3D scanning for industrial plants, in short
- 3D laser scanning for industrial plants is a different job from scanning an empty building: the floor is busy, the machines are one-offs, and the scan usually has to fit around production or a short shutdown.
- When new equipment has to meet existing equipment, use a terrestrial scanner. Mobile capture and 3D tours are fast, but they are not built for “will it fit” questions.
- Columns and crane rails are the reference everything else is measured against, so capture them from both sides.
- Look up. Clashes for new lines often come from overhead piping, ducts and cable tray, not from the floor.
- Ask who will use the data, not just who is paying for it. Contractors usually want 2D; engineers and equipment suppliers need sections and 3D.
For how we scan and model existing plants, see our scan to BIM service.
Why plants are harder to scan than buildings
An office floor is mostly walls, columns and ceilings. A plant is a building full of things that matter more than the building: production lines, conveyors, tanks, piping, cable tray, platforms and machines that were moved, modified and added to over decades. The drawings, if they exist, show the plant as it was built, not as it runs today.
Three things make plant work its own discipline:
- Sightlines are broken. Machines and stock block the view, and the things you need most, such as column bases, crane rails and the gaps between machines, are the hardest to see from any one spot.
- Time is short. Many plants can stop for a day or two at most. Whatever is not captured in that window is gone.
- Nothing comes from a library. Most process equipment is one of a kind, so it has to be measured and modelled from the scan.
What we have learned scanning working plants
1. Plan the scan around the shutdown, and capture more than you think you need
On a food processing plant in Toronto, nine case-packer lines were getting new discharge conveyors. The plant could stop for two days over the holidays, and that was the only window. The site was more complex than anyone had planned for, so the crew stayed an extra half day rather than leave gaps: about 235 scan positions over two and a half days. There was not going to be a second shutdown to fill in what was missed.
Not every plant needs a shutdown. In a metal-processing plant in Hamilton, the plant kept working and the scan was planned around the fabrication line instead. The question to settle early is which areas can be scanned while running and which need the line stopped. The same planning applies in Calgary’s industrial districts (see 3D laser scanning in Calgary).
2. Use terrestrial scanning when new equipment has to fit existing equipment
On the Toronto conveyor job, mobile scanning was tried first because it is fast. It did not give the precision needed for conveyors that had to line up with existing ones, or the point density to tell a pipe from a cable tray from a guard rail on a packed floor. Mobile ended up as a secondary dataset, and the main capture was done on a tripod with colour 360° imagery at every station.
On a production line replacement in Mississauga, the first suggestion was a 3D tour or a mobile scan. A tour camera is made for looking around, not for placing a machine against a wall to a few millimetres, and mobile capture drifts over distance unless it is tied to control. The area was scanned with a terrestrial scanner, station by station, and registered into one point cloud. On our building projects, points within about 10 m of a station on a well-registered cloud typically fall in the 2–4 mm range, with uncertainty growing at longer range; the tolerance of the final model or drawings is agreed separately.
3. Capture the columns and the crane from both sides
In a plant, the structure is the survey. Column positions, floor levels and crane rail heights are what every layout decision is measured against, and machinery works to small clearances: a column 50 mm from where the drawing shows it can decide whether a machine fits. In the Hamilton plant, a single bay about 280 by 50 feet with a portal crane, about 112 stations were set close to the machines, with the columns and crane rails scanned from both sides so the registration held down the full length of the bay.
4. Look up: clashes often come from overhead
In the Mississauga plant, the owner’s team placed the equipment manufacturers’ 3D models of the new machines into our model and the point cloud, then ran clash detection in Navisworks. Some machines were too tall for the piping running above them. The piping had not been modelled, because the new line sat on the floor and the overhead was out of scope. The point cloud showed it anyway, because it captures everything in view. The clash turned up on a screen instead of on install day, and the owner then asked for the piping to be modelled so everyone worked from the same model.
The lesson: decide early whether overhead services need to be modelled, and at minimum make sure they are in the scan. For how the clash check itself is set up, see clash detection for plant retrofits.
5. Ask who will use the data, not just who is buying it
On the Toronto conveyor job, the contractor laying out the new lines worked in 2D and needed a floor plan. The engineers, consultants and equipment suppliers needed what a plan cannot show: how high a conveyor is off the floor, how much room there is under the mezzanine, sections wherever they wanted them. The 3D model was built from the same point cloud, exported to IFC for the integrator’s SolidWorks workflow, and used for clash detection against the new equipment before anything was fabricated. No second scan was needed, but having everyone in the room on day one would have saved a few weeks.
The same thing applies to process areas. At a beverage plant in the Dallas area, the owner was planning a retrofit of the water treatment area. The deliverable was an as-built floor plan with internal elevations of the tanks and piping, and that one set let the owner, the engineers and the contractors work from the same information.
6. Model machines to their envelope, not their bolts
A layout study needs a machine’s footprint and clearance, not its engineering detail. In Hamilton the structure was modelled to LOD 350 and the ten-plus one-off machines were modelled in place from the point cloud to their envelope. In Mississauga a light LOD 300 was enough: floor, walls, columns and the structure the new line would sit inside, with the point cloud kept underneath for everything the model did not carry.
What to deliver for a plant project
Match the deliverable to the question the team is trying to answer:
| Question | Deliverable |
|---|---|
| Where does the new line or conveyor go? | 2D as-built floor plan (DWG and PDF) with equipment footprints and the column grid |
| Will it fit under the mezzanine, piping or crane? | Sections and internal elevations, or a 3D model |
| Will the new equipment clash with what is there? | 3D model plus the point cloud, with the manufacturers’ models placed in it for a clash check |
| What do the engineers and suppliers open? | IFC or Revit for the model, RCP for the point cloud |
| What about the questions that come up next year? | The point cloud in a viewer the owner’s team can measure from |
If the drawing set itself is the main deliverable, our as-built documentation page covers what a full set includes.
Before you book a plant scan: a checklist
- Which areas can be scanned while production runs, and which need a shutdown? When is the window?
- Who will use the data: contractor, engineers, consultants, equipment suppliers, the plant’s own team?
- Will new equipment go in? If so, ask the manufacturers for their 3D models early.
- What runs overhead in the install area, and does it need to be modelled or only captured?
- What software will each team open the data in?
- Does the model need to sit on the plant grid or survey coordinates? Orienting the cloud to a grid does not square up columns or floors that are genuinely out of line; those conditions stay in the data.
- Will the plant’s line names be used in the drawings? Agreeing them up front saves days later.
Frequently asked questions
Can you laser scan a plant while it is running?
Often, yes. In the Hamilton plant the scan was planned around the working fabrication line. Areas where the equipment itself is being changed, or where the floor is too busy to set stations, may need a shutdown, so agree which is which before the scan.
How long does it take to scan a production area?
It depends on the area and how crowded it is. On our recent jobs, one production area in Mississauga took about two days and 85 scan positions, and nine production lines in Toronto took two and a half days and about 235 positions.
Is mobile scanning accurate enough for a plant?
For a general record it can be. When new equipment has to line up with existing equipment, terrestrial scanning is the safer choice because of its accuracy and point density. Mobile works well as a secondary dataset.
What level of detail does a plant model need?
Enough to answer the layout question. A light LOD 300 can be right for test-fitting a new line. Structure at LOD 350 with machines modelled to their envelope worked for moving a fabrication line. Keep the point cloud for everything the model does not carry.
Can engineers use the scan in their own software?
Yes. On the Toronto conveyor job the model went out as an IFC for SolidWorks and the point cloud as an RCP, and the team ran clash detection in Navisworks.
Scan the plant as it runs, not as it was drawn
Plants change faster than their drawings. A scan planned around the shutdown, captured from the structure out, and delivered in the formats each team actually uses gives everyone one version of the plant to design against. For what a full as-built drawing set should include, read our guide to laser scanning for as-built drawings.
