A just-released visualization of alterations planned for St. Albans Cathedral shows the compelling animations that can be generated from point cloud data with Pointools software.
The cathedral was built mainly in the 13th century. Recently changes to the nave were planned to make the space more suitable for hosting events and to meet current access requirements. To aid design of the alterations, and to document historic features that may be covered or affected, a detailed survey was needed. Cathedral patrons overseeing the alterations, as well as parishioners and other stakeholders, also needed a way to visualize the changes, to ensure they would be in keeping with the original interior.
APR Services, a London-based provider of land and building surveys and laser scanning services, scanned the nave with its FARO LS880. To produce the visualization above, APR followed the architect’s sketches of the planned alterations to edit out scan data in some areas, and in other areas to modify the existing data – for example, moving the baptismal font to a new location, and positioning it on a model of a proposed new base. Two animations were produced in Pointools from a reduced scan dataset: one as a floor-level walkthrough, the other as a high-level flythrough.
Pointools View is a lightweight point cloud and model viewing application for data visualization, management, presentation and distribution. Pointools View Pro is an authoring tool for producing high-quality animations from point clouds. FARO began reselling Pointools software with its 3D laser scanners last month.
