BIM in Civil Design

RUSTY STEEL: Morning, everybody. So we probably should wait another couple minutes for everybody. But I figure we can knock out the intro because we have a lot of information that we're trying to cram in. And what we really want to do is leave some space at the end so you guys can ask questions because I just have a feeling, with all of the LiDAR information and stuff, you guys are going to want to.

But to get through all the data, we're going to try and hustle. So if I could, I'm going to go ahead and jump in. And people can just get in past the intro. So my name is Rusty Steel. I'm from CEC Corporation. We're out of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

BARTLEY ESTES: Is your real name Rusty Steel?

RUSTY STEEL: That's my real name. Corroded metal is what they call me. Rusty Steel.

BARTLEY ESTES: Rusty Steel.

RUSTY STEEL: And honestly, we're excited about getting feedback from you guys. The whole reason we're doing this is we want to see where everyone else is at with this technology. So we want to talk with you. It would be awesome if, at the end, we exchange information and follow up on stuff. But on the presentation, if you don't mind, if we could shelf the questions just so we can hustle through it. So with that being said-- and this is my man, Bart, the LiDAR guru here.

So my background-- I'm a designer, ACI instructor for Civil 3D. So we're a full fledged design firm-- LiDAR collection firm. But we added an ATC a few years ago, partially to start doing stuff like this. One thing where we've been trying to focus on is don't just like-- so LiDAR is an example. We don't want to just deliver LiDAR to our client, set it down, and walk away, and assume they're going to know what they're doing with it.

We're trying to train people-- and good client relationships and stuff. So the reason I'm here is to talk to you about how we're using LiDAR that we're collecting with our LiDAR team in design, whether it be Civil 3D or other things in the Autodesk suite that you guys are probably familiar with. So the title, the BIM in Civil Design. I'm going to try and explain this over the next few slides.

This is a bunch of jumbo here. But to me, what it's about is-- like I said, we hope to teach you something new in LiDAR, if you're new to it. Or if you're advanced in it, maybe we can spark up more conversations going forward. But we want to talk about LiDAR. And basically, we want to talk about how it comes into the software-- different platform.

So the reason we threw BIM in there is-- it's just a word we're all using. And I know everybody's used to it in the facilities in the vertical stuff. But we're starting to say things like SIM or TIM in our transportation industry.

But to me, it's all about models. It's all about bringing multiple models in from different groups in real time, as much as you can. And that's the whole goal with BIM to me, a central model, intelligent, being updated from different ways.

I threw this together real quick. So that's a traditional workflow, how I see it. But I did the second one because I think this more fits what we're going to talk about today.

We're going to start with some existing stuff-- the point cloud. And we're going to talk about how linework's being generated because we all will come to agree that, right now, we got to continue to do 2D plans. We got to have that linework. We can't just work with a point cloud. But we're going to throw out some ideas on things we're trying, specifically on a job where we need to be efficient because of budgets and things like that. So some new ideas we're trying.

We're going to jump into things like InfraWorks. I'm not going to go nuts in InfraWorks. That's not what this class is for. But we're going to show you how LiDAR's coming into it, how we're using it, and then carry in to things like Civil 3D, building that AMG proposed model because, once again, we're trying to mesh models together, make sure they blend right. And the whole goal is virtually construct the project in the office to eliminate errors.

So over here, our facility friends. Right there. Blending multiple models. They're seeing clash detection. They're seeing other things. Same thing over here in our world.

We're not going to spend a lot of time talking about utilities clashing. But I think, ultimately that's where all this is headed. We're going to spend more time-- or I am specifically talking about blending existing surface models, be it from LiDAR, with LiDAR, proposed models, and meshing them all together and trying to build a good grade ready model, whether it's for earthwork or stringless paving or things like that.

So if you guys haven't seen this slide, it's a good one. What it means basically is the ability to affect the project as the project goes along is more challenging and more costly. That's what 1 and 2 are representing. And 3 is where we're at as an industry right now.

Basically, like I said earlier, we're doing our 2D planes. We're throwing them into the field. And the contractor is making it work the best he can. And a lot of RFIs. A lot of change orders.

So I think everybody's on board with we want to try and use this 3D software, and construct it, and find those busts in the office, and slide that bell curve over, and try and save everybody money. So that's a quick little intro. But once again, a reminder, what we're doing here is blending all the different models together.

So we got to start with LiDAR. That's a great tool for us. So Bart is going to give you guys some background on that.

BARTLEY ESTES: Thank you, Rusty. Like Rusty was saying, my main role and the whole reason I'm here is to talk about LiDAR specifically. I'm not a designer. I'm not an engineer. I work in the survey division.

And my area of expertise is LiDAR. So what I'm going to do is give you fundamental concepts, the basics. And we'll get into the weeds a little bit just on how LiDAR work. And then I'll feed it back to Rusty where he can talk about where that feeds into the workflow of BIM.

So before we get started, can I see a raise of hands of who is currently using LiDAR data, using point clouds, knows how it's in your workflow. So we have a few. That's good. Is there anybody who knows what point clouds are but are looking on how maybe they could fit it into their workflow-- not super comfortable. A few more.

Who has a very basic understanding and just knows that point clouds are called point clouds? We got one guy. Awesome. So we're going to start with just the very basic fundamentals. This is going to be a snoozer for a lot of people. But I'm going to go through it step by step and explain how LiDAR works. And we'll step through it so that we're all on the same level here.

RUSTY STEEL: Please, don't do that.

BARTLEY ESTES: I'm totally kidding, you guys. We're literally going to start with what is LiDAR. LiDAR is an acronym. It stands for Light Detection And Ranging. It's a survey technology, remote sensing technology.

That's just a fancy way to say it's survey technology. LiDAR works a lot like a total station on steroids. It's just putting out tons of shots every second.

It's using infrared lasers, infrared light, pulses of light to collect the points that it's collecting. You probably all know that the data set is known as a point cloud, commonly. Terms that get thrown around-- LiDAR, 3D laser scanning, point cloud data. It's all the same thing, just so we're all on the same page.

LiDAR sensors are typically putting out around sometimes a little bit more than a million pulses every second. So the point cloud is literally made up of survey points. So you're getting around a million survey points every second.

And each point, obviously, has a xyz coordinate, but also intensity. So the sensors are putting out pulses of light. It's actually illuminating the object that it's sensing, which is why, in the point cloud data, we can see things like striping. White concrete looks different than asphalt. And things like that.

Some fast facts that are kind of universal across all LiDAR applications and all why are platforms is data density. You're going to hear us talk a lot about density today. And there are varying levels of data density between LiDAR platforms. But please, keep in mind, no matter what platform you're using, when it comes to LiDAR, the data is very dense. You are getting a lot of points.

Accuracies range between sensors. There are GIS grade systems, all the way up to survey and engineering grade systems. That's what our expertise and our level of work is with. We're an engineering firm. So I have primarily only dealt with those survey grade type systems.

The data acquisition window-- a lot of people try to compare LiDAR with traditional photogrammetry or remote sensing. And there's a lot of things that limit photogrammetry, like time of day. You, obviously, need to fly during the day time.

You want to wait for leaf-off conditions. You want to wait towards the end of the year. With LiDAR, because we're not using images, we're actually using laser pulses that can penetrate things, like vegetation. You don't really have to worry about leaf-off conditions. You're going to get through the trees. You're going to get through the grass.

And like I said earlier, we're using pulses of light to collect that data. The lasers are illuminating the objects they're collecting. You can collect LiDAR data in complete darkness. We collect data at night all the time, specifically with our mobile system, which I'll talk about a little bit more later on. But we actually prefer to collect at 3:00 in the morning just because there's not as many cars on the road.

And many different platforms-- I kind of already have touched on a few. And we'll talk more about the more common ones here, in just a little bit. But LiDAR is just a overall technology. It's a sensing technology. It can be mounted on just about anything, an airplane, helicopter, a vehicle, a UAV-- which we'll talk a little bit about. But you can mount a LiDAR sensor on just about anything.

I'm not going to go through all of these. If you have questions on how all of the different components within a LiDAR system actually produces the data-- you and I talked a little bit about it before we got started here. But these are basically just the ingredients that go into the recipe for how LiDAR data is collected. If you have questions about it later on, please come down and I'll be happy to nerd out with you.

So the platforms. These are the more common platforms, aerial, mobile and terrestrial. They all kind of touch on a few-- make points about each of those.

So aerial LiDAR, in my opinion, is the most versatile, mainly because of project accessibility. If you can fly over it, you can collect LiDAR data. You don't have to worry about can the vehicle find a route there. Literally, if you can fly over it, you can collect data.

You can cover more ground, obviously. Aerial LiDAR is the way to go if you're trying to get a DM for an entire county. Aerial is probably the only way you can go about achieving that.

I put lower point densities, but I want to preface that with, remember, I'm talking in relation to other LiDAR platforms. The point density is still very, very high.

But just in relation to other platforms, aerial is your lowest. You're flying higher, you're flying faster, the amount of pulses are a little bit lower, right now. And so you're just not getting as many points on the ground. But here's an example of an aerial LiDAR dataset. That's still a ton of data. You can do a lot with that.

One of the negatives, I think, that comes along with areal LiDAR is higher operational costs. That kind of ties in stringent mission planning, as well. It's not as easy as jumping in the car and going and collecting data. You have to go through the rigmarole that it takes to get an airplane or a helicopter in the sky. So there is a little bit more planning that goes into a data collection for aerial.

RUSTY STEEL: Bart, can I jump in? We can go back.

BARTLEY ESTES: Sure.

RUSTY STEEL: And also, this is obvious, but if you wanted to collect under that bridge, he's obviously not doing it with aerial LiDAR. That's another thing to keep in mind.

BARTLEY ESTES: Correct.

RUSTY STEEL: But with this tool, he can.

AUDIENCE: Does accuracy change?

RUSTY STEEL: Does accuracy change?

BARTLEY ESTES: Yes. Very little. I will talk about it a little bit more as we get down the road. Whoever you are having collect your mobile LiDAR data or just LiDAR data in general, make sure you're getting an accuracy report. Make sure they're setting survey control because, at the end of the day, if you're utilizing survey control, it's all going to be survey grade. But there are companies out there that will fly survey grade data, and it's not.

RUSTY STEEL: So since he's talking about control, I want to take the opportunity to say, traditional survey-- boots on the ground-- in our opinion, is not going away. This is just an added tool to add to the bucket. A long time ago, we added total stations. Then the rovers came.

And now, this came-- you still have to have boots on the ground. Section work. Utilities being shot. We're not trying to imply that this is better than that, and that's going away, this is taking it over. They team up. We have traditional surveyors and always will. We need to do the control specifically--

BARTLEY ESTES: At the end of the day, LiDAR is just a survey tool, just like anything else. So the next thing I'm going to jump into is mobile LiDAR. This is my bread and butter.

This is what most of my experience is with. This is my baby over here, back home. I'm missing her dearly.

But mobile LiDAR is used for high density corridor surveying, typically roads, and bridges, highways, things like that. The mobile system, because we're driving slower than an airplane is flying, the system is actually putting out more pulses per second. Our data densities in mobile LiDAR are very high. And we'll see a example of that, I think, in this video that may or may not be hard to see.

I talked about setting control. Most mobile LiDAR systems-- there's a few of them out there that are GIS grade. But most mobile LiDAR systems are engineering or survey grade and achieving those accuracies.

The LiDAR system collects at posted speeds. So it's not like you're shutting down a lane of traffic and you're having to putt down the highway at 10 miles an hour. We've collected parking lot data at 5 miles an hour. We've done a cracking study on a airport runway at 80 miles an hour.

RUSTY STEEL: In between planes. Like, literally one touched down. He chased it at 80 miles an hour. They didn't shut anything down. He drove right behind at 80 mile an hour. And we did a cracking study from it.

BARTLEY ESTES: I'll tell that story very quickly just because it was the most exciting day of my life. It felt like I was in an action movie.

It was a municipal airport. They did not-- they wanted the survey done, but they said, we got tons of planes coming in. We cannot shut the runway down today to go out and shoot it. Said, OK.

We're sitting out on the edge of the runway in the taxiway with the radio with the air traffic control. And I said, you just let me know when I can go. He said, OK.

So we're sitting there. Airplane comes in. And I get on the radio. OK, you can proceed. So I pull out. And as soon as I'm pulling out, they come back on. They say, but you better hurry. I said, OK.

And so I hammer on the gas pedal. When we're flying down the highway. And I look at my rear-view mirror-- and this is straight out of an action movie. I look at my rear-view mirror and there's a plane coming in behind us as we're scanning the runway. But literally, from that data set, we did a cracking study when I was on and off of the runway in 2 and 1/2 minutes, which-- pretty incredible in my opinion.

So mobile LiDAR systems typically collect in 360 degrees. It's not just collecting what's around the vehicle. The sensors are set up in a way where it's collecting above the vehicle and below it. So you are collecting underneath bridges and power lines when you drive underneath them.

You're collecting the roadway underneath you and everything around you . The only thing I don't really like about this graphic is it makes it look like we're collecting data in this little globe around the vehicle. Lasers, or light, extends indefinitely.

How far out you can get a return varies. But it's typically 150 to 200 meters from the vehicle. So you're actually collecting data much further out than this. That's the only qualm I have with that graphic.

RUSTY STEEL: We have our own internal rules of how far away that shot can be to where we trust it. Anyway, sorry.

BARTLEY ESTES: Right. So terrestrial and static LiDAR--

RUSTY STEEL: Hey, Bart. Sorry. Will you go back? So talk about Google Earth-like imagery.

BARTLEY ESTES: Oh, yeah. I didn't finish.

RUSTY STEEL: You probably saw those RGB-- those colorized point clouds that are pretty neat. If you don't know how those happen, you wanna touch on that?

BARTLEY ESTES: Sure, yeah. I completely forgot to touch on these. The Google Earth-like imagery-- on most mobile LiDAR systems, it comes with georeferenced cameras that are calibrated with your LiDAR sensors. They're usually collecting an image a second, half of second, depending on what system you're using. But that's giving you that Google Earth-like drive-through imagery that we're all-- I mean, we all use Google Earth. Let's be honest.

But the difference is, it's calibrated to the LiDAR sensors themselves. So you can take those images and actually give each point in the point cloud a color value-- an RGB value from those cameras, which we don't do all the time. But sometimes it's nice to see.

And then the negative that I forgot to talk about. Mobile LiDAR is, obviously, project access. You can't drive it-- if the vehicle can't get there, then it's probably not the best tool to scan.

Some people have experimented with putting those systems on mules-- not real mules-- ATV mules, and four wheelers, and railroad cars, and everything else. But basically, if you can mount it on anything, you can put it on just about anything.

RUSTY STEEL: And one more thing on that note is if you like the RGB point cloud-- that's your goal, make sure you have your collector collect in daylight. Obviously, those pictures are pitch black.

You're not going to be able-- because it basically smears those photos over your point cloud. And that's how it comes to life. And so if the pictures are black--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

BARTLEY ESTES: We've run into that too on projects. We had it set out in the scope of work-- collecting LiDAR data, we are not delivering the images because the client said they weren't interested. So to avoid traffic, we scanned at 3 o'clock in the morning.

After the fact, they said, hey, can you give us those images. I'm like-- well, I can. They're all pitch black. I can give you thousands of black photos.

So terrestrial and static LiDAR. That is what probably most of you are most familiar with. In the classes that I've attended here at AU, that's what most people are talking about-- the stationary on the tripod LiDAR scanner. They're the most common. So that's probably why.

Basically, it's acquisition from a fixed point. It's on a tripod. It's not moving. But it's also putting out a lot of data. It's in the same position. It's taking lots of measurements from that area. So you're getting very, very, very high point densities.

And it's also versatile, just like aerial LiDAR because we can do things like measure the equipment at the top of the cell phone tower from the ground and take those measurements that they need to take without having to climb the actual tower itself, but also, move it inside and do interior scanning inside of buildings.

And so I don't know if I have any MEP guys in here. But being able to scan inside a very tight, confined utility closet, and seeing all of your piping networks, and being able to pull that in to Revit-- and we'll talk about that later on too. But just having a interior survey that looks like that could be very beneficial.

So exterior and interior scanning is a big pro for terrestrial scanning. And it's the most common because it is the most affordable, obviously. Aerial LiDAR system in an airplane costs a lot more than a terrestrial LiDAR system and a tripod.

So it's easier to get a hold of the data. The data is cheaper to purchase. There's a lot more work that goes in. You have an 8 mile roadway project-- you don't want to leapfrog a terrestrial scanner all the way down the road and set up 40 times.

RUSTY STEEL: I've seen that. And that's unfortunate because then-- one of the great pros with mobile LiDAR is safety. You just drive right through.

Even if there's no shoulders, you're good to go. But I've seen plenty of datasets where you can see the circle where the static LiDAR was set up, if you guys have worked with point clouds at all. And they set up every 1,000 feet on a interstate

BARTLEY ESTES: For six miles down the road. And so with that, I'm not here to say one is better than the other. I'm really not. I'll just say, if you're starting to get into LiDAR data and you're looking to push it into your workflow, think about what kind of project you're doing and what makes the most sense.

Is it a wide area. Are you doing acres? Then you're probably going to want to use aerial LiDAR. If it's a roadway project that's six miles long, think about using mobile LiDAR. If it's a building-- a facade, use terrestrial LiDAR. So just keep in mind what's the goal of this project-- what is the point of the project, and then make a intelligent decision on which platform you want to employ.

RUSTY STEEL: Can I jump in, Bart?

BARTLEY ESTES: Sure.

RUSTY STEEL: So that's really what we're here to talk about today. We don't claim to be experts. A lot of you guys probably know a lot of this stuff as well as we do.

But I think we're kind of unique in the fact-- at least in our area-- where we're collecting it and we're using it. We're a design firm also. So really, we're just here to show you what we're going through, what we're seeing, how we're using it, little tricks that we have. So I want to just point that out.

BARTLEY ESTES: So I'm going to start talking about the applications on the civil side of things that we're employing LiDAR data on today. And like, Rusty said, we're not claiming to say we have it all figured out. We're just trying new stuff and are here to share it with you.

So I just threw up this image because I thought it was kind of cool. That was a huge, giant drainage structure that ran underneath the highway. And I thought, I think our vehicle can fit through that. And so we drove through it and picked up our local gang tags over here while we were at it.

RUSTY STEEL: He also picked up swallows' nests.

BARTLEY ESTES: Oh, yeah.

RUSTY STEEL: You guys [INAUDIBLE] on the planes. We have to show all that. And that's at night, pitch dark. And we can see-- we can count how many there are. We can quantify it.

BARTLEY ESTES: So our bread and butter is what we're using LiDAR for is topographic survey. We're an engineering firm. We got to have to survey.

So you can utilize a point cloud to go in and pull out those survey features. You're used to seeing brake lines, contours, triangles, your planimetric values-- where my signs, power poles, all my assets, and things like that.

And down the road, we're going to talk about how-- sorry, I clicked the wrong button. Well, that's fine-- talk about what level of-- how much of this stuff is really necessary to pull out because, when you really think about it-- I'm going to-- I know I have to hustle through this. But I'm going to step up on my soapbox. And this is what I get really excited about.

But we are always underneath the gun from engineers. How many engineers I got? Designers? I'm going take a step back because you guys are going to get mad at me.

But one thing we're constantly under, at least back home, is LiDAR's really cool, but I want to look like a conventional survey. I want it to look like the survey I've always gotten. I want it to look the same. I don't want to change the way I work.

And so literally, we are going in now and we're using this point cloud-- forget all the triangles and the lines. We have all of these points-- all are survey grade.

That's virtually your survey. And they're asking us to go in and trace this line. Trace this line. I want you to put a 2D block where my power poles are. And I bite my tongue. And I do it because the client is always right.

But it keeps me up at night because I'm like, you have all of this data, and you're asking me to go drop a 2D power pole where there's a power pole. And I can tell you where it is, how far it's leaning, how tall it is, what's on the power pole. You can see all of those different things. And it just--

RUSTY STEEL: Or better yet.

BARTLEY ESTES: Stepping off of my soapbox. Sorry.

RUSTY STEEL: Better yet, he said he can tell you where those things are. What we're going to talk about is you can tell yourself-- you can have the data. You decide.

You don't need to send the surveyor out a second, third time to pick up some bridge abutment seat that they kept missing it. Get the whole bridge. The whole bridge is here. You figure out everything you want to figure out on your own. You're the engineer. You decide what you want.

BARTLEY ESTES: So now, I'm off my soapbox. I got to hustle because I can't take all of Rusty's time. I put accurate contouring on here because one of the other battles that we fought was we started getting these tiny triangles. And so our engineers were saying, my contours are ugly. They look like spaghetti. They're not rounded pretty like I'm used to getting.

And I had to step back, breathe for a second. OK, that's true. They are uglier-- quote, unquote, "uglier." But they're more correct. That's what the ground is actually doing.

RUSTY STEEL: If you want us to dumb it down, we can dumb it down for you. We can round those contours and make them pretty.

BARTLEY ESTES: Yeah, I can give you pretty round contours, but I'm making your surface dumber by doing that. So I just wanted to-- I feel like I'm in a support group. I'm just going to rant to you guys.

So with a very accurate surface, you can obviously do things like quantities, volumes, and drainage very quickly. We're pushing out more triangles. More triangles isn't always the best way to go about things. But you can produce more triangles.

That kind of answers the question of do you really need breaklines. And by breaklines-- I know you need the road. But do you need top of bank and toe of bank.

RUSTY STEEL: We'll talk about that.

BARTLEY ESTES: We'll talk about it, if I can represent it. I'm really not going to dive into multiples pulse returns. If anybody is really familiar with LiDAR data, you know what that is. Just in a quick synopsis, if I took this laser pointer and I shined it across town on the water tower, that point would be the size of a beach ball because, as that laser continues, it's getting wider.

The same thing happens in LiDAR. The wider the laser gets, it can split. So if my pulse comes out of my sensor, it hits a blade of grass, I'm going to get a return. I'm going to get a point at the top of that blade of grass.

But that pulse of light continued beyond it. And it can split up to four times. So that's why we say LiDAR can get bare earth because it's collecting vegetation. But those pulses are continuing to the bare earth. And so you will get a point at the bare earth.

RUSTY STEEL: Where photogrammetry isn't-- which I know you already said that. But just to retouch that. Photogrammetry's stopping on the picture.

BARTLEY ESTES: So these all go together with a highly dense, highly precise surface. You can do cut fill analysis very precisely-- stockpile quantities.

And we've talked about what's off the roadway. But even in the roadway, with a nice surface along the roadway, you can do a lot of analysis. So this is a small section of a stretch of highway that we did for a DOT back in Oklahoma.

Brand new highway. Had just been constructed. They had lots of calls coming in from drivers that were saying, hey, I don't know what's going on out here, but our cars are bucking like crazy. There is a dip or something and we don't know what's going on.

And the DOT knew roughly where around that was, but they couldn't identify the spot, much less try to survey it. So we went out and we drove that stretch of highway. And we colorized the point cloud by very small contours. And I hit the wrong button again. We're able to see very, very small undulations in the pavement where we had a joint problem. We had a joint that was settling. And when you hit that at 75 miles an hour in a car, it was like you were at the rodeo, which is in town, while we're here in Vegas.

But it felt like you were in a rodeo. And this is a brand new constructed highway. And we were able to go in, without putting a surveyor on the road, without really even being at the job site other than driving through it with our LiDAR sensor on. Went back-- did a little bit of analysis. within a few hours. And we were able to pinpoint not only where their issue was, but how much undulation there was-- in that separation.

RUSTY STEEL: And let's be honest, even if you could shut down I-40 in the middle of downtown Oklahoma City, is somebody going to take a shot every 1 millimeter with a tradition-- you know how they're going to-- this is the way to do it. I mean, it's great. Little ponding issues. I think you can find all kinds of stuff. It's awesome.

BARTLEY ESTES: So clearance analysis is one of the things we're really getting into with the DOT back home. They're really jumping on board with using LiDAR for clearances. This is primarily for mobile and static LiDAR. Obviously, you're not flying an airplane underneath the bridge.

But what LiDAR gives you the ability to do is, not only take measurements where you want to on the bridge, but do analysis. Not only on every single beam, but on every point on every beam. Not just in the center of the beam-- the face of the beam, the back of the beam, all the way across the beam.

And so intelligently, we can go in and generate things like, on that bridge, give me the absolute minimum clearance. Not just at the center line, not just at the striping. Tell me where the absolute minimum clearance is on this bridge.

And using that same type of workflow, we're doing wide load routing. I can find the lowest point on the bridge. Tell me where the highest point is on the bridge. If I have oversized loads coming through here, we need to be able to tell them what lane they need to be in to fit underneath that bridge.

And the same workflow goes for anything that goes over the road. 3D power lines. If there's any surveyors in here, you know how big of a pain it is to run out in the middle of the road, and run up a poll, and try to get a shot on a power line that's crossing the road that's blowing in the wind. So we can use that same workflow-- the same technology to pull out those clearances, as well.

Here's just an example of a top-down view of a mobile scan that we did underneath of a bridge. And you can just see each beam here and just how much data underneath that bridge we are collecting simply by driving underneath it. There's a ton of analysis that you can do with that.

RUSTY STEEL: And if you guys are structural people, there's tools out there that you probably already know about that, if you wanted to create a model quickly from that point, there's tools out there that can trace those I-beams because it recognizes a standard and it draws it.

BARTLEY ESTES: You'll pull on your beam standard library and pull it in. And it will recognize-- it's smart and recognizes what size of beam that is and will actually extract it across the point cloud, which is way smarter than I have ever-- than I could ever figure out. But it is very intelligent.

So in this video, before I go on to my bullet points, this is an example of the drive-through imagery. And then it'll show the resulting point cloud. But I want to talk about condition analysis. You are collecting where your assets are, just like a normal surveyor would. But you're collecting what condition it's in.

Here's an ADA ramp. You can do things like slope analysis. You can do your ADA compliance on it.

In the roadway, is your pavement cracked? Is your striping worn or faded? We've all seen curbs out there that are chewed up. And the surveyor's going to shoot it just like it's a curb-- like nothing's wrong.

But if you got a chewed up curb, it'd be nice to know where that is. And I just threw this fly-over in here-- it's kind of hard to see in this room. But we drove down and we drove back. And we picked up every asset within that corridor.

I don't know how many GIS users are in here-- but think about being able to extract every asset along a corridor and being able to push that intelligently into your GIS system. And GIS is getting better at handling LiDAR where it's managing LiDAR data. So if there's any data providers in here, you may start thinking about using GIS to actually manage and host your LiDAR data because it's getting better.

Here is a topic that I'm really excited about and I'm really passionate about-- kind of the next step for where LiDAR is going. It's no secret. There have been a ton of classes here about UAVs, UAS-- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Unmanned Aerial Systems.

Notice I'm not saying drone. Drone has such a negative connotation, too, with the public. Public freaks out when you say the word "drone." So we pretty it up and we say "UAS."

We are currently working with the FAA. We have submitted our petition for the exemption from section 333. And all that is the saying, hey, you can't fly drones to make money. If you're making money with it, don't do it.

But you can get exempt from that. It's quite the process. We've gone through it. We're actually supposed to hear back this month. So everybody cross your fingers for us.

But one thing that I wanted to push or-- share with you is some of the classes that I've gone to since I've been here has been talking about using point clouds from UAVs, which is possible-- but generating them using UAVs that are equipped with cameras, not LiDAR sensors. It is absolutely possible to create a point cloud from images. That is completely possible.

Is it the level of detail, is it going to meet the accuracy, are you going to get points on the bare earth like you would if you used an actual lighter sensor? Absolutely not.

RUSTY STEEL: It's the same thing we were saying before. You just have to be smart about when you use that technology. Same concepts as we were showing before.

BARTLEY ESTES: I'm not trying to paint it like it's bad. Just don't let someone come into your office who is trying to sell it to you and say, yeah, we're doing 3D laser scanning. And you see their system. And it's got a GoPro camera on it.

Just be smart about-- they say they can provide point cloud. Ask, are you using LiDAR to generate your point cloud or images-- because the accuracies of the two are very different. Sometimes LiDAR is overkill. If you're just trying to get the facade on the side of a building for a quick render you want to do, LiDAR is overkill. Don't use it.

RUSTY STEEL: Or stockpile volumes at your asphalt plant.

BARTLEY ESTES: Basically, don't go try to map a few acres of heavily vegetated area using a $1,000 drone with a GoPro camera on it. It will not turn out well. UAVs. This is no surprise. Public pushback, which is fine. I completely understand it.

The 16-year-old in his back yard who got his little drone for Christmas and is flying it next to the airport is making it a lot harder on people like us who-- we want to do it professionally and ethically. And we want to follow the rules. And we're all for more regulations. We want to do it the right way. We want to use UAVs for good.

But it's becoming a lot harder because-- I hope there's no FAA people in here. But the FAA has not done a really good job of roping in the drones that the teenagers are out flying now. And the accidents that come from them are only hindering people like us who want to use it for commercial purposes.

When we talk about UAS versus a manned aircraft, there are pros and cons to each. If you're trying to do a DM for an entire county, the battery life on this thing is not going to last that long. You can fly, maybe, an hour-- an hour and a half in some cases.

So if you're wanting to do a DM for a whole county, just put an airplane in the sky. If you're wanting to do an area-- something that could be flown in an hour and a half, it's a lot cheaper to put a UAS in the air than it is to put an airplane into the sky.

Again, going back to what we talked about earlier, just think about your project and what platform makes the most sense. And just make sure you're getting the right data set that you need. Ask a lot of questions. As a LiDAR data provider, I appreciate it when the client asks me questions.

They say, hey, can I get an accuracy report? Yes, I would love to give you an accuracy report. A lot of times I don't-- I haven't run into a whole lot of them. If you ask for an accuracy report and the provider dances around the question, you may look into that a little bit deeper.

But I just took a screenshot up here. This is a LiDAR dataset that was collected using a UAV. It looks just like any other point cloud from any other system. It's met all of the criteria-- accuracy criteria that all of the other platforms have gone under.

So UAS is a disruptive technology. I truly believe that. I think it's going to change the way we do things. And I do not think it's a fad. I think it's here to stay.

It has taken so long to get our exemption from the FAA only because they're so hammered. Everyone is submitting their exemption. Everyone wants to do this for business. And it's just taking them time to get all the way through that.

So now, we're going to jump into-- that's kind of my expertise of just what LiDAR is, how it works, the platforms-- just so you have a better understanding of what availability-- what types of LiDAR data is out there and how it can fit into your project. I'm going to hand it back to Rusty because he's the design expert. And he's going to talk about how LiDAR is fitting into his BIM workflow and the ways he's been able to leverage this high density data to do what he does.

RUSTY STEEL: I wish Bart would just be honest with this. And he just likes playing with cool toys. And then I just get to work with what he gives me after he plays with his cool toys. It's pretty neat stuff.

These are surface models made from-- the gray on both of these are surface models made from LiDAR. This job is aerial LiDAR. You can probably see these are bridge abutments. And I actually have these screenshots later, and I'll touch on them a little bit more.

So I'm going to try and-- we have a bunch of engineers, designers in here, it looked like. And so LiDAR's great. But how do I use it? Sometimes it's overwhelming.

And so I'm just going to throw out a few ideas of things that we are having to learn from and experiment with. And we want to share them with you guys. And then, if you guys have feedback--

BARTLEY ESTES: Rusty, I just want to say, your contours are really ugly, man.

RUSTY STEEL: But those are awesome.

BARTLEY ESTES: But they're right. They're right contours.

RUSTY STEEL: I mean, look at the detail on that ditch. I mean, maybe you don't need the detail on that ditch. And that's what we'll talk about. The point density-- I can do all kinds of stuff.

So I'm going to use the term "design different" several times because-- I almost changed the title of the class too late because that's-- to me, what it's all about-- bringing these models in. Looking at it three dimensionally. Trying to get away from the two dimensional world.

It's crazy, we've had Civil 3D forever now. It's called Civil 3D and yet, here I am in plan view, cranking out 2D sheets. So anyway-- so I'm talking design differently so much in the fact that here is my desktop-- three screens. My boss is like, really, do you need three screens? I'm like yes, we need three screens.

So if we got Civil 3D lovers in here, you got to have your Toolspace and Properties up all the time, right? That's crucial. So those are over there. Civil 3D is running in the middle.

And then those of you that, right now-- maybe you have Google Earth up on that third screen. So you're seeing that other perspective. But if you start getting LiDAR jobs, pull it up.

Come up afterwards. We have some Autodesk products plus some free third party programs that are great viewer platforms for these. Or open Bart's georeferenced pictures. I'm going to hustle because I want to touch on his pictures, how I use them.