Providers of engineering tools for plant design and infrastructure have clearly embraced laser scanning technology. These companies offer solutions to integrate point cloud models, created by 3D laser scanners, into their respective design applications. This enables the creation of accurate "as-built" models, which are essential for checking proposed designs against existing site conditions and comparing construction progress with original design plans.
By adopting this technology, the engineering tools providers improve the overall design/build/operate/maintain lifecycle for plants and infrastructure by reducing time and cost and increasing efficiency in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) process.
Moreover, many brownfield facilities and the associated physical assets lack accurate as-built engineering drawings and documentation. This makes it problematic for engineering and procurement contractors (EPCs) to plan, design, and upgrade brownfield plants to meet the required reconfiguration and engineering updates. If the appropriate paper or electronic documentation of the physical facility and other assets in the brownfield installations do not exist prior to the re-design project, engineers would need to first perform a comprehensive and, ultimately, time-consuming and costly survey of the electrical, piping, equipment, and instrumentation designs, as well as the physical structure.