Pub. 4 2014 Issue 3

10 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY H igh Def inition Scanning (HDS) technology is an effi- cient and powerful alternative to surveying for virtually all surface definition, topographic or structural situations. Manually survey- ing sites for ground/object surface or structure details can require many, many hours, sometimes over several days, and sometimes involve potentially hazard- ous locations, such as large granular or powdered mineral piles. HDS technology makes it possible for data to be re- motely collected from literally millions of surface points, with densities and ac- curacies less than 0.1-inch in a matter of hours instead of days or weeks. HDS technology is based on an imaging LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) laser that collects up to 1-mil- lion survey shots per second, making it easy to provide data that can be used for volume calculations, 2D line work, or 3D models. This data can be easily convert- ed into formats such as AutoCAD, which is a standard engineering design tool. High Definition Scanning vs. Conventional Surveying BY DAVID W. ECKHOFF, PHD, PE MCNEIL ENGINEERING, HDS TEAM A complete lower resolution facility scan image of a refinery facility, produced from a total of about four scanning hours by the field crew.