Schiphol Airport and Allinq Digital transform scan to BIM to realize ambitious sustainability goals

Allinq Digital first collaborated with Schiphol when the firm took on the airport’s Point Cloud Challenge in 2019.

The airport organized the challenge because they wanted to explore the value that could be derived from comparing multiple point clouds taken in the same space over time. To that end, they invited companies across the Netherlands to delve into 3D data sets captured by the airport, perform analysis, and present their insights. The competition focused on one particular terminal that was undergoing partial reconstruction at the time.

Allinq Digital began by conducting a comparative analysis of two point clouds taken at different times in order to detect what had changed between the captures. Then, they updated the Revit model accordingly to maintain Schiphol's extensive asset records.

The team also proposed a more innovative solution for keeping the model up to date in the future. They observed that the airport was equipped with various other sensors capable of capturing geometry. Why not leverage those as well?

"We suggested that instead of daily scanning, which would be time-consuming and generate massive amounts of data, they opt for a one-time scan using the NavVis M6," Goor said.

"We would generate a high-quality Revit model and use the other sensors around the airport to keep it updated. Allinq Digital would employ our own in-house object-recognition AI and Dynamo scripts to identify what objects had changed and what objects had been added, and then place them accurately in the Revit file. This would facilitate more effective tracking."

Schiphol was impressed by this idea — so much that Allinq Digital won the challenge. This marked the initial step in an ongoing partnership between the company and Schiphol to find innovative methodologies and achieve ambitious sustainability goals.

As part of Schiphol’s mission to reduce its environmental impact, the airport is currently replacing a significant portion of its equipment with eco-friendly alternatives. The renovation plan leverages BIM methodology, enabling the team to plan construction work meticulously and reduce impact on passenger operations — another one of the airport’s highest priorities.

To that end, Schiphol tasked Allinq Digital to work with one of the airport’s primary contractors to scan technical rooms and generate BIM models at both LOD 300 and LOD 400.

This is no simple task. As Goor explains, the technical rooms are densely packed with infrastructure for power, water, sewage, and air. They contain piping, heating elements, plumbing fixtures, sprinkler heads, 19-inch cabinets filled with switches and routers, and even industrial-scale humidifiers. This complexity results in small spaces and a high risk of blind spots in the final scan data.

From the outset, Schiphol understood that they could not use traditional methods for BIM modeling without disrupting airport operations for passengers.

The traditional approach involves manually generating as-built drawings of a project. For example, if the airport had added a pipe, a technician would visit the site, use a tape measure to gather dimensions, and record them on paper. Then, they would model it in CAD.

This method is less than ideal, Goor argues. "When an engineer needs to modify the piping, they update the drawing again. This iterative process leads to inaccuracies over time, resulting in problems.”

Allinq Digital recognized that Schiphol would benefit from digitizing their workflow — but they also knew that traditional TLS (terrestrial laser scanning) wouldn't suffice.