I do a lot of coordination for the MEP trades. Many of these projects involve adding new scope to existing buildings. So we spend a ton of time converting point clouds to Revit models. We also use Edgewise when possible. I am currently testing out Recap Pro's mesh capabilities. I was initially disappointed to see it only allows a 30 meter cube because that only allows me to process 5 point clouds at a time and I can be responsible for converting as many as 400 point clouds.
My other concern is the process of converting these mesh files to a file format that Revit and Navisworks accept. It is not automated and it takes a huge amount of time to go from one step to the next. Here is my current workflow:
1.) Import an FLS or PTX to Recap (About 30 minutes for 5 points clouds)
2.) Bring the Recap file into the cloud to mesh (About 15 minutes for 5 point clouds)
3.) Have the cloud create an OBJ file (About 3 hours for 5 point clouds)
4.) Open the OBJ file in 3ds Max and make sure you are using the correct units/ scale.
5.) Export the file as a DWG
That means that I have to click buttons every 30 minutes to 3 hours for one mesh and repeat that process about 80 times before I would have an entire building ready. In an ideal world there would be a plug-in that would automate this 5 step process for me and I could come back to the file when it is ready. Another concern is that currently (if I did my math right) even an automated process would take 13+ days for 400 point cloud files.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.