The Challenge
The client, a prominent player in the real estate industry, managed a sprawling 1.2 million square foot portfolio of properties earmarked for renovation. With a diversity of structures, original design files were often unavailable or outdated, presenting significant hurdles to effective planning and execution of renovations. Precise and up-to-date as-built documentation was crucial to minimise the risk of costly errors during the construction phase, enable accurate cost projections, and ensure compliance with modern building regulations. Additionally, the client sought to enhance asset management practices through comprehensive digital records, facilitating better decision-making and resource allocation.
Our Solution
Adyantrix addressed the client's needs by implementing a comprehensive Scan-to-BIM solution. Our expert team conducted extensive 3D laser scanning across all properties, capturing precise point cloud data that reflected the current state of each building in the portfolio. This data was meticulously processed to generate highly accurate as-built models, which served as an integral resource for the client's renovation projects.
Our BIM experts coordinated with the client's project management team to integrate these models into their renovation strategies, aligning the digital twin's precision with strategic objectives. Furthermore, we offered BIM consulting services to guide the client through industry best practices for leveraging these digital models effectively in their renovation plans.
Key Features
- 3D Laser Scanning: State-of-the-art laser scanning technology provided unparalleled accuracy and detail, forming the basis for reliable BIM models.
- Point Cloud Processing: Advanced software was utilised to process the vast amount of data collected, ensuring precise as-built model creation.
- Customized BIM Models: Models were customized to the client's specific requirements, focusing on architectural, structural, and MEP aspects crucial for renovation.
- Digital Twin Implementation: The integration of digital twins allowed for significant enhancements in planning and risk assessment processes.
- Ongoing Support and Consulting: Continued support ensured the client could leverage BIM models effectively, adapting them as project requirements evolved.
Results
The implementation of Scan-to-BIM technology transformed how the client approached their renovation projects. The as-built models provided a foundation of precision, drastically reducing errors and unanticipated complications during construction. This ultimately translated into significant cost savings and reduced project timelines.
The digital twin models not only facilitated efficient renovation planning but also enabled ongoing asset management improvements. With accurate, up-to-date data, the client could plan maintenance schedules more effectively, optimising the life cycle of their assets.
In addition, the transition to BIM opened new opportunities for the client in terms of compliance adherence and future-proofing their portfolio against further regulatory changes. The strategic use of BIM led to enhanced project visualisation and better stakeholder engagement, setting a benchmark for innovation in real estate renovation practices.
Adyantrix's Scan-to-BIM solution proved instrumental in unlocking the hidden potential of the client's extensive real estate portfolio, ensuring that each property renovation was aligned with modern demands and future-ready adaptability.
Technical Approach
The scanning programme was executed using a combination of two complementary technologies selected to suit the varying geometry and access conditions across the portfolio.
For large open-floor-plate commercial properties, we used the Leica RTC360 terrestrial laser scanner — a phase-shift scanner capable of capturing 2 million points per second at up to 130-metre range, with an accuracy specification of ±1.9 mm at 10 metres. This instrument was ideal for capturing long corridors, atria, and large plant rooms where wide coverage from a single setup position reduced total scan time. For tighter residential units, stairwells, and ceiling voids, we supplemented with the Matterport Pro3 LiDAR camera — faster to mobilise in confined spaces and producing scan data directly compatible with Matterport's digital twin platform for non-technical stakeholders.
All raw point cloud data was registered using Leica Cyclone REGISTER 360 software, which performs automatic target-based and cloud-to-cloud registration. Each building's complete point cloud was quality-checked for gaps (scan voids exceeding 200 mm in occupied areas were flagged for rescanning) and accuracy (residual errors on registration targets were required to be within ±5 mm). Total registered point cloud volume across the portfolio exceeded 4.8 terabytes.
As-built BIM models were produced in Autodesk Revit at LOD 300 for all architectural and structural elements, with MEP services modelled at LOD 200 unless specifically requested at higher detail for building services upgrade projects. Point cloud data was viewed within Revit using the Autodesk ReCap point cloud engine, with automatic slab, wall, and column detection using Scan-to-BIM feature extraction tools supplemented by manual modelling for non-standard geometries.
All deliverable models were named and structured in accordance with BS EN ISO 19650, ensuring the client's asset management system could ingest them directly using IFC 4.0 export format.
Implementation Highlights
Delivering Scan-to-BIM across a 1.2 million square foot, multi-property portfolio within a live operational environment presented logistical and technical challenges that single-site projects rarely encounter.
Access coordination across 34 properties was the primary logistical challenge. The portfolio comprised offices, retail units, mixed-use blocks, and light industrial buildings across multiple cities. Many were tenanted, requiring scanning to be carried out outside business hours or in phased sections to avoid disruption. We developed a detailed scanning schedule in consultation with the client's facilities management team, batching properties by geography to minimise mobilisation costs and scheduling tenant-access properties in advance with a minimum four-week notice window.
Structural interventions obscured by later fit-outs were encountered in eleven of the thirty-four properties. In several cases, suspended ceilings and raised access floors concealed structural elements — columns, beams, and concrete upstands — that were essential for renovation planning but invisible to the scanner. For these properties, we coordinated with the client to arrange targeted destructive investigations (opening ceiling tiles and floor voids at agreed locations) before rescanning, ensuring the structural reality was captured in the model rather than assumed from original drawings.
Data volume management was a significant operational consideration. The 4.8-terabyte point cloud dataset required a structured cloud storage and access strategy. We deployed the dataset on Autodesk Construction Cloud with tiered access permissions — surveyors and BIM modellers had full-resolution access, whilst project managers and renovation planners accessed lower-resolution derivatives and Navisworks NWD exports for navigation and review purposes. This tiered approach prevented the access and bandwidth problems that commonly impede large-scale point cloud programmes.
Model validation workshops were held for each building upon delivery of the draft Revit model. The client's facilities managers — who possessed institutional knowledge of each building's quirks and previous interventions — reviewed the models against physical reality and their own records. This human validation step surfaced discrepancies in eight buildings that rescanning or modelling corrections were required to resolve before final sign-off.
Measurable Outcomes
The impact of the Scan-to-BIM programme was measured against the client's stated objectives at project inception:
- Renovation projects unblocked: Seven previously stalled renovation projects — paused due to lack of reliable as-built information — were reactivated within three months of receiving the as-built models. The combined value of these projects was approximately £18 million.
- Design variation savings: On the first three renovation projects to use the as-built models, the client's QS team reported a 22% reduction in construction-phase variations compared to the client's historical average for comparable renovation projects. They attributed this directly to the elimination of "hidden conditions" surprises that had driven variation costs on previous projects.
- Survey cost avoidance: By having accurate as-built data available digitally, the client avoided instructing individual measured surveys for each renovation project. The cost of individual measured surveys on comparable properties was estimated at £8,000–£15,000 per building; across the portfolio, the Scan-to-BIM programme represented a significant cost advantage over piecemeal surveying.
- Asset register accuracy: Integration of the BIM models into the client's CAFM (Computer-Aided Facilities Management) system improved room area accuracy by an average of 11% compared to the existing paper-based records — relevant to lease agreements, rates assessments, and service charge apportionment calculations.
- Planning application success: Two planning applications for change of use submitted using the as-built BIM models as supporting documentation received approval without further information requests from the Local Planning Authority — an improvement over the client's previous experience of multiple information requests on similar applications.
Lessons Learned
Scanning programme design must account for building occupancy from the outset. Properties that required out-of-hours or phased scanning took on average 40% longer to complete than unoccupied buildings of equivalent area. Budgeting for this additional time — and communicating realistic timelines to the client — is essential to avoid programme slippage on multi-property engagements.
Point cloud data alone does not constitute an as-built model. A persistent misconception among clients new to Scan-to-BIM is that scanning produces a model automatically. In reality, the scan produces a point cloud — a dense set of measured coordinates — which then requires skilled BIM modellers to interpret and convert into a structured parametric model. On this project, the ratio of modelling time to scanning time was approximately 3:1. Setting realistic expectations about this ratio, and explaining the professional skill involved in the modelling stage, was important for client relationship management.
Involve facilities management teams early in validation. The most valuable quality checks on the as-built models came not from technical BIM review, but from the client's own facilities managers reviewing the models against their building knowledge. In three instances, facilities managers identified that structural modifications had been carried out under retrospective approval without the original drawings being updated — information that was nowhere in the document record but was common knowledge among the building management team. Formalising facilities manager review as a contractual deliverable milestone — rather than an optional consultation — is now standard practice in our portfolio scan programmes.
Why This Approach Worked
The combination of two scanning technologies — the Leica RTC360 for large spaces and the Matterport Pro3 for confined areas — was central to the programme's efficiency and accuracy across such a diverse building stock. A single-instrument approach would have compromised either accuracy (using only Matterport) or mobilisation speed in tight spaces (using only the Leica). Matching the instrument to the building type allowed each scan to be executed at the optimal quality-to-time ratio.
The decision to deliver models at LOD 300 for architectural and structural elements — rather than the LOD 200 that some providers default to for portfolio-scale programmes — was specifically calibrated to the client's renovation use case. Renovation design decisions depend on knowing exact wall thicknesses, column sizes, and opening dimensions; LOD 200 approximations would have required supplementary surveys at the design stage anyway, negating the efficiency advantage of the Scan-to-BIM programme. Calibrating the deliverable specification to the actual downstream use case, rather than defaulting to a standard product offering, was what made the models genuinely useful rather than merely impressive.
Speak with our Scan to BIM team at Adyantrix to find out how we can support your next project.
Work with Adyantrix
If you are looking to tackle a similar challenge, Adyantrix has the expertise to help across the full project lifecycle. Our scan-to-BIM practice covers point cloud processing and as-built Revit model creation. Our BIM consulting practice covers BEP authoring, ISO 19650 strategy, and CDE implementation. Our 3D visualisation & rendering practice covers photorealistic renders, walkthroughs, and CGI for AEC. Get in touch to discuss your requirements — no commitment required.
