Taylor Handschuh, a recent MS-GIST graduate, along with numerous student volunteers recently endeavored to use GeoSLAM handheld LiDAR scanners to 3D map the ENR2 building, which hosts the School of Geography and Development and the Institute of the Environment, amongst others.

An email request to students indicated Taylor was "looking for anyone who may want to assist me in setting spherical targets, holding doors, and even simultaneously operating a LiDAR scanner as to expedite this process. This is a great opportunity to learn about LiDAR, 3D mapping, georeferencing, best scanning practices, applications, and the future of the 3d and LiDAR industries that build on the capabilities of GIS". 

With a wealth of responses from eight students they set out to begin their 3D mapping mission. From Taylor:

Using non-static, handheld, terrestrial SLAM  LiDAR scanning, all the features of ENR2 building can be captured with a few strolls about the building.

I have used two different GeoSLAM units to map the building, the Zeb Revo RT and the Zeb Horizon, offering 30m range and 42,000+ points per second and 100m range and 300,000pps, respectively. Of course I gravitate towards the ‘more’ solution, especially considering the enormity of Slot Canyon. The Zeb-Revo RT or Real Time does, however, have some advantages over the Horizon for this type of building. The RT unit renders your scan area as you scan; this is great to check your coverage and ‘mission completion’ in buildings with many rooms or cubicles, like SGD or IE. The other benefit (although easy to repair in cloud compare) is  reduced noise in spaces with lots of reflectance or glass, like we have here.

Slot Canyon and ENR2 is my favorite building on campus; not only because it is home to GIST... the well catalogued plants, the drainage systems, the architectural play on journey and reward as you move about the building and get treated by great views and pleasant little nooks to work or collab over coffee... all of these special things are well exemplified with this high res, rapid 3D scanning.

We can render the plants and catalogs their 3D portrayal... or monitor their growth or change over time. Place the building in a GIS or arc scene where sun and azmuth may be played with and we will have data for sun exposure for any point in the building... I’m intending to highlight the rainwater harvest system as this scan be rendered and modeled from this same scan that can also tell us about the local plants.

I’m thrilled so many GIST and other department students turned out for these two scan sessions. While I was thrown in the deep end when i became involved in LiDAR, my GIS background assured that I knew how to swim. The technical understanding required to be proficient with this newer iteration of Light imaging Detection and Ranging is very comparable to GIS, traditional CAD and drafting as well as revolutionary 3D modeling and visualization. I have clients and needs that use these scans for GIS-like mapping, architectural CAD vectorizations and survey-type assessments, and VR/AR/XR purposes. While the later two fields are entirely new to me, they have become to similar to what I understand as ‘mapping’... perhaps advances in Geospatial are so that within a year of completing my MSciGIST in December 2018 I’ve been absorbed into the thrilling ‘3D world’, tasked with mapping and modeling caves, mines, sky scrapers, forests and occasionally... classic cars, people and objects like gas pumps and refrigerators.