The 2015 contest included three entry categories: (1) Buildings/Heritage, (2) Civil/Survey and (3) Plant/Marine. A panel of 11 qualified judges evaluated 24 entries based on the completeness and usefulness of the plans, the creative use of point clouds and models, and overall appearance. The first- and second-place winners in each category were as follows:
Buildings/Heritage:
First Place: Project Surveyors, Macquarie Park, NSW, Australia – Sydney Shopping Centre
Second Place: F3 & Associates, Inc., Benicia, CA – Kirkistown Castle
Civil/Survey:
First Place: F3 & Associates, Inc., Benicia, CA – Recycled Water for a Refinery
Second Place: Johnson & Pace Inc., Longview, TX – Creature Comforts Pet Resort
Plant/Marine:
First Place: F3 & Associates, Inc., Benicia, CA – Leica TruView Maintenance Schedule
Second Place: TriGeo Technologies, Hyderabad, India – Scan to Plant Model
“All the plans were really good this year; once again, multiple rounds of judging were required to choose the winners,” said Mike Harvey, HDS Product Applications manager for Leica Geosystems and the HDS Plan Contest chair. Four rounds of voting were required in the Building/Heritage category, and two rounds were required in the Civil/Survey category.
In the Plant/Marine category, 85 percent of the votes went to the top two entries; however, one plan stood out. “F3’s creation of an interactive Leica TruView portal to show the pump status in the plant for facility management was an ingenious solution,” Harvey said. “The combination of highly accurate scan data with easy access to the pump schedule and metadata provides a rich information resource for maintenance personnel and management that is available right at their fingertips on any desktop or mobile device through TruView Global.” The 2015 contest marks the third year that F3 & Associates took top honors in the Plant/Marine category.
This year’s entries demonstrated that service providers continue to push the envelope on creating high-value deliverables for their clients. Multiple sensors are being combined to increase the amount of information captured on projects, and firms are using each new success to fuel additional creativity. “Since the popularity of our 3D printed sections, our clients have been asking for them quite a bit,” said Sean Finn, principal of F3 & Associates. “We have Leica Geosystems to thank for this since it was our 2014 HDS Plan Contest submittal that sparked this innovation. We have now trademarked this as TruSection™, and we have used this innovation to solve problems for multiple clients.
“This competition is so great for our industry,” Finn added. “It challenges us to think outside the box and move HDS forward.”
Submissions for the 2016 HDS Plan Contest will open in the spring. For more information, e-mail michael.harvey@leicaus.com. To learn more about 3D laser scanning solutions, visit http://hds.leica-geosystems.us.
