FOCUS ON THE GEOMAX ZOOM3D
Posted by Nurul Basher on
We were in Rome recently for Geomax’s international dealer conference, and apart from eating our own body weight in pasta, we were there to get to grips with some of Geomax’s most innovative products. Our first morning was spent on the Zoom3D, an easy-to-use 3D measuring device that has the capacity to be upgraded into a micro-robotic version.
The great thing about the Zoom3D is that it’s really simple to use; it sets up with the press of a button and levels automatically, then there’s a very intuitive interface through X-Pad (which itself has just received an update). Added to that, it looks great, like your own personal R2-D2, has a rugged exterior to guard against any bad bumps and has an accuracy level of 4mm at 50m.
There’s been great feedback from customers about this product with uses as wide ranging as archaeological digs, construction and renovation of commercial premises, wood cabin building, landscape gardeners and even someone surveying ice hockey dashers (apparently they’re the bit at the edge of the rink). The range of users reflects the flexibility of the product, with great features for interior surveys such as being able to recognise items like rectangles or corners of rooms Workflow can be sped up particularly by its ability to automatically survey a grid area at user-defined intervals to create a point cloud. This means if you want a whole wall mapped out in detail, you can effectively just let it get going and it will have the whole thing done before you’ve come back from putting the kettle on. For drywallers, electricians and interior designers, the plumb point function is hugely useful, allowing you to map out the point directly below somewhere on the ceiling or wall. There really is a feature for every internal user.
Outdoors, the Zoom3D really excels as users can employ the TPS pole supplied with the unit. For our archaeologists and landscape gardeners, this was hugely useful as they could map out a series of points quickly and accurately, with the robot and X-Pad software doing all the hard work for them. The Zoom3D comes with an X-Pad license that can be downloaded any windows tablet of phone as many times as you like as it’s associated with the Zoom3D rather than the tablet. As it’s windows-based this gives you lots of options for choosing a controller. We control our demo unit with the Microsoft Surface, Panasonic FZ-B2 or a phone depending on whether we’re indoors, outdoors or want a big screen. As a user, there are plenty of options. For simple setting out tasks, whether you’re a small builder or an archaeologist, the Zoom3D could be just the tool to help you out.