NavVis VLX - User First Impressions

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Harkin_scans
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NavVis VLX - User First Impressions

Post by Harkin_scans »

Hi all - wanted to say hello. I am part of a team that does laser scanning Boston, NYC, Northeast US. We just got delivery of our NavVis VLX this week so I thought I would introduce myself and throw in some first impressions!

1. So far it's been very easy to set up and scan/process. We're using cloud processing so it's been pretty hands-off. The Indoor Viewer so far works as advertised and it's quite easy to set up floors, rooms and stations. We scanned a small house to start and on the highest resolution the cloud processing took about 4 hours to run 3,000 sq feet on the highest resolution possible (5mm)

2. Really love the Indoor Viewer so far, it's been easy to add floors, mark locations. Being able to flip between panos and the point cloud seamlessly is something I've wanted for a long time. It takes a little time to get your rooms all set up and labeled but it's quite intuitive. Having a "google search" like option for finding rooms is an incredible tool that I would use every day if I were working on a large office or large building project.

3. I'm a heavy AutoCAD user so I've been looking at the data locally. They offer a "raw" point cloud download and an automatically cleaned point cloud as .e57 or PLY files to download from the cloud. I'm super impressed at how good the auto-cleaned point clouds are - they're the cleanest scans I've seen yet on a VLP-based LIDAR system. Obviously they're less dense than the raw, but in terms of extracting features + meshing, it's an incredibly clean scan. It might be my favorite thing about the data locally.

Some screenshots attached of the point cloud datasets for those who are interested. Feel free to drop any questions and we're happy to answer + try things out.


- Scott Harrigan
New York, USA

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Re: NavVis VLX - User First Impressions

Post by kpob46 »

Hi Scott,

You mentioned being a heavy AutoCAD user. With the data the VLX provides, do you feel confident about extracting engineering drawings?
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Re: NavVis VLX - User First Impressions

Post by Harkin_scans »

kpob46 wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:52 pm Hi Scott,

You mentioned being a heavy AutoCAD user. With the data the VLX provides, do you feel confident about extracting engineering drawings?
We're still evaluating that and I hope to do some measurement comparisons between other scanners + laser distos in the near future, but I expect my feelings on mobile LIDAR will remain the same there.

For things like HVAC/MEP plans, overall equipment dimensions, piping locations, etc, where nearest inch tolerance is ok? This will be excellent. For critical distances and fits that need < 1/8th " ? Likely not. I am very curious to see how the automatic "post-clean" scans compare to laser disto measurements, which will be telling.
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Re: NavVis VLX - User First Impressions

Post by sim.herrod »

Harkin_scans wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:15 pm We're still evaluating that and I hope to do some measurement comparisons between other scanners + laser distos in the near future, but I expect my feelings on mobile LIDAR will remain the same there.
I would be very interested to see this.

Out of interest, how long did you have to wait from ordering and delivery?
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Re: NavVis VLX - User First Impressions

Post by Leandre Robitaille »

We are also interested in the Navvis vlx but my main concern is how well does it work on itself. They made a video to compare both units; (faro vs vlx)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dzCFEkd9GzQ
But they have 10+ gcp surveyed by a total station in there. The total station survey takes time for a survey that might not need those gcp. The faro unit would hold well for that survey without the gcp(in fact its a c2c survey so its not even using them). Im curious to see comparison without gcp and see how much drift the unit has. We are looking into a 5th faro unit (s150+) or a Navvis vlx atm
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Re: NavVis VLX - User First Impressions

Post by sim.herrod »

Leandre Robitaille wrote: Sat Mar 13, 2021 3:38 pm
But they have 10+ gcp surveyed by a total station in there. The total station survey takes time for a survey that might not need those gcp. The faro unit would hold well for that survey without the gcp(in fact its a c2c survey so its not even using them).
All our jobs are controlled and on Ordnance Survey grid, so shooting in targets is just a part of our workflow.

I can see though how it would be more of an issue for companies that do more C2C/arbitrary jobs.
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Re: NavVis VLX - User First Impressions

Post by Harkin_scans »

sim.herrod wrote: Sat Mar 13, 2021 9:58 am
Harkin_scans wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:15 pm We're still evaluating that and I hope to do some measurement comparisons between other scanners + laser distos in the near future, but I expect my feelings on mobile LIDAR will remain the same there.
I would be very interested to see this.

Out of interest, how long did you have to wait from ordering and delivery?
Took about 12 weeks for delivery after we placed the order.
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Re: NavVis VLX - User First Impressions

Post by sim.herrod »

Harkin_scans wrote: Sat Mar 13, 2021 11:18 pm Took about 12 weeks for delivery after we placed the order.
Thank you. That confirms with what we were told.
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Re: NavVis VLX - User First Impressions

Post by GeorgSchroth »

Leandre Robitaille wrote: Sat Mar 13, 2021 3:38 pm We are also interested in the Navvis vlx but my main concern is how well does it work on itself. They made a video to compare both units; (faro vs vlx)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dzCFEkd9GzQ
But they have 10+ gcp surveyed by a total station in there. The total station survey takes time for a survey that might not need those gcp. The faro unit would hold well for that survey without the gcp(in fact its a c2c survey so its not even using them). Im curious to see comparison without gcp and see how much drift the unit has. We are looking into a 5th faro unit (s150+) or a Navvis vlx atm
Hi Leandre, in the TLS vs VLX video we used control points to ensure a reproducible registration of the TLS as well as the VLX point cloud. In a project like this, control points would not be of any benefit to increase accuracy or reduce drift.

Also those control points in our building serve as ground truth and verification for our evaluations. When you are interested to know more about how we evaluate the accuracy, check out this short webinar by our Head of the VLX Software:

https://www.navvis.com/resources/webina ... ta-quality
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Re: NavVis VLX - User First Impressions

Post by GeorgSchroth »

sim.herrod wrote: Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:29 am
Harkin_scans wrote: Sat Mar 13, 2021 11:18 pm Took about 12 weeks for delivery after we placed the order.
Thank you. That confirms with what we were told.
We are currently growing our production even further, but our account management team seems to do an even better job ;)
Currently 2 months is realistic, but likely end of march we will have longer delivery times due to the end of quarter demand.

Can I ask how much of a problem a delivery of 3 months is? Can you work with that?
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