On Friday 13th November 2015 we visited Nantwich St Mary’s to scan the medieval vaults in the choir, as well as the intriguing reconstructed vaults in the crossing by George Gilbert Scott. Below is a timelapse video showing the laser scanner in action in the choir operated by Nick, whilst J.R. records the vaults for photogrammetry purposes, and Alex provides a short guided tour of the sculpture on the misericords in the medieval choir stalls.
Even with the timelapse speed, the rotation of the scanner seems slow. The individual scan provides a point cloud model of the architecture immediately around it, which when combined with other scans, gives a highly detailed and accurate point cloud of the entire vaults in the choir. The next stage of the process will be to interpret the data using a number of digital modelling techniques in order to provide a better understanding of the underlying vault geometry.
