The devastating fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, earlier this week has shone an unexpected light on High Definition Laser Scanning (HDLS). In 2015, architectural historian, Andrew Tallon, created a digital replica of Notre Dame Cathedral using Leica laser scanners. The laser scanner collects millions of points to generate three-dimensional “point clouds” allowing a view point to be created from any angle. A two-dimensional drawing can be produced from the point cloud illustrating plan, sections, and elevation views. The scanners also take full digital globe-line photos, similar to Google Street View, at each setup point, which when combined with the point clouds create panoramic photographs that are accurate down to three millimeters. Restoration efforts can reference these scans to begin rebuilding the Cathedral.
Closer to home, Pennoni’s surveyors collected more than 655.7 million 3D accurate and measurable data points from 45 setup positions to provide the Philadelphia Phillies and Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, PA, with the data needed to make improvements to the ballpark in the offseason between the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Pennoni produced topographic plans, architectural elevations, and structural steel drawings of the existing conditions of the ballpark that were crucial to the design teams.