Reality Modeling
I was asked by a city's Survey Lead
"what changes can we expect in our daily workflow when we upgrade to the new software?"
"Nothing: what you do now in your 15-year old software, you do the same thing in the new. A little more streamlined."
But then I thought "Well, you do your old stuff the same way, but you have a whole new world of what you can and eventually will do."
Once designers get a job with some Reality Modeling, they'll never want to go back.
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Here's a live view of a 3D reality model: You can explore around it via computer, tablet or cell phone.
It's really high-detail, high-value as a design tool. |
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And here's the thing: the Designers don't need to wait for the Survey Department: if they have a cell phone they can do it themselves.
It took about 30 minutes (5 minutes of camera shots, 10 minutes of file transfer, 10 minutes of kicking off the processing, and 5 minutes of verifying). This video gives a quick overview of the process and how to use it your normal design environment: just reference it in.
You can do this with almost no training (Training is available at Learn.Bentley.com)
Note that there are some rough edges in this capture. It's easy to clean up, but I wanted to show a raw quick take. I hadn't shot anything in two years or so, and I thought my random photo walk would just give me an idea of what I'd have to go out and do properly. Considering the lack of planning and prep on my part, the results are really nice. 30 minutes. Do It Yourself!
Simple, Easy. Spontaneous?
My son and I were checking out the existing conditions of his Eagle Scout Project - the replacement of retaining walls and a pedestrian bridge in San Diego's Balboa Park. Completely spontaneously, I said, "Hey, we can make a Reality Model of this for your presentations and planning." I whipped out my phone and took a couple hundred pictures, basically just remembering the rule of thumb "make sure you overlap your pictures." Dumped the pictures into ContextCapture and got some really nice results.
This was during the Scout's post-COVID "Remote Meeting" phase. The ScoutMaster - a total newb to 3D Reality Modeling - was able to seamlessly drive the model while my son was presenting. Lots of Wow!s generated. We're a visual species. Pictures are nice but Immersive 3D is better.
Information is at Bentley ContextCapture.