Autodesk University 2016 - Reality Capture with Leica BLK360 & ReCap360 Pro

By Trevor Clayton

During the run up to Autodesk University (2016 AU) many of you should have picked up on the messages coming from both Autodesk and Leica Geosystems regarding a special announcement. It seemed that every article I read or website I went on the message was there. I asked a lot of people, who I thought were in the know, but to no avail. No one knew or wasn’t telling what it was all about. The announcement was programmed for a live session in AU 2016 titled “Shaping the Future of Reality Capture”.

I am lucky enough to be attending AU2016 so joined the very large queue to get into the session.  So what was it all about?   More importantly will it shape the “future of reality capture”.  A low cost, high spec laser scanning system, that includes the Leica BLK360 coupled with Autodesk ReCap360 Pro. The scanner has a specification found in much higher priced scanners. It clearly has been designed for its ease of use and performance. Having only a power on/off button it is totally controlled by ReCap via an iPad Pro.

Having been involved in on and off with laser scanning for many years I have to say a resounding yes, or as they say here in Vegas “Hell Yeah”, there is a caveat to that in as much I haven’t seen the quality of the data produced yet. The most exciting thing is the price quoted at under $16000 it will be interesting to see how that converts to sterling. Below there are some links that go into the system in much more detail. I cant wait to see the quality of the output to see if it really is the dawning of a new era.

Figure 1 courtesy of blk.autodesk.com

http://blk360.autodesk.com/

http://www.spar3d.com/news/lidar/meet-leicas-16k-scanner-blk360/

http://aecscene.com/2016/11/the-leica-blk360-laser-scanner-autodesk-recap-mobile-app/