Introduction to Scan Planning
This tutorial is the first chapter of my Planning the Scan module for my upcoming 3D Scanning Masterclass currently in production and scheduled for release January 1st 2025. For more information on my masterclass, please visit www.jeffreyianwilson.com for details.
Introduction
One of the most often neglected subjects in 3d scanning is proper planning, budgeting, and scheduling for a large environment scan. There are several factors that need to be taken into consideration including location scouting, size of the scan, time on-site, hardware and software, time of year, time of day, drone flight planning and restricted zones, weather, budget, labor and permits.
This tutorial will cover planning a scan for my upcoming masterclass from start to finish and by the time you complete this lesson, you will have a good understanding of how to estimate a job, stay on time and on budget while delivering the best data possible for yourself or your clients. The tutorial will end with a guide on finding and bidding on projects, hiring scanning techs, minimizing risk, and maximizing your profit margins.
Project Planning Spreadsheet Template
It is always recommended to work within a spreadsheet to define your project, goals, points of contact, schedule, and budgeting. I have created a template spreadsheet which will be used for the entire project.
Define the Project Objective, Budget, and Income
The first step is to define your project and have an idea of what your initial budget is. It is also recommended to define the project goal simply. A little vagueness in this initial goal is fine, it’s merely a summary of the project for now. Always keep an idea of a budget in mind as it can help limit the scope of the project. If your scope is too small, you can always make budget adjustments later. For my masterclass I have a clear goal of producing a comprehensive scan of a large 3d environment with several subjects using a variety of sensors across a number of domains for the purposes of teaching a masterclass in 3d scanning complete with 30–40 hours of training material with a budget not to exceed $5,000 including the cost of gear, rentals, materials, online subscriptions and any additional labor if the project calls for freelancers for completion.
As this is an online course, I should also establish what my minimum expected return is on the project. This in many cases can help define and frame your expectations going forward. If your return is not satisfactory in this initial stage, you may need to evaluate the viability of the project in general. In my case, projected income is $10,000 over the first 12 months and subsequently $5,000 per year for 4 years for a total of $30,000. This expected return is high compared to my investment and is valued given the short supply of comprehensive training material available with an average of $500 per sale and twenty sales in the first 12 months.
Typically, potential clients already have a budget range in mind and more than likely this number is woefully short to meet project demands. This is ok, it’s meant more of a conversation starter and while it may sound premature to attach a number at this stage, understand this amount is merely to help frame the project as it will establish initial expectations and automatically reduce scope. If the intended budget cannot fit within delivery requirements, the budget can always be adjusted. Budgeting during the planning stage should be considered a “living document”, one that is incrementally adjusted as the project design document progresses. As a rule of thumb, at least a 40-50% margin should be the goal. While difficult projects can break even or lose money, good margins will allow you to maintain finances in-between projects. Remember, the rent still needs to be paid, even when you don’t have work. Also, never forget to count your own labor against this margin. Your labor has value and expense, and you should always think of yourself as an employee as if you were to hire someone to complete the project instead of yourself.
One last consideration in my project, I am purposely keeping the project budget low, the amount is woefully low versus the cost of purchases and rentals so as a consideration, I have sought out software and hardware partnerships to reduce cost as well as increase marketing viability.
Project Goals, Scope, and Considerations
Now that we have a Project Objective and Initial Budget in mind, let's start to refine and outline in detail project goals, scope, and any considerations. Since I haven’t decided on a location yet, I will keep these items simple as I expect to revise them after the location is scouted and I have a better idea of the scope and how much it will change.
Subject Matter & Expected Deliverables
This step is a pure wish list of items and may be well out of scope, time, or budget. This is fine as it is easier to cut subjects down then add them later.
- 3–5 building scans of distinct designs and functions with a single large structure chosen as the “hero” scan.
- Aerial site survey of a much larger area around subject for context
- USGS map and aerial lidar data for a 5–10 sqkm
- 15–30 HDRI 360 captures
- 15–30 prop scans such as fire hydrants, rocks, tree & vegetation samples
- 15–30 Quixel Megascan style material scans
- 1 hero scan of a vehicle relevant to the subject
- 1 body scan for a character relevant to the subject (this is a wish list item as I will need to contract a body scan vendor)
- Unreal Engine Marketplace content of all subjects
- Complete collection of lesson plans for all items. Step 9, final, production ready assets will be covered in an annual update to the masterclass scheduled for 2025.
Level of Effort Expectation
Now let's break down an expectation of the labor needed for our subject matter and deliverables. My masterclass will go into great detail on how to estimate scans based on years of my experience and the depth is far greater than what can be covered in this short article. That being said, I already know what a good, conservative estimate is for each subject. Steps 1–11 are capture estimates and 12–14 are processing and post processing steps.
If I plug all this information into my spreadsheet, I’m looking at nearly 90 hours of work. Since this is well over my capture time limit of 1 week and only myself and an assistant will be doing the scan, I need to cut down on my subjects or consider renting gear for a longer period of time. This can wait until later steps in this article once scouting trips and hardware and software inventories are complete.
Location Research
Now begins the fun part and begins with simple Google searches for areas of interest near where I live. I need to choose an area close to my home with less than a one-hour drive so I may revisit the site as many times as required for both scouting and scanning purposes. After an exhaustive search I’ve limited my choices to two locations. The first is the abandoned George Air Force Base in Victorville, CA. The second site is an old western theme park, Calico Ghost Town which run by the county of San Bernadino.
Now after some searches on Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia as well as inquiries using ChatGPT/Microsoft Copilot, I can confidently say these two sites provide the kind of content I’m looking for.
George Air Force Base
George Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located within the city limits of central Victorville, California and about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California. George Air Force Base was officially decommissioned in December 1992. In 1993, President Bill Clinton announced a “Five Part Plan” to speed economic recovery in communities where military bases were to be closed. One part of this plan called for improving public participation in the base’s environmental cleanup program. George AFB was among several installations where environmental cleanup was placed on a “fast track” so base property could be quickly transferred to the community for reuse. While the base remains closed, local rumors continue of the Wherry housing units being haunted.
Calico Ghost Town
Calico is an old West mining town that has been around since 1881 and was abandoned in the mid-1890s after silver lost its value. The town that once gave miners a good living lost its hustle and became a “ghost town.”
Walter Knott purchased Calico in the 1950’s architecturally restoring all but the five original buildings to look as they did in the 1880’s. Calico received State Historical Landmark 782 and in 2005 was proclaimed by then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be California’s Silver Rush Ghost Town.
Today, Calico is part of the San Bernardino County Regional Parks system, which is visited by people from across the country and from all over the world. Along with its history and attractions, Calico Ghost Town has shops, restaurants and offers camping, hiking and off-roading.
On-Site Location Scouting
George Air Force Base
After reviewing the site online, some good YouTube videos, I already had a strong feeling about George AFB as my subject of choice. It hit all the things I wanted to cover and has a great post-apocalyptic feel like the hit TV show and video game Fallout. The next step was to pull Google Street View map data and aerial lidar and imagery from the USGS and integrate it in Agisoft Metashape to get a strong idea of the location before I even left my home. After a quick drive through the site, I didn’t find it necessary to do a complete scouting trip, there were a ton of great sites and enough data I found a preliminary scouting trip unnecessary. If I decide this will indeed be my site of choice, I will do a more detailed scouting trip to pick specific subjects of interest at a later date.
Calico Ghost Town
While I already found George AFB to be a strong selection as my primary subject, I still decided to take the opportunity to visit Calico Ghost Town with family as it was a nice outing. Scouting trips don’t always have to be work, for a good hour I walked around with my family, taking pictures with my iPhone. It is a very well-done recreation and the buildings looked authentic enough that the final output would be a viable content pack for the Unreal Marketplace in addition to providing great material for a 3d scanning masterclass. On the downside, there was a considerable amount of foot traffic, but one church in particular was off the beaten path and was my favorite subject of what I saw. Unfortunately, I need to capture several buildings to meet my project goals and it was clear this may be difficult to arrange with county officials.
Location Finalization
After scouting trips were finished, the next step is breaking down several items which need to be considered before I can finalize what the subject is for my masterclass:
Weather and Time of Year
The locations are in the Mojave high desert and while temperatures are more moderate in Spring, Fall and Winter. Late fall through early spring is the rainy season (even for the desert) with high winds which would make renting gear a problem. Rain and high winds during this time could ruin a scheduled capture, increasing my budget costs, even if the probability of inclement weather is low. Summer temperatures can reach as high as 110f in the summer so that leaves either late spring or late fall as the nearest available dates for capture.
Additionally, time of year and amount of available daylight can affect the on-site scanning window. I need a solid 4–6 hours of scanning from 10am to 2pm with consistent overhead light direction. As you know there is less light in the winter months and the sun is lower in the sky so spring to fall are the best choices for this region.
Leica Sponsorship
Leica is planning what I would consider an especially important firmware update sometime during the summer for one of their lidar systems which could be beneficial for media and entertainment workflows. I decided it was best to wait until those firmware updates were released as I would have to repeat capture and redo lessons associated with that unit. That leaves late fall as my targeted scan capture date.
Permits
Permits are an ongoing issue, especially in California. Great care must be taken to secure permits and be aware that many federal and state parks forbid drone flights. George AFB is also restricted but the site is so compelling I submitted permits through SCLA Filming | Victorville, CA (victorvilleca.gov).
Foot Traffic
Assuming I’ve secured necessary permits, I need to consider the amount of foot traffic a site has. Scanning requires a clear view of the subject, even with permits, a high amount of foot traffic from other people could obstruct the subject, resulting in a need to capture 2–3x more data. As Calico Ghost Town showed significant foot traffic, this was another strike against choosing that site.
Drone Ops
I realized I should have checked drone permissions before I did my scouting trips. As the Calico Ghost Town is a county park, drones are forbidden and on site I even found a sign which explicitly states as much. Permits and permissions might be obtained but it is a lengthy process, foot traffic is heavy, so after some thought, I decided to eliminate Calico Ghost Town as my site of choice.
Realizing I missed this step, I checked George AFB and while drone flights are permitted, it is close to an airport and a federal prison, so I need to make sure through DJI’s Flysafe map if there are any flight restrictions for the drone I plan to use. As you can see, there are many restrictions but fortunately the region is within a permitted area for drone operations albeit with a properly submitted and accepted FAA flight plan.
Final Considerations
After review, George AFB shows itself to be more beneficial on many levels with only one remaining area of caution. George AFB was shut down to contamination issues with jet fuel runoff leaking into the water table and cancer-causing agents sprayed on building foundations for pest control. I researched the current contaminants, the safety levels and determined while safe, it was best to scan with protective gear such as a N95 mask, gloves and shoe covers and avoid excessively high wind dry days where dust and dirt are prevalent in the air.
Let’s review items of note which have led me to this decision:
- While I do need a permit, I was able to obtain details of the permitting process through SCLA Filming | Victorville, CA (victorvilleca.gov)
- Drone operations are permitted but restricted
- Low foot traffic
- Close to my home and easily accessible
- Solid subject matter which would market well
- Site contamination within safe levels but requires protective gear
For all these reasons, it is safe to choose George AFB as the subject for my masterclass. It’s a fascinating location with spooky, apocalyptic locations which are hot items in popular media, especially considering the hit TV show and video game series, Fallout.
Hardware and Software Inventory
Ok, now that I have a strong grasp of my goals, scope, and considerations, let’s start an inventory of what gear and software I currently have, what I need to rent or arrange through partnerships.
Hardware and Software in Current Inventory
My current inventory is quite low and I’m starting with only the bare minimum as far as hardware and software is concerned for my project. It might seem a lot of gear but keep in mind it has been collected over a period of years and much of the hardware and software has mostly been used in personal capacity. I do not currently maintain an inventory of high-end gear as I do not work freelance full time and when I need gear, I just rent it as professional cameras, lidar systems and drones are exceptionally large capital investments and rentals may be written off on taxes.
Hardware and Software Needed
Now that I’ve established what resources I have, the next step is defining what gear and software I will need. Given the nature of the coursework, this requires several different sensors which I cannot afford. Fortunately given my 20 years of scanning experience, I have established several contacts with hardware and software vendors who have agreed to sponsor my masterclass. Please note all this gear is not needed for a typical scan project, usually a single lidar system, camera and drone is more than enough for many projects.
The following is a wish list of gear and software as well as MSRP, approximate rental cost and whether I was able to arrange sponsorship for this gear. Items marked with an asterisk are desired but not critical.
Agisoft Metashape Professional Upgrade ($3,000 / Sponsored)
Volinga Desktop (Contact vendor for estimate / Sponsored)
Sony A7RV DSLR with 12–24mm lens ($7,430 / $500 per week)
Pix4D Catch / Cloud ($59.99 per month)
Pix4D RTK Vidoc Rover* ($5,990 / No rental)
DJI Mavic3 Enterprise with RTK ($6,800 / $710 per week)
Leica RTC360 Lidar ($75,000 / $2,400-$3,500 per week / Sponsored)
Leica BLK360 Lidar ($18,500 / $1,250-$2,000 per week / Sponsored)
Leica BLK2Go Lidar ($55,000 / $2,100-$2,700 per week / Sponsored)
Leica BLK2Fly Drone ($62,000 / No rental / Sponsored)
Leica Cyclone Register 360 ($4,750 / $370 per week / Sponsored)
Leica Reality Cloud Studio ($20-$425 per month / Sponsored)
Artec Leo Handheld Scanner ($34,000 / $650 per month / Sponsored)
Artec Studio ($1,200 per year / Sponsored)
As you can see, the purchase of all this equipment is close to a whopping $270,000 and rentals amount to as much as $15,500! This well exceeds my project budget but thankfully through sponsorship my cost is a very affordable rental total of less than $2,500 for 2 weeks. I am well under my budget expectations so I can edit my spreadsheet accordingly.
Please note: While the RTK Vidoc Rover is not critical for the project, it does provide centimeter accurate GPS coordinates for the iPhone and DSLR configuration. A potential purchase may be required depending on accuracy of DJI Mavic3E rental for initial site scan and a reassessment of need for NeRF and gaussian splat capture and processing quality requirements.
Scouting Trip & Scanning
Now that I have a strong idea of my subject and the gear I will have at my disposal, I will take a good half day to take a ton of photos with my iPhone on site to get a vast selection of scan subjects to choose from. If you have a 360 camera, this is a perfect combination of cameras for any subject. If you are a studio, freelance photographers are easy to come by so there’s no need to travel and spend a lot of money when you’re merely scouting out a location. It is better to use an iPhone or Android phone at this stage as there is an integrated GPS, compass and gimbal which provides all sorts of useful metadata. Given that the location is restricted, I will need to obtain permits before a more detailed scouting trip is scheduled. While the site is restricted with no trespassing, the site is open to vehicles if you do not leave your vehicle.
Please note the following section is a high-level overview for an initial site survey and not intended to be a detailed tutorial.
Drone Site Scan
One of the first items to do on-site is a site survey, especially if your project requires a larger area beyond the immediate subject. In this case I used DroneLink to plan the mission and sent it to Lee Mar of HydraFX to do the aerial survey work and submit an FAA flight plan for June 22nd 2024.
On Site Aerial Survey
Once we received FAA clearance, we scheduled an aerial survey for a 3cm/pixel GSD. We met onsite and began by establishing ground control points with a GNSS base station. Since we had an FAA permit, when approached by security we were able to provide proof which was confirmed with the tower at the California Logistics Airport nearby.
With our ground control established we found a suitable base station in the shade to run our drone flights. Given the size and scope of the area, a location towards the center of the area of interest was chosen as battery changes for the drone would be needed.
Drone Issues
Given the nature of drones and electronics in general, we had RTK connection issues which affect the ability of the drone to accurately report and record its position when flying missions. The weather projection had temperatures reaching into the low 100s and with time running out and temperatures rising, it was deemed best to limit our survey to a smaller area and return in late September after temperatures have started to drop. We captured enough data with over 3,250 images which were excellent for future planning purposes.
Conclusion
While we did capture less than hoped, it is more than enough to consider subjects of interest for our future scans while we wait for temperatures to drop and details for hardware and software provided by sponsors to be worked out. The masterclass is a very large effort so detailed planning is required in order to meet deadlines, expectations, and budget.
This concludes the first chapter of the Planning the Scan module for the 3D Scanning Masterclass. Stay tuned for future updates!