About
Scanned, modeled, and drawn by a mechanical designer
Davis Design Group LLC is owned and run by Jason Davis, a mechanical designer who has worked in bulk material handling and pneumatic conveying systems since 2008. The firm now documents existing plant conditions with a Leica RTC360 and turns them into models and drawings for design work.
Background
Designing equipment into existing plants
Davis Design Group provides mechanical design and technical support to industrial plants: system layouts, detail and fabrication drawings, and installation drawings for bulk material handling and pneumatic conveying systems.
Truck unloading, screw conveyors, bucket elevators, silos, pneumatic conveying, receivers, feeders, and mixers are the systems Jason has designed and detailed. Plant areas like the one in Fig. 1 are what DDG now scans, models, and draws.
Laser scanning, 3D modeling, and CAD drawing packages extend that work to existing conditions, so new equipment is laid out against what is actually in the plant, not what old drawings say is there.
Why laser scanning
The plant visit, without the tape measure
Laying out new equipment in an existing plant has traditionally meant a site visit with a tape measure to make sure it clears what is already there. A tape measure captures the points you think to take. The Leica RTC360 captures everything in view of each setup.
Tape measure and field sketch
- Individual dimensions, chosen on site
- Overhead and hard-to-reach items estimated or skipped
- Sketches and photos reconciled back at the desk
- A missed dimension means another trip or a field fit
3D laser scan
- Everything in view of each setup, recorded as measured points
- Overhead steel, piping, and ductwork recorded wherever a setup can see them
- A calibrated HDR photo record of every setup
- Dimensions nobody thought to take can be measured later, if they were in view
Leica RTC3601.9 mm @ 10 m†How accuracy works
† Leica manufacturer specification (68% confidence, 89% albedo). An instrument figure, not a project tolerance.
Fabrication-critical tie-ins, flange locations, anchor bolts, and tight-clearance dimensions need separate verification before fabrication or installation, quoted separately. Verification rule
How we work
Three rules on every project
Existing-condition data gets used for layouts, clearances, and purchasing decisions. These rules keep everyone clear about what the data is and what it is not.
Scope in writing
Every project is defined in a written proposal before field work: the billable area marked on an agreed plan, the tier, deliverable formats, and software versions. Scope changes are quoted separately.
Registration checked
Scans are tied together in the field and refined in the office, and registration is checked on every project as part of quality control.
Limits documented
Every scan delivery includes a coverage summary: what was captured, what could not be seen or reached, and site conditions that affected the data. Hidden components and equipment internals are outside what a laser scan can record.
Where the work stops
DDG provides laser scanning and existing-condition documentation for design work. It is not a land surveying service; survey control, when a project calls for it, is a separately quoted add-on.
Licensed engineering is available only as outside professional engineering, at the published hourly rate.
Planning work in an existing plant?
Send the facility type, approximate area, and what you need delivered. You’ll get a budgetary number and a written proposal with a fixed scope.