A large crowd turned out for Ghafari's open house at its facilities in Dearborn on August 16, to learn about the services the architectural, engineering and consulting firm has to offer. Ghafari is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The firm showcased its 3-D building information modeling: laser scanning, high-definition surveying and modeling services.

The laser-scanning, high-definition surveying and modeling portion of the event featured a Leica HDS 6000 laser scanner, which collects approximately 500,000 points per second. "It's fairly accurate, at least to 100 feet," Jason Adamowicz, Ghafari's project manager-High Definition Surveying, said.

High-definition surveying involves the use of laser scanning where millions of points are collected from multiple locations in a building. The points are registered together to get one large point cloud. Three-dimensional models are created from the point clouds.

"We also take digital photos throughout the facility, which helps us with our modeling on the back end," Adamowicz said.

High-definition surveying is faster than the manual method, according to Adamowicz. "I have to qualify that. If you're going into a plant to trace a pipe through the plant, is it faster than walking it down? No. But, if you want the accuracy and the completeness of those data, then it's much faster. That's the beauty of this. When we use this device, we're catching everything," Adamowicz said.

"Because 90 percent of the time we are on the ground, we don't have to use lifts to get up into truss spaces and we don't have to go into confined spaces. We can usually shoot those from outside. There are exceptions, but for the most part, we are on the ground.

"We do most of our modeling in AutoCAD with FactoryCAD. We can also use MicroStation. We do some modeling in Cyclone, which is the proprietary software that comes with the Leica scanners. It just depends on what our end-users need to use. Once we get it modeled, we can port that data to virtually any CAD format."

Three-dimensional building information modeling involves constructing a building on a computer and error proofing it so that when actual construction begins, there is a more streamlined process.

"The underlying concept behind it is lean production. It tries to identify non-valued-added activities and waste, and it translates that to value-added work," Samir Emdanat, manager of Advanced Technologies for Ghafari, said.

"It requires using the right technologies up-front at the design phase, so the engineering and design is translated to value-added work at the detailing and fabrication levels without having to recreate the information. The CAD and 3-D systems facilitate that approach. So, we have one place where all of the different disciplines work in 3-D and collaborate. They review the context so that the space that's needed, for example, for a mechanical system, is available and is coordinated with the space that's needed for an electrical system. This way, there is no conflict in construction.

"This is resulting in significant savings. On a series of projects we're seeing a savings of up to 27 percent on the schedule. Projects are being completed ahead of the estimated schedule. Also, there is an approximate 10-percent cost savings.

"For this to work, it needs to be tied to the right delivery system. We have found that a collaborative design-build approach is ideal. Some sort of integrated project delivery approach where designers and contractors can collaborate is probably the second choice.

"We have used this process in a number of contexts. We started using this very successfully in automotive. The advantage there is that the projects are fast track and the schedules are short. You can design and build one of those projects in about eight months. We've been using this on non-automotive projects as well. There are ongoing projects in hospitality, commercial office buildings, research laboratories, and so on. These projects take longer in design and construction."