HH Angus Saves Time and Money with Matterport BIM Files

Creating Better Outcomes with Smarter Engineering

For more than 100 years, HH Angus has devoted itself to engineering excellence, embracing new technologies to create innovative solutions for its clients’ most complex challenges.

The company’s engineers often need to juggle an array of informational files, from Autodesk CAD files to Adobe PDF files, while often producing work in Autodesk Revit. Staff who have to flip back and forth between projects with a heavy concentration of artifacts in CAD or other formats find it cumbersome to keep up on all the particulars.

To minimize ongoing training on multiple software platforms while making it easier for team members to collaborate on project information by unifying on one primary platform, HH Angus is moving to a 100% Building Information Model (BIM) files environment. As it moves to this Revit-first approach, the company is increasingly using Matterport digital twins to generate models that allow team members to start their work faster while optimizing collaboration.

Matterport BIM Files for Accelerated Revit Readiness

In recent years, HH Angus has captured more than 700 spaces in digital twins with its Matterport Pro2 cameras. 

As a result, HH Angus has reduced the cost of site surveys by half, replacing traditional survey methods with capturing digital twins. The team used the Matterport Pro2 camera to capture mechanical facilities at Toronto Western Hospital over the course of a multi-year, multi-phase project. The team dramatically reduced repeat site visits, referring designers, engineers, and owner-operators to the Matterport 3D digital twins throughout the project lifecycle.

“Matterport enables us to document as-built conditions, validate models, and design faster than ever before,” says Melissa Parry, BIM Specialist at HH Angus. 

When Akira Jones, Director of Digital Services at HH Angus, heard about the new Matterport BIM Files service, he was excited to see how it could accelerate workflows by providing Revit-ready models.

“There's a huge time investment for the scan to BIM process we do. It requires labor, no matter how semi-automated or automated it is. Our cost to do it is very high and even outsourcing it is expensive,” explains Jones. “And when you outsource, you have to find partners that you're willing to trust. Even then, there is still the element of coordination to consider.”

Jones is pleased with the results he has achieved with Matterport BIM Files. “Getting the content into Revit is so much harder than editing the content after the fact. We understand if there are still some small things that we have to tweak. The convenience of quickly getting the bulk of what we need—already usable in Revit—is an attractive option with the Matterport BIM Files service,” says Jones.

Parry describes the process she normally undertakes for creating BIM files from Matterport digital twins. It starts by ordering a MatterPak Bundle of the captured built space and downloading an .xyz point cloud file. Then she imports it into Autodesk Recap Pro. “We organize points into regions to enable our designers to toggle the visibility of different parts of the point cloud while working in Revit,” Parry says. “We save regions into separate point cloud files for linking into Revit, which is essential for Revit model performance.” The team creates worksets, uses origin-to-origin positioning, and applies phasing and alignment of the point cloud before modeling future phases of a client’s project in Revit.

“Eliminating those complicated steps with just a few clicks in our Matterport portal is a no-brainer, especially during busy periods when our team members are tied up with other tasks,” says Jones. With Matterport BIM Files, orders for a 20,000 square foot space are delivered within four to five days. Or in just two to four days for a space of less than 5,000 square feet. 

Improving Modeling Efficiencies to Impress Clients

Jones weighed the value of the Matterport BIM Files service for a data center project he recently scoped. “Originally we scoped the scan to BIM work at four days for two workers. We were able to cut that down to less than two days for one and a half people. That eliminated more than 40 hours of staff time. As a result, we got a lot of the work done much faster than we anticipated, freeing up our team to spend more time on other tasks focused on delivering great design work for our clients,” Jones says.

Jones did a cost comparison for a recent mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) project. Matterport BIM Files feature Level of Development (LOD) 200 structural and architectural information, with add-on options for both MEP and/or Furniture elements. The Matterport BIM Files option for Architecture + MEP came in 70% less expensive than the firm’s in-house rates, considering the time involved. “There can be a lot of sticker shock with modeling costs that get passed on to the client. The 70% cost savings with Matterport BIM Files is significant, so as more of our clients hear about this, they will be pleased,” he says.

Matterport workshop tools also assist with team and client collaboration within the digital twins for equipment identification, taking measurements, and adding notes.

“We rely on Mattertags to annotate the MEP space in one central, shared location, which helps the team collaborate with stakeholders more effectively,” Parry said. “Documenting data, Revit family names, and family type within the Matterport digital twins helps our designers review the latest equipment tags and references while modeling in Revit.”

ABOUT HH ANGUS

Founded in 1919, HH Angus is one of Canada’s larger private consulting engineering firms. It provides services to clients in the commercial, healthcare, institutional, transportation, and industrial sectors, including work in technology, energy generation and distribution, and sustainability.

https://hhangus.com/

HEADQUARTERS Toronto, Canada

INDUSTRY Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC)

EMPLOYEES 250

CHALLENGE Improve efficiencies and foster collaboration on engineering projects

PRODUCTS Matterport BIM Files, The MatterPak Bundle, Matterport Pro2 cameras

SOLUTION Use Matterport BIM Files services to connect MatterPak scan data directly into Revit projects without any manual downloading, uploading, or conversion for time and cost savings.

RESULTS

• Eliminated over 40 person-hours in BIM file creation time for company’s staff in recent project

• Saving clients money by reducing costs to create BIM file by over 70% 

• Consolidates key information in BIM environment for more streamlined workflows across design team