Background
The Mountain Bike Centre of Scotland is Scotland's national centre for mountain biking innovation and excellence. It supports businesses of all sizes in developing world-class mountain biking products and services.
As part of a joint initiative headed by Edinburgh Napier University and Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland, with project partner Scottish Enterprise, NMIS supported the project by creating an accurate 3D model of the centre to showcase to partners.
Industry challenge
With the mountain bike market reportedly worth £425m to the Scottish economy, plans were established to create the world's first fully equipped mountain bike innovation centre as part of the Borderlands Growth Deal.
The Innovation Centre will contain unique facilities, including cutting-edge prototyping and manufacturing equipment, offering companies unrivalled R&D, prototyping and testing facilities in both lab and field environments.
As part of the business case for the project, an interactive 3D model of the planned renovation of the existing Innerleithen Caerlee Mill site was required to showcase proposals to stakeholders and the wider community.
How did NMIS help?
The project goal was to develop an interactive 3D virtual reality (VR) model of the Grade B listed Caerlee Mill building. This involved laser scanning the empty mill, digitally recreating the building, and populating the model for digital 3D visualisation.
This process utilised Leica Geosystem's RTC 360RTC360 laser scanner to scan points of interest on both the exterior and interior of the mill. The information was then processed and rendered into a 3D point cloud using Leica Cyclone, which formed the basis of the remodelled 3D version of the building.
The interactive VR model allowed the user to wear a VR headset or use mouse and keyboard navigation to view the proposed plans for the Mountain Bike Centre of Scotland.
Moira Forsyth at Scottish Enterprise said:
This is an invaluable piece of work which will help articulate to all of the interested partners, including governments at Holyrood and Westminster, the vision this investment presents. More importantly, it can be used to plan and locate capital spending efficiently later in the project lifecycle. The process of engaging with the team and NMIS has been excellent, and we are committed to working with them as partners on this project.
Business impact
The interactive VR model was used by the project partners, including; Edinburgh Napier University, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Borders Council, and Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland, to map out the innovation hub and outline the proposed plans to external parties.
The project has presented further opportunities for collaboration, with NMIS introducing the Mountain Bike Centre of Scotland to various SMEs who can get involved in the manufacturing supply chain.