The Geomatics and Surveying Office Winterthur demonstrates a clear service philosophy with its specialist advice, wide range of services and flexible offerings.
In addition to official surveying and building control, the Winterthur Geomatics and Surveying Office provides the city's geodata infrastructure and ensures that property and building information remains precise and reliable at all times - from boundary definition to address management.
In addition, the office's employees provide independent expert advice on all surveying-related questions: Which surveying method is best suited? What data is required for planning? How can the construction progress be optimally documented? With this in mind, the Geomatics and Surveying Office supports internal and external projects and ensures the quality of the urban infrastructure.
Urban surveying for projects in the city
For internal construction and renovation projects in the city, the office takes on the complete construction surveying - from planning bases and control measurements to the creation of digital terrain models. Close cooperation with other offices is particularly important, for example in pipe surveying, in order to provide reliable data for urban drainage.
A particular strength lies in the fact that each geomatics engineer accompanies a project from start to finish. "This guarantees an overview and responsibility throughout the entire process," says Sara Rutz, one of the seven specialists in the team.
Scanning services and products
The office also has a clear customer focus in the field of 3D laser scanning. Architecture and planning offices receive data in the desired format - whether BIM models, CAD files or point clouds. At the same time, the city itself uses laser scans, for example for monument protection or as-built documentation.
After intensive testing, the team opted for the product rmDATA Reality3D (previously 3DWorx). "The software is very easy to learn, the product launch was excellent and the support from the account manager was reliable," says Sara Rutz, summarizing the decision.
Planning as the key to success
The young geomatics engineer already has experience in scanning and she emphasizes how crucial careful preparation is. Fixed points are defined as standard; for greater accuracy or for a larger project area, fixed points are adjusted before scanning.
She lists the influencing factors that are taken into account: Are there any obstructions during scanning? Do vibrations or moving objects on construction sites have an impact on the scanning process? Are there other people on site who could interfere with the scan? What is the best time to scan?
The workflow of a scanning project
Immediately after scanning, Sara Rutz merges the point clouds and georeferences them in the device software. She then saves and checks the data - are there any reflections, are adjustments necessary? - before the actual modeling begins in 3DWorx: filtering point clouds, deriving geometries, creating BIM models.
The creation of plans and layouts, the final inspection of the results and the delivery of the products to the customer finalize a laser scanning project. "Customer feedback is very important to us. We always question what the data is used for so that we can tailor our results even better to the client's requirements," she says, explaining the department's customer focus.
Special strengths of 3DWorx, such as the automatic detection of breaklines or the layer intersection function, enable fast processing.
Project: Underground parking garage survey
For the renovation of the underground parking garage, Rutz carried out the scans in an eight-hour night shift. Around 120 scan points formed the basis for the modeling, which took a total of two weeks. While complex curves in ramps were processed using CAD workarounds, surfaces and intersections could be modeled directly with 3DWorx.
The result was convincing: "With 3DWorx, I was certainly twice as fast on this project as with our previous solution. Even with a high point cloud density and normal office hardware, the software performs very well," summarizes Rutz.
The renovation of the underground car park benefited from precise 3D data, which was provided in a short space of time. This not only enabled the current project to be completed more efficiently, but also created the basis for future projects. The Geomatics and Surveying Office therefore continues to rely on 3DWorx - supported by the reliable support of rmDATA - and is convinced that it will be able to accompany future renovation and new construction projects just as successfully.
Photos left: The images of the underground parking garage were taken during the traffic-free night hours. Below: The final product in CAD is a complete 3D model of the underground car park. S. Rutz/Geomatics and Surveying Office Winterthur
“The plane intersection function saves a lot of time. 3DWorx is very good at automatically detecting break edges. Fine break edges can be easily derived using the analysis function.”
“rmDATA offers sophisticated software from surveyors for surveyors—with reliable functionality and excellent support that reflects the expertise of the industry.”
“Even with high point cloud density and standard office hardware, the 3DWorx software delivers excellent performance.”
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About the Geomatics and Surveying Office Winterthur
The Geomatics and Surveying Office Winterthur is the municipal competence center for construction, engineering and special surveying in the area of the city of Winterthur. It is responsible for the collection, coordination, dissemination and use of geodata, which is essential for spatial orientation, environmental monitoring, planning, construction and infrastructure projects.
The office offers a wide range of surveying services, including construction surveying in building construction and civil engineering, site surveys for the creation of planning bases, as-built surveys, deformation and settlement measurements as well as 3D laser scanning. Specialized tasks also include the measurement of shafts, pipelines, trees, traffic facilities and building facades.
