from our friends around the industry highlight these disparate use cases and ways we talk about the technology, whether it be the hardware or the software side, and whether we’re talking about use in the AEC industry or geospatial workflows more broadly.
One of our stories this week looks at that latter piece, diving into the strides we’ve made in visualizing geospatial data in three dimensions and the growing accessibility and uses of these workflows. Another is a series of video interviews with Geoff Jacobs, a pioneer of the 3D laser scanning space. And finally, we look to the AEC industry and how digital twins – which include that 3D visualization component – help firms in an industry advancing at a rapid pace.
3D geospatial visualization
Simon Buckley, GIM International
In this article, Buckley provides a comprehensive look at how far the geospatial industry has come in visualizing data in 3D in a relatively short amount of time, and where the headaches still lie. He talks about how standards for data formats was a major driver in all of this progress, allowing for the interoperability of data between solutions, and the recent advent of 3D tiles to make streaming these dense models over the internet. There’s also talk about visualization hardware, and how all of this has come together to make starting out in this space easier than ever before.
A Genuine “Must Watch” – Pioneer of 3D Laser Scanning
Lidar News
Here, we have an article introducing a series of video interviews with Geoff Jacobs, who is considered one of the pioneers in the world of 3D laser scanning. Jacobs was a senior manager with Trimble in the mid-1990’s when he was first introduced to the technology, eventually leaving to work for Cyra Technology, who was eventually acquired by Leica Geosystems to kick off their 3D scanning product business. These interviews from 2023 are from Kharroubi Abderrazzaq, a PhD geomatics student at the University of Liege, Belgium, and go back to those early days in the industry, looking at how things really got going.
Smart construction and the rise of digital twins in the building industry
Richard Clement, pbctoday
While the first two articles are looking back a bit – though in very different ways – our last article looks almost at the culmination of all of this work in how so much of this technology is being implemented by the most progressive firms in the AEC industry. That’s with digital twins, which is still more of a buzzword for some in the industry but is certainly starting to be applied at a growing pace. Here, Clement focuses specifically on smaller firms who may not be part of the cohort taking advantage of digital twin technology, outlining the benefits and use cases for that specific audience.
