Bentley Systems Acquires Citilabs and Orbit Geospatial Technologies

Bentley Systems, one of the worldwide leading providers of comprehensive software and digital twin cloud services for advancing the design, construction, and operations of infrastructure, has announced the acquisitions of global mobility simulation (CUBE) and analytics (Streetlytics) software provider Citilabs, and global provider of 3D and mobile mapping software, Orbit Geospatial Technologies (Orbit GT). The newly acquired technologies, in conjunction with Bentley’s existing design integration and digital cities offerings, enable engineering-based mobility digital twins. Road mobility digital twins converge cities’ digital context (including 4D surveying facilitated by Orbit GT for drone-and vehicle-mounted mobile mapping), and digital components (including from Bentley’s OpenRoads engineering applications) with... (read more)

2019-10-21 08:47:20

FIG Working Week 2020: Take the Stage in Amsterdam!

Have you always dreamed about taking the stage? Geospatial surveyors now have a perfect opportunity to do so in the Dutch city of Amsterdam! Submit your abstract before 1 November for a chance to share your views, project results and latest research related to 'Smart Surveying for Land & Water Management' during the FIG Working Week 2020. The event will be held at the RAI Convention Centre in Amsterdam from 10-14 May 2020. Surveyors are playing an increasingly important role in land & water management, especially as our countries need protection from the effects of climate change: sea-level rise, floods, droughts... (read more)

2019-10-14 09:21:26

Bluesky Launches MetroVista City Mapping Service

Aerial mapping company Bluesky has recently introduced its MetroVista city mapping service for Europe, based on data from the Leica CityMapper. At this year's Intergeo in Stuttgart, Bluesky showed the MetroVista imagery created from the hybrid airborne sensor that can simultaneously capture vertical and oblique aerial photography as well as Lidar. Bluesky’s MetroVista range includes impressive high-resolution imagery together with high-accuracy, wide-scale 3D models. The first in Europe, and still only one of a handful in operation around the globe, Bluesky’s CityMapper has already been used to capture MetroVista data for cities across the UK, including London, Manchester, Newcastle and Bristol.... (read more)

2019-10-09 10:52:05

Creating a 3D Data Model for the Kingdom of Bahrain

Ordnance Survey (OS) has created the first 3D-enabled national spatial data model for the Kingdom of Bahrain with the Survey and Land Registration Bureau (SLRB) mapping authority. The National 3D Mapping of Bahrain programme has supported Kingdom-wide data sharing, analysis and decision-making. This case study explores how OS worked with SLRB to create a consistent, intelligent and reliable 2D and 3D data model to aid decision-making. Creating a national spatial data model for the Kingdom of Bahrain required various components. The key challenges the project faced included: Providing stakeholders with relevant data across government, business and public services. Moving SLRB’s... (read more)

2019-10-09 10:45:55

Esri Launches New Field Data Collection Application

Esri has released ArcGIS QuickCapture, a mobile app designed for rapid and at-speed field data collection workflows. Data can be collected from a moving vehicle with the touch of a button and sent back to the office for real-time analysis, leading to faster and more effective decision-making. The new app is developed for road inspections, aerial surveys, monitoring vegetation encroachment and more. ArcGIS QuickCapture allows users to configure a customized interface that suits their specific project requirements, eliminating unnecessary features and options. This personalization helps users take advantage of the single-tap, big-button system to capture details and photos as they... (read more)

2019-10-03 09:03:58

The Role of Surveyors in the Evolution of BIM

Building information modelling (BIM) is becoming more commonplace within construction sectors globally, combining technology with improved collaboration to better manage projects and give them the best chance of complying with time and budget constraints. However, the BIM life cycle and efforts to espouse it are almost futile if surveying is taken out of the equation or, more realistically, brought in too late. It can be good to have a structure that is successfully using BIM to be delivered on time and within budget, but if it or any of its components are in the wrong position the consequences can be... (read more)

2019-10-02 10:25:44

Carlson Survey and GIS 2020 Modules Offer User Interface Upgrades and Efficiency Tools

Carlson’s latest release of Survey 2020 brings intuitive UI upgrades along with a host of new features and tools to improve day-to-day efficiency. A long-anticipated Migration Wizard for upgrading software as well as sharing settings and files across the office highlights this year’s list of customer centric updates. This new migration tool allows users to install a new release and then just simply transfer all of their previous settings, custom symbols, linetypes, fonts, etc. to the newer version. A new Start Page and Open Drawing dialog box with a georeferenced map can be used as a visual filing system, making... (read more)

2019-10-02 09:04:28

GeoSLAM Launches New Innovation for Rapid Urban Mapping

Recently, GeoSLAM announced its latest innovation for rapid urban mapping – the ZEB Discovery. Officially unveiled at Intergeo 2019 in Stuttgart, the ZEB Discovery signifies a new era in data capture and integration of a point cloud with high-resolution imagery. The mapping solution is capable of rapidly capturing intricate data with the use of the company's industry-leading simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology and NCTech’s iSTAR Pulsar panoramic camera for ultra-high-definition image capture. The end-to-end solution automatically synchronizes the point cloud with imagery for a unique walk-through of the area of data captured. Combining the two data sources into one... (read more)

2019-10-01 11:33:14

InSAR Used to Create Ground Stability Maps

Zooming on a Groundbreaking Revolution

Satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) is a technique that can measure millimetre-scale movement of the ground from space. It does this by comparing the return echoes, and thus the signal-path length, from two or more radar images taken over the same place, over time. Modern InSAR is now used by a range of industries concerned with ground or structural stability, from building development and control, to oil and gas production, to mining, to road and rail management. This article explains some key aspects of InSAR technology, including its innovative use to produce ground stability maps. Phase Shifters InSAR is based upon... (read more)

2019-03-07 05:09:42

Machine Learning: Crucial Leap Forward for Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey (OS), Great Britain's national mapping agency, is on the verge of a quantum leap in its data capture after being granted access to a supercomputer to develop machine learning techniques that will extract extra information and features from aerial imagery and mapping. The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre’s supercomputer being used is, appropriately for OS, named 'Scafell Pike'. It is expected that if successful this will lead to new business opportunities for OS at home and internationally. It is also projected that it could bring annual efficiencies of more than £2 million for OS, which... (read more)

2019-09-26 11:00:42