[SML] Favorite Disto Tool

[jdunfee12 at yahoo.com]

 I am aware there are very expensive apps and hardware that can do the 3D scans of the room. But, years ago, when I seriously investigated them, they weren't working nearly as well as their marketing hype. Aside from the sky-high cost, it took a great deal of user effort to turn the 3D scan into something useful.
There are floor vacuums that can map a room, but for some reason that technology has not made it to the average guy, who does things like house remodeling.  The 2D scanners on the vacuums are like this $100 unit.  https://www.robotshop.com/en/rplidar-a1m8-360-degree-laser-scanner-development-kit.html
I am surprise there are not low-cost units like this, that you can use to draw a room.  You might theoretically simply hold a unit like this over your head, and do a 2D scan of a room. Then, a few seconds later a dimensioned 2D drawing of the perimeter of the room appears on your phone or laptop.  It might even be able to automatically recognize doors and windows.
I know the affordable versions of the time-of-flight laser distance meters are not as fast to take a measurement. So you couldn't just do the same as the vaccum cleaner type, and get the scan in a second.  But, even if it took a few minutes to do the same thing as the one on the vacuum cleaner, it should be a lot more accurate.  Over a decade ago, I recall seeing a student do just this sort of scan, though he was doing a full scan that included panning up and down. But, these things seem to take forever to get out into the real world with a useful tool.

-Joe
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There are 'Laser Transit' -looking-devices that can scan a whole room, but I don't have access to one.[nor could I most likely afford one or know if they can ;talk' to an AutoCAD or competing application running on Windows 10 or the Apple equivalent./s/ Richard


I saw a device like that on a forensic anthropology documentary called "Bones" and I think the gummint has something like that they let their CSI labs use, but I haven't seen anything that reliable and integrated in real life.  I'd ask for 2D as well as 3D - might as well ask for the moon.

- Jim Dougherty

  
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