USER STORY
As-built documentation of an old house in Switzerland
Contents
As-Built Documentation of an Old House: Why a Complete 3D Laser Scan Was Essential
Missing Plans, Irregular Geometry, and the Need for Precision
Survey: Faro Photon 120, Faro Scene, and Efficient On-Site Work
Processing the Point Cloud: Fast Extraction of Plans and Sections
What This Case Study Demonstrates
As-Built Documentation of an Old House: Why a Complete 3D Laser Scan Was Essential
An old residential building in a village in the Swiss canton of Ticino lacked reliable, up-to-date building plans. To prepare renovation and restoration work, the engineering firm Geomatica Righitto (Lugano, Switzerland) was commissioned to do a full 3D as-built documentation.
Traditional plans were missing or outdated, and the building required precise measurements to support planning in CAD and BIM software.
Missing Plans, Irregular Geometry, and the Need for Precision
Older buildings rarely follow perfectly straight lines or standardized geometries. Over decades – or even centuries – walls may shift, floors may sag, and angles deviate from 90 degrees.
This means: assumptions based on symmetry or “standard” geometry can be highly misleading.
For renovation work, especially structural or restorative interventions, accurate data is crucial. Because no reliable plans existed for this house and its geometry was visibly irregular, a precise and complete measurement was essential, making 3D laser scanning the ideal method.
Survey: Faro Photon 120, Faro Scene, and Efficient On-Site Work
Geomatica Righitto used a FARO Photon 120 laser scanner to capture the entire building, including:
- three façades,
- the basement,
- the roof,
- and all four floors.
In total:
- 29 scans,
- 6 hours on site,
- 3 survey specialists.
All scans were registered and merged in FARO Scene, ensuring correct alignment and a unified, consistent point cloud.
This point cloud became the complete digital representation of the building, including all the irregularities typical of older structures.
Processing the Point Cloud: Fast Extraction of Plans and Sections
Once the unified point cloud was ready, Geomatica Righitto used PointCab Origins to extract essential architectural outputs:
- 4 floor plans
- 3 façade plans
- 20 building sections
- Orthophotos for façades and interior walls
These automated extractions significantly reduced manual drafting work.
The final drawings — both as-built documentation and renovation plans — were delivered in a CAD/BIM-ready format for use in Archicad.
The entire processing workflow, including preparation for delivery, took about 8 hours.
What This Case Study Demonstrates
This project shows how even older buildings with irregular geometry and missing documentation can be comprehensively captured. Old buildings are rarely dimensionally perfect, but laser scanning captures reality exactly as it is, and the resulting point cloud becomes a trusted digital baseline.
The combination of FARO Photon 120, FARO Scene, and PointCab Origins enabled Geomatica Righitto to create reliable plans quickly – giving architects and engineers the confidence they need to design renovations and restoration work effectively.
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