The library
of industrial digitisation
Here we gather what we have learned digitising plants that already exist. Each guide starts from a real question — what it is, how it is done, what you receive — and answers it with the rigour we bring to our work. Learning here is starting to understand your own plant.
Understanding digitisation
What BIM, the digital twin and digitising a plant that has been running for years really mean. The common vocabulary before going into detail.
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What is BIM
The methodology that brings all the information of a construction together in a 3D model with data. How it differs from Revit and what modelling in BIM means.
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What is a digital twin
The faithful, up-to-date copy of your plant’s physical assets: what a digital twin is, how it differs and real examples of use.
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Industrial digitisation
Industrial digitisation of an existing plant: what it really means, where to start with the physical assets and what return to expect.
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Maintenance digitisation
Industrial maintenance digitisation brings your plant’s drawings, equipment and history into a single documentation base, true to reality and up to date.
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BIM for industrial plants
What it means to do BIM for an industrial plant: disciplines (structure, equipment, piping, services), what your plant receives and use cases by sector.
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From scan to model
How you go from a physical plant to its faithful model: the survey of what exists, the scan-to-BIM route, the methodology applied and the drawings delivered at the end.
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Drawing survey and floor plans
The survey that recovers faithful floor plans of your building when the drawings were lost or no longer match: from the manual method to topographic surveying, photogrammetry and 3D laser scanning.
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Scan to BIM
Scan to BIM takes your existing plant to its BIM model: laser scan, point cloud and as-built model true to the measurements. How it works, what to demand.
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BIM methodology
BIM methodology applied to the industrial plant: what it is as a working method, the technology that underpins it, the real benefits and how it is adopted on an installation that already exists.
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As-built drawings
What the as-built drawings of an industrial plant are, what they include discipline by discipline and in which formats they are delivered (DWG, PDF, IFC, RVT), measured by 3D laser scanning.
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How much does it cost to scan a plant
How much it costs to scan an industrial plant in 3D: from ~€6,000 (estimated) per scanned and as-built modelled area, what it includes and what moves the price.
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Tools and formats
The data and platforms a digitisation project works with: what a point cloud is and in which environment the information lives once captured.
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Point cloud
What a point cloud is, how it is captured with a 3D laser scanner and LiDAR, its formats (E57, RCP, LAS, PTS) and how it is used in Revit and AutoCAD.
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Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC)
What Autodesk Construction Cloud is, the cloud platform that succeeds BIM 360: its modules, ReCap Pro and how A3D applies it.
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Technical tutorials · Revit
The craft from the inside: how we design and govern the Revit families that make a BIM model reusable, orderly and faithful to reality.
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How to design a BIM family in Revit
Key points for designing a BIM family in Revit: prior concept, suitable template, identifiable parameters, three-level testing and version control.
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MEP families in Revit
What sets an MEP family in Revit apart: system connectors, pipe families with real data and how to organise them in a reusable BIM library.
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Complex or assembled families in Revit
Complex or assembled family in Revit: what sets them apart, why A3D prefers Lego-style components and when complexity is justified.
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BIM family management in a practice
How to manage a practice’s BIM families: what to avoid in downloaded content, your own template, a repository organised by type and the BIM Manager’s role.
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Every guide has its version for your plant
What we explain here we apply every day on installations that are already running. When you want to take it to your own, the first step is to know what state its documentation is in — and you can find that out today, or by talking to an engineer who has digitised plants like yours.