Scan to BIM: Its importance in heritage restoration

National heritage structures remain the indispensable part of a countries’ history and culture and hence it becomes important to preserve them so that the coming generations can also have a look at them. We cannot treat national heritage structures as common buildings and sites as they are the only living examples of a country’s past and tremendously represent its ancient cultural identity. Our future generations equally have the right to experience such magnificent structures and sites so that they can also connect with them. A country’s rich cultural identity remains alive only through national heritage structures and hence it becomes our responsibility to preserve them safely for future. 

But these structures are constantly getting damaged due to natural calamities such as earthquakes, cyclones, high speed winds and floods etc. We must renovate them from time to time without compromising on their quality and the artistic creativity due to which they exist today. That means renovation should not damage the integrity of the structures in terms of losing their rich artistic formation.

Renovation of heritage structures and monuments such as old temples, palaces and churches etc includes a lot of complications and require a lot of attention. Prior to the  knowledge of scan to BIM services preservation of these structures was a difficult task but now it can be done with ease as laser scanning technology is very effective in this case. Prior to the implementation of laser scanning technology in construction projects measuring the existing structure remained one of the most difficult tasks for architects and engineers who are accountable for renovating the structure. The manual surveying of large structures often resulted in discrepancies in terms of measuring the dimensions and this cannot be disputed as human errors are inevitable in manual surveying.

However scan to BIM technology has proved to be a leader in the execution of renovation, retrofit and refurbishment projects. Laser scanning technology which helps in scanning the structure provides accurate building data in the form of point clouds. Laser scanning process results in bringing billions of points that represent the actual existing geometrical composition of the building. High end laser scanners complete the scanning process really fast and there is no comparison between manual surveying and surveying a structure with the assistance of laser scanning technology. Exact as built-data helps in developing accurate models for the renovation of heritage structures. 

When renovation is carried out with the help of scan to BIM process no damage is done to the structures and they can be renovated without losing their cultural essence.