Quickly connect your data to BIM with Cyclone 3DR BCF export

Leica Cyclone 3DR is a seamless extension of the Cyclone product family, positioned as the final deliverable step in the field-to-finish reality capture workflow. With Cyclone 3DR, you can create final deliverables directly from your Leica Geosystems 3D laser scanner to speed up and simplify your data capture process for the AEC market and BIM workflows. With the new export BCF file feature, you can easily connect your scan data to the wider BIM ecosystem to export results from inspection and clash analysis of a BIM model, in additional to the conventional PDF and CSV formats.

Traditional stakeholders are innovating in the construction industry to bring an era of digitalisation to the construction industry. Driving construction projects through a BIM ecosystem has become a key part of company and project success. Cyclone 3DR supports your journey from Reality Capture to BIM with the new BCF file feature.

What is BCF format?

BIM Collaboration Format (BCF) is an open-standard format to exchange information between BIM-specific software solutions. It is developed by Building Smart International (BSi) which is also responsible for the well-known industry-standard IFC format. Thanks to BCF, sharing comments, issues, or clashes from your IFC models is flexible, efficient and smooth.

BCF export is directly embedded into Cyclone 3DR desktop and Touch Mode to add further flexibility and efficiency for users, allowing them to create automatic and customisable BIM-compliant reports.

BCF format provides flexibility for users so they have an additional format choice to export and share data with their project stakeholders. It allows laser scanner users to adapt their job to the BIM needs, providing a true BIM experience with a visual rendering of models and direct creation of BCF issues in the field with Cyclone 3DR Touch Mode or office.

What are the main benefits of using BCF format?

The main benefit of BCF format is to provide Cyclone 3DR users with a new way to send analysis deliverables from the field and office to their clients - in a BIM-compatible exchange format - supported by 3^rd party BIM applications for interoperability capacity.

For surveyors working in the construction industry, BCF format is beneficial as PDF reports need to be shared by email and then reviewed multiple times by each project stakeholder. A BCF file can be generated, shared and instantly imported to speed up the BIM management process.

Digital services & BIM specialists want full BIM-compliant solutions to avoid double processing and BCF can help them to manage projects faster as all inspection issues are documented and imported to their preferred software with ease.

Civil Engineers and Construction project managers want to increase their productivity and filter their daily project information as efficiently as possible. The BCF file format lets them assign and deliver all the inspection issues to various partners for immediate action.

What are the main features of BCF format?

The main BCF features available are BIM Inspection notes and Clash Analysis in the Cyclone 3DR desktop application and BIM Inspection workflow in Cyclone 3DR Touch Mode.

With the new BCF format features, users are able to:

• Import and easily manage BIM models (IFC and RVT) within the product
• Use Best-fit alignment functions between the BIM model and as-built model
• Apply accurate and innovative inspection tools in either desktop or Touch Mode
• Create BCF reports in the field and office
• Share BCF reports directly with BIM end-users

What are the workflows within Cyclone 3DR?

Users have two options for leveraging BCF explores in their Cyclone 3DR reality capture journey:

Office workflow

• Run BIM analysis with powerful inspection tools to compare the as-built data to the design model. Identify every issue from the inspection by creating notes (including title, description, priority, construction domain, deviation values, screenshots, images).
• Export all the issues and clash information into a unique BCF file that contains all the information from the inspection.
• Send the BCF to the construction project manager who will drag and drop the BCF file into a 3^rd party issue tracking solution for BIM management to address all the issues immediately.

Field workflow within Touch Mode

• Start a Touch BIM Inspection project and load the BIM Model
• Load data from Cyclone FIELDWORX or Cyclone FIELD 360, to run as-built versus design verification from ScanStation P-Series, RTC360 or BLK360 3D laser scanners.
• Align and clean the data, run an inspection and create notes (including title, description, priority, deviation values, screenshots, images). A report is automatically created.
• Click on Export to BCF to create the unique report file.
• Send the BCF file to the construction project manager who will drag and drop the BCF file into a 3^rd party issue tracking solution for BIM management to address all the issues immediately.

What’s next?

Within the AEC market or as an innovative organisation, the need to stay on top of the latest disruptive technology is essential and adopting digitalisation methods drive construction projects through the BIM ecosystem. So be ready to add more value to your reality capture journey with easier BIM deliverables with the release of Cyclone 2021.2.

Get in touch with your local sales and support representative to learn more about how to benefit from the Cyclone 3DR.

Yannick Stenger
Product Manager, Leica Cyclone 3DR
Reality Capture Division