How the “3D Disto” Saved One Company Time, Money, and Headaches

This past November, Adam had the privilege of taking one of our favorite tools, the Leica 3D Disto, out for a test drive. The results were more exciting, useful, and successful than we had hoped for! Adam’s work with the 3D Disto measuring tool was able to save a local millwork shop hundreds of dollars on their countertop project!

We’ve been recently approved as one of four retailers in the United States that are allowed to stock and sell the Leica 3D Disto, a three-dimensional surveying/templating/measuring tool that uses lasers to make it’s calculations. The main reason we were able to become an official dealer of the tool is because Adam Dirig, our CEO, has lots of experience using Leica’s Disto laser measuring devices in the field. Leica Geosystems is very selective with choosing their vendors, and they wanted to make sure that companies that sell this unit also understand how it works so they could field customer service inquiries. Adam got his hands on a 3D Disto of his own to take measurements for drafting work that we were doing here at Dirig Design, Inc, and he immediately fell in love with it. It didn’t take him long to realize how much more easily he was able to capture measurements. Right away, Adam noticed how this tool could make his job easier and more accurate.

Shortly after being approved to sell the 3D Disto, Adam got a call from a local millwork shop who wanted him to take field dimensions of a new office building project that they were commissioned for. Adam’s task would be to measure the interior perimeter of the new office space to produce measurements for a countertop installation. Excited to see how the 3D Disto would work in this capacity, Adam showed up to the job site, set up the 3D Disto, and got down to business.

After taking a few minutes to set the 3D Disto on a tripod in the middle of the room, Adam programmed the machine to scan in increments of 4 inches along each wall, and 1 inch increments through each corner. Because this tool isn’t an automatic “touch and go” room-scanning device, Adam was able to meticulously guide the machine through additional points that he wanted scanned.

The entire project only took Adam about 2 hours total, including setup, teardown, capturing all of the countertop measurements, and having a deliverable digital file for the millwork shop. Something totally impressive about the the 3D Disto is that it can automatically export a DXF file that can be used with programs like AutoCAD to integrate with CNC machining. This completely cuts out the laborious process of manually taking data and inputting it into the proper millwork software. “With all things considered, I was able to show up on the job site, set up, take all the measurements, pack up, and have CNC-ready file in about 2 hours,“ said Adam. “If I hadn’t used the 3D Disto, I would’ve spent an extra 90 minutes inputting my measurements into AutoCAD, which the millwork shop would’ve had to pay for.”

Excellent Input = Excellent Results The biggest savings for this particular job were not because of the simplification of the measurement process, but because of the outstanding accuracy of the 3D Disto’s measurements. By using an excellent tool for the right job, we were able to deliver excellent results. When Adam took the measurements with the 3D Disto, it was able to show imperfect right angles, slightly curved walls, and other factors that would have required a bit of trial and error in the countertop installation process. Normally, a countertop install of this size would’ve taken 4 to 8 hours of putting the countertop in place, scribing it to perfectly fit, cutting your marks, and repeating the process until the countertops perfectly fit. In this case, with the 3D Disto’s measurements, the millwork shop was able to cut exactly according to the exported DXF file, and each countertop piece fit perfectly with no scribing whatsoever! In other words, each countertop piece was able to be dropped in place without hassle!

Overall, the 3D Disto was able to save this millwork shop a potential 5.5-9.5 hours of labor, expenses, and headaches, cutting a whole day off the total project time. The shop was really excited about the results, and were pretty impressed by both the measurement accuracy and the turnaround time capabilities of the 3D Disto. As you can imagine, we were ecstatic to hear that the countertops were able to be dropped into place without any additional work. This gives the 3D Disto another useful application with proven results. We can’t wait to get into another countertop templating project again!

Notice how perfectly this corner fits without any scribing.

The 3D Disto was even able to detect the slight curvature along this wall panel.

Yet another perfect "drop-in" without any scribing!

New 3D Templating Service Available

Over the past few months, Adam has had the opportunity to work on some different field dimensioning jobs in order to provide measurements to our internal drafting team and local millwork shops. Last year we got our hands on a three-dimensional templating tool called the Leica 3D Disto that we’ve been using for these types of jobs, and it’s produced some amazing results (see our article about how we used the 3D Disto to template countertops).

We’re excited to announce that we’re now providing on-site 3D dimensioning as a service for clients in the Northeast! We’ll be able to take on-site measurements with this tool for any of your more complicated projects, typically ones that would need to be templated for your millwork to be able to fit properly. This service would come in handy for millwork shops working on complex projects that involve abnormal shapes, large structures, or intricate details. Some examples might be spiral staircases, large auditorium interiors, stained glass windows, and abnormal countertops.

The 3D Disto has the ability to make 2D or 3D scans of an area's actual condition. It has the ability to establish points in a room, or take a series of "scans" for curved irregular areas of the room or condition and export them to a DXF file of the actual site conditions for easy incorporation with your CNC department. This way, you won’t need cardboard or MDF templates that need to be checked multiple times against the site conditions. With this service, we’ll travel to your job site, take all of the measurements that you need, and supply you with the DXF file for you to incorporate with your CNC machining.

Contact us today for scheduling and pricing!

February Webinar Schedule: Come Learn More About Laser Measuring Tools!

AdvancedDimensions.com is excited to announce that we are kicking off a series of webinars for anybody interested in learning more about the laser measuring, leveling, and templating tools that we sell! We’ve been hosting weekly webinars throughout this past January that have highlighted the benefits and features of using these tools for your custom woodworking projects, surveying needs, architectural jobs, and more. These webinars have been greatly successful, and we’ve been having fun with them! We’ll continue to spend time in future webinars diving into how and why to use each tool in order to maximize your time and efficiency!

All you’ll need to attend is a computer with an Internet connection and some speakers or headphones. We’ll be broadcasting each presentation through the Internet. We simply have you register and send you a link to the presentation in your email. Come prepared to ask any questions about the products that you’re interested in! If you’ve purchased a product from us, this would be the perfect opportunity to ask questions, or simply learn more about the functionality of your tool!

Check out our upcoming February Webinar Schedule:

• February 10, 2pm - Which DISTO Laser Measurement Tool Is Right For You? 
• February 17, 2pm - Capture Perfect Field Dimensions with the 3D Disto 
• February 24, 2pm - Levelling Up with the Leica Lino Laser Level