Scan-to-CAD vs. Scan-to-BIM: Which Deliverable Does Your Project Actually Need?

If your project involves space planning, facility management, or standard permit applications, you need Scan-to-CAD. If you are coordinating mechanical retrofits, running structural clash detection, or calculating precise demolition volumes, you need Scan-to-BIM. Ordering a fully parameterized 3D BIM model for a straightforward interior fit-out wastes thousands of euros. Relying on basic 2D CAD sections for a complex heritage renovation guarantees expensive on-site rework. You must align your requested deliverable directly with your engineering requirements. This document details the exact technical outputs ENGINYRING provides for each service, defines our pricing structure, and outlines the remote intake process you will use to initiate your project.

The Scan-to-CAD Deliverable: 2D Precision

Our Scan-to-CAD service translates your raw point cloud into clean, organized 2D drafting documentation. We take your registered scan data and generate horizontal or vertical slices at exact cut planes specified by your architectural team. We trace these slices to produce precise floor plans, exterior facade elevations, and building sections. We deliver these as standard DWG files, ensuring our outputs are fully compatible with major versions of standardly used software like AutoCAD, BricsCAD, and GstarCAD, alongside standard PDF exports for immediate review.

We build our 2D deliverables with strict layer management and clean linework. From processing over 500 point clouds for renovation projects, we know that sloppy drafting forces your team to spend hours cleaning up overlapping lines and broken blocks. We ensure all walls, doors, windows, and structural boundaries sit on their correct layers. You receive a lightweight file that opens instantly and integrates seamlessly into your existing design templates.

Scan-to-CAD operates perfectly for projects where the vertical geometry remains relatively uniform. Facility managers order our 2D floor plans to verify exact leasing areas. Architects commission our facade elevations to submit accurate municipal permit drawings. The primary limitation you must accept with a CAD deliverable is its fixed perspective. A floor plan cut at one meter above the finished floor will completely miss hidden structural anomalies in the ceiling void or irregular beam sagging above the cut plane. If your project demands awareness of complex vertical geometry, you cannot rely on 2D documentation.

The Scan-to-BIM Deliverable: 3D Spatial Reality

Our Scan-to-BIM service reconstructs your point cloud into a fully realized 3D architectural model. We deliver standard industry formats including RVT and IFC. Our files are fully compatible with major versions of standardly used software like Revit, Archicad, and Allplan. This deliverable captures the absolute physical reality of the existing structure, including every out-of-plumb wall, sloping floor slab, and irregular roof pitch.

We process BIM deliverables at specific Levels of Development (LOD) dictated by your project phase. We provide LOD 100 for basic conceptual massing and urban planning boundaries. We deliver LOD 200 for approximate geometry required during early feasibility studies. The vast majority of our commercial clients require LOD 300. At LOD 300, we construct specific architectural and structural elements with their exact measured dimensions, thicknesses, and real-world deviations. If a load-bearing column leans two degrees off-axis, we replicate that exact inclination to ensure your engineers design around the actual field conditions.

We maintain strict discipline regarding file size and model performance. Many outsourcing firms deliver bloated 3D models packed with heavy custom parametric objects that crash your workstation. We structure our deliverables using clean, optimized elements to ensure seamless software integration. We represent Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) systems minimally. We model pipes and ducts solely to show their physical boundaries for clash detection purposes. We do not provide engineering-grade data or full parametric flow schedules for MEP elements. This strict scope management keeps your deliverables lightweight and prevents you from paying for metadata your team will never utilize.

Hardware and Input Data Requirements

Your choice of deliverable relies heavily on the quality of the data your surveyor captures in the field. ENGINYRING operates as a completely surveyor-neutral processing partner. We do not force you into proprietary hardware ecosystems. We process data from Leica BLK, FARO Focus, Trimble, and NavVis systems daily. We accept all standard industry formats, including LAS, LAZ, RCP, E57, and PTS.

Terrestrial laser scanners provide the dense, low-noise point clouds required for precise LOD 300 BIM outputs. Mobile mapping systems capture data much faster but introduce significant noise and blur along structural edges. While we can extract accurate 2D CAD plans from mobile mapping data, extracting high-fidelity 3D geometry requires the clean structural definition provided by stationary terrestrial scanners.

We heavily prioritize structured file formats like E57 and RCP over unstructured formats like LAS. Structured formats retain the original scanner origin points and panoramic imagery. This allows our engineering team to view the digital environment precisely as the scanner saw it. When a point cloud cluster is ambiguous due to reflections or occlusions, our team uses these panoramic views to verify the geometry before placing a structural element. Submitting unstructured data forces us to interpret noise without visual confirmation, which can impact the geometric accuracy of the final deliverable.

Our Remote Intake and Processing Workflow

We have engineered our intake process to handle massive datasets and eliminate geographic friction. Your local field team executes the scanning on-site. Once they register the data, you initiate our remote processing workflow. You do not need to ship hard drives or deal with complex VPN configurations.

You begin by uploading your registered point cloud to our secure, high-bandwidth file share infrastructure. Point clouds frequently exceed two hundred gigabytes. Our enterprise-grade servers handle massive E57 and RCP uploads without timing out or requiring aggressive data compression. The moment your upload completes, our technical team runs an immediate diagnostic on your data.

We execute a strict registration verification before any processing begins. If your surveyor delivered data with severe alignment errors or broken point cloud clusters, we notify you immediately. We do not proceed with generating geometry from broken data. Once the registration passes our quality check, our team builds your requested deliverable according to the exact parameters specified in your order.

Our quality assurance process guarantees accuracy before delivery. For 2D deliverables, we overlay the DWG linework directly onto the point cloud slice to verify spatial fidelity. For 3D deliverables, we generate deviation heat maps comparing the faces of our 3D modeled elements against the raw point cloud. We ensure all structural components fall within the agreed tolerance thresholds. Once the QA process completes, we release the final files directly to your engineering team.

Transparent Pricing and Priority Tiers

We reject the industry standard of opaque pricing structures and mandatory consultation calls. Our rates scale predictably based on the exact square meterage of your point cloud and the architectural complexity of the building. Our Scan-to-CAD pricing starts strictly from EUR 0.08 to EUR 0.31 per square meter. Our Scan-to-BIM rates follow a similarly transparent scaling model dictated directly by your requested Level of Development.

Your project schedule dictates your final invoice through our priority tier system. If your engineering team needs immediate architectural context for an active site, you select our fastest priority tier and pay the standard baseline rate. If you are in the early feasibility stages and have flexibility in your schedule, you select a relaxed delivery timeline. Extending your delivery window allows you to secure discounts of up to 60 percent off the standard rate. This mechanism gives you total control over how you allocate your documentation budget.

Initiate Your Documentation Order

You now know exactly what CAD and BIM deliverables provide and how our processing pipeline operates. The next step is calculating the exact cost for your specific dataset. Access our pricing calculator immediately. Enter the total square meterage of your scan, select your required deliverable (2D DWG or 3D RVT/IFC), and choose the priority tier that matches your schedule. The calculator will provide an instant, hard quote. Submit your requirements directly through the portal to initiate your secure upload and start the remote processing workflow today.