Aerometrex has established itself as a trusted 3D data partner for global engineering services giant WSP. The quality and accuracy of Aerometrex’s 3D products allows WSP to streamline its infrastructure design processes.
WSP USA’s Technical Lead for Visualisation and Data Intelligence Group, Mark Kaufman, said Aerometrex’s data has proven valuable to the company, and that for him, quality is key.
“To be perfectly honest, Aerometrex is the highest quality, highest resolution 3D data that we’ve seen so far available to us. Take the Denver model for instance, when I first saw that Union Station, it just blew my mind,” Mr Kaufman said.
“That quality is important for the USA market, where projects within the built environment are starting in 3D. These Aerometrex representative environments within a tolerance of two to five centimetres are pretty spectacular.”
Aerometrex’s 3D reality mesh resolutions are flexible to project needs and range from sub-centimetre for ultimate detail at the individual building level, to 2-7.5cm for larger-scale full city models.
Street-level enhancement blends photography taken from the ground to fill the gaps where oblique aerial imagery capture is less detailed, making the data work at any scale.
That resolution range mixed with high spatial accuracy makes Aerometrex data ideal for infrastructure projects of all sizes. Complete datasets from Aerometrex save WSP’s team from manually creating their own 3D data, while providing superior quality and scale.
“We used to build everything from scratch with GIS data and aerial maps, starting with 2D data and building it up in 3D,” Mr Kaufman said.
“That’s a lot of work, and you can only get to a certain level of detail. Now we’re able to integrate these city-size models directly into game engines and stage complex scenes in real-time.”
High-quality data makes for faster and more flexible infrastructure planning from the project outset, and rapidly moving the project forwards.
“Starting with more accurate information from a 3D model makes staging data much easier. I can slice and dice the data, add buildings, get rid of the ground surfaces, or do whatever I need.
Then I quickly and interactively build models in front of my clients and get that real-time feedback,” Mr Kaufman said. It can be challenging to showcase large infrastructure projects because their scale and effect on the actual world location are substantial.
Better 3D data solves that problem by connecting the present and potential future with new infrastructure modelled in situ. Adding real-world context facilitates a stronger connection between the design and the target audience, giving infrastructure firms an advantage when pitching to win projects.
“Also, the 3D reality mesh solves the data disconnect. Clients know there’s a Starbucks here or Wells Fargo Bank building there, but in the past all they’d see was a big extruded shape.
I think that’s a crucial aspect of what Aerometrex is offering. This reality mesh allows us to get beyond this kind of ‘foam core’ of shapes that are somewhat volumetrically representative of the real world to something that’s actually there in the real world,” Mr Kaufman said.
Aerometrex’s Australian 3D models are available to view and buy on their MetroMap 3D Store: metromap.com/store
This sponsored editorial is brought to you by Aerometrex. For more information, visit aerometrex.com.au.
