MHP Geomatics has purchased a high speed laser scanner to capture highly accurate 3D measurements as part of a multi-million Rand upgrade project for the South African National Roads Agency. The Riegl VZ-400 supplied by 3D Laser Mapping will be used by MHP, a market leader in professional land management services based in Durban, South Africa, to capture as-built drawings of bridges and other structures in order to improve the financing, management, maintenance and safety of the nation’s roads.

“We selected the VZ-400 as it has been proven to be the fastest, most reliable and most accurate scanner on the market,” commented Terrence Elliott, professional land surveyor at MHP Geomatics. “We have been monitoring the development and use of laser scanners in the market place for some time and we now believe the technology and demand for this product has matured significantly. We are confident the addition of the laser scanner will complement our existing survey capabilities, whilst exposing us to new applications and clients.”

The VZ-400 utilises unique echo digitisation and online waveform analysis to achieve superior performance and accuracies of measurement, even under adverse weather conditions. Achieving accuracies of 5mm at ranges of up to 600 metres (an increase of 100 metres on earlier models) the VZ-400 can measure up to 122,000 points per second with a 100 x 360-degree field of view. The evaluation of multiple targets combined with a reliable, robust and lightweight construction makes the VZ-400 ideally suited to civil engineering, city modelling and architectural projects, for example.

3D Laser Mapping also provided MHP with state of the art software to process the millions of individual measurements collected by the VZ-400 laser scanner and extract meaningful models and drawings. 3D Laser Mapping provided Riegl’s RiSCAN PRO and Pointools plug-in for Rhino, complete with training, for MHP staff at their UK Headquarters just outside Nottingham.

“The support and instruction we have received from 3D Laser Mapping has been exemplary,” continued Elliott. “All the staff are knowledgeable, thorough and hospitable and are really keen to work with us; helping us improve our services to clients and investigate future developments and applications.”