3D Models with Drones

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Whether is making them from a CAD drawing or using scanners, 3D models can be critical to the success of many businesses and there are many ways of producing them. Today we are going to take a look at how we can produce 3D Models with drones, what are Point Clouds, what are Mesh surfaces and what types of outputs we can produce to help you to #ONEUPYOURBUSINESS.

3D MODELS WITH DRONES

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There are many ways of producing 3D Models. We mainly use image sensors to produce highly accurate and detailed 3D Models that we can process for you, although in certain scenarios we can also use laser-based technology (LiDAR) with our drones.

In order to produce a 3D Model, our drones take hundreds of images of the land, buildings or landmarks at different angles and altitudes. After the flight is concluded, we take those images and process them with our industry-leading Software, which analyses each image, combines all of them and generates the point cloud first and the mesh surfaces afterwards.

USE CASES FOR 3D MODELS WITH DRONES

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The applications of 3D models are varied:

• Preservation of historic landmarks and listed buildings
• Creation of fully interactive Digital Twins for Facilities Management
• Aiding with the visual impact of a Brownfield Development
• Content creation for promotional purposes
• Environment generation for videogames, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
• Accident recreation for insurance claims in court

POINT CLOUDS AND MACHINE LEARNING

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What are point clouds? A point cloud is a set of data points generated by a 3D scanner, which could use laser or optical sensors to measure a huge amount of points on the objects that is scanning.

Since point clouds hold a vast amount of data, we can use them for quality inspections, accurate measurements and volume calculations, etc. Our state-of-the-art Machine Learning Software can even identify different types of objects like trees, man-made structures, buildings, etc.

MESH SURFACES FOR 3D VISUALISATION

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What are Mesh surfaces? Once the point clouds are generated, the next step is to create the polygon mesh, which is a simplified output of the surfaces that allows us to manipulate the objects, at the expense of losing some of the underlying data that is used for Machine Learning.

The main purpose of a 3D Mesh Model is to be used for accurate and detailed visualisation, including Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

FULLY COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR CURRENT SOFTWARE

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By using common formats like .OBJ, .RCP, .RCS and .LAS, all our 3D Models produced by our drones are fully compatible with any 3D Modelling Software and with your BIM application of choice, like Autodesk RevIt or Archicad. This gives you maximum flexibility for your projects.

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