Laser scanning (LiDAR)
Capturing as-built geometry as a point cloud by measuring millions of 3D points with a laser.
Laser scanning (LiDAR) is a reality-capture method that uses a laser scanner to measure millions of 3D points across an object or environment, producing a highly accurate digital point cloud. It records an X, Y, Z coordinate wherever the beam strikes a surface.
It comes in three forms, trading accuracy for coverage. Terrestrial scanning (TLS) is static and the most accurate — sub-millimetre to a few millimetres — and suits architectural documentation and heritage. Mobile scanning (MLS), carried on a vehicle, captures wide corridor-like areas at roughly 2–5 cm for urban and infrastructure mapping. Handheld units are faster and cheaper again, at a further accuracy trade-off.
The output drives the rest of the workflow. Individual scans are registered into a single composite point cloud and imported into the BIM environment, where they become the geometric basis for scan-to-BIM and the creation of as-built models — alongside photogrammetry as the other main capture technique. ISO 19650 frames how that captured data is managed in BIM. In Italian it is rilievo laser scanner (laser-scanner survey).
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