The HELIX Twin Platform
Digital Twins Delivered.
HELIX Twins provide comprehensive building information that is thorough, accurate and web accessible, including: 3D photo documentation, CAD, PDF, BIM downloads.
The HELIX Editor platform provides tools to simplify, speed up, and reduce the cost to produce comprehensive existing conditions plans and models.
The HELIX Viewer provides an intuitive way for untrained people to get information about buildings.
HELIX Reality Capture Services
HELIX reduces the time required to document a building by up to 10x
The HELIX Editor Platform
Virtual Tour / Photographic Documentation
HELIX Twins start with comprehensive photographic documentation built on 360º photos and augmented with detailed 2D photo "annotation" of critical details. 100s of photos are typically required to capture all of the important details of a commercial, industrial or residential building. The HELIX Editor Platform includes tools to collect, process and present building photos including:
- Automated "photographer removal"
- Automated person identification and face blurring
- Sophisticated, irreversible obscuring of private information captured in the photo process (family photos, names, white board contents)
- Automated scene grouping allowing multiple photos to be placed at once
- Scene "annotation" enabling the addition of close-up photos and notes to 360 photos
- Scene and level linking to generate an intuitive "virtual tour" experience for non-technical users
Scan Conversion / Registration
HELIX simplifies registration and presentation of LiDAR point clouds. Tripod-mounted and hand-held (SLAM) LiDAR scanners are used to accurately capture 3D building geometry. Typically 10s to 100s of individual scans are combined to create a single, large, "registered" point cloud. The HELIX Editor Platform simplifies point cloud handling by providing tools to load, register and present point clouds including:
- Multi-format point cloud upload and inline presentation
- Point cloud registration "in the cloud" to harness cloud compute power to manipulate large files
- Web accessible point cloud viewing and download
- Point cloud slicing and extraction allowing smaller subsets to be created and downloaded/viewed
- Automated point cloud "segmentation" to separate large data sets into semantically organized elements including floors, walls, ceilings, people, plants, furniture and more. Classified point subsets can be downloaded as separate data sets.
- Point cloud registration professional services
The HELIX Viewer
Content Management / Distribution
HELIX provides a web-accessible place to find and share building information. A HELIX Twin is available via any Internet connected device and does not require software downloads and fees or training for content viewers. A typical HELIX Twin includes:
- Comprehensive 360º photo "tour"
- 2D photo and text annotations
- Point cloud viewing and download
- PDF plan viewing and download
- AutoCAD plan, section and elevation viewing and download without software
- Sketchup model viewing and download
- Revit model and attribute viewing and download
- Scan to Plan and Scan to BIM modeling professional services
HELIX Reality Capture Services
HELIX maintains a small, elite, team of reality capture specialist to train and assist third-party use of the HELIX Platform and to guide platform development. HELIX reality capture professionals and authorized partners can provide the following services to help create HELIX Twins:
- Site / building photography
- Photo placement and photo-tour generation
- Point cloud registration and classification
- 2D and 3D model generation and platform loading
- Progress documentation including photography and scanning
- Site and building drone photography and photogrammetry
- Preliminary space planning and test-fits
- Video "fly-throughs" of point clouds and 3D models
Pricing
The HELIX Editor Platform is priced per square foot per year. Reality capture and modeling services are price per square foot depending on building type and complexity and on level of information required.
A HELIX Twin always includes unlimited, free Viewer access. Access to your HELIX twin is controlled by you including who can edit, view and download assets.
The data managed and presented on the HELIX platform belongs to you and can be removed and downloaded any time at your request.
Please contact us to discuss pricing details.
HELIX Twin Value
With a HELIX Twin architects can:
- Start with accurate, shareable photographs, plans and models
- Communicate design ideas remotely with clients and project team members
- Reach more potential bidders with accurate, detailed information
- Enable more accurate bids
- Identify and solve issues quickly with more complete visual documentation
- Share a single location for distributing the latest plans and models
Ensure Use of Current Design Version
Working from outdated versions of drawings costs time and money and undermines project design intent. Too often a person or a team will purchase materials, plan schedules and/or complete work based on documents that are no longer current. Once work has been completed incorrectly, time pressure on project delivery necessitates incorporating mistakes into the final project design. By making downloads and on-screen reviews of the most current information available via a mobile-friendly interface, all parties know that the “right” information is always accessible. Ensuring availability of correct design and construction drawings clarifies responsibility and provides a powerful disincentive to stray from intended design.
From existing conditions through construction to turnover, HELIX can be used to record project status allowing architects, owners and project team members to quickly review the project from a laptop or mobile device without special software.
Monitor Progress
Site visits are time consuming, costly and sometimes not feasible. Fewer or truncated site visits can lead to avoidable problems that cascade into bigger problems and delays. HELIX Twins supplement site visits with accurate, thorough visual documentation delivered through a web interface. Anyone with access privileges can spot issues or easily ask questions of others with shareable photographs, 2D plans and 3D models.
Communicate Easily
Incomplete or inaccurate communications waste time and cost money. With a simple, intuitive interface to building photos, plans and models, communication can be more frequent and more accurate.