Job site visit: a 3D scanner beat the crew's tape measures in 40 minutes

Went to a framing site in Austin last Tuesday and watched a guy run a LiDAR scanner through a half-built townhouse. The crew had spent two hours measuring walls for prefab panels. He scanned the whole unit in 40 minutes and the model matched within a quarter inch on all 14 check points. One of the foremen said, "that thing just made my measuring team obsolete," and honestly, he wasn't wrong. We still need hands for layout, but the data collection part is done way faster. Has anyone else seen a scanner replace manual measuring on an active site, or is this still rare?

2 comments

2 Comments

evanpalmer13h ago

Quarter inch on all 14 points? That's insane. I've seen tape crews argue over an eighth inch for half a day on a good day. Two hours down to 40 minutes is one thing, but matching that close on the first pass is the part that gets me. Most guys I know would be thrilled with a half inch and a little shimming. That scanner basically just told a whole crew their coffee break was longer than their job.

leor372h ago

Nah @evanpalmer, humans miss stuff scanners catch, that's the point.