Illuminating history: Artec Leo and Ray II preserve hidden graves’ heritage

3D Scanners

Challenge: A Dutch renovation team made an unexpected discovery of tombstones beneath the deteriorating wooden floor of the Hagha church. While their initial goal was to replace the floor to reinforce the building, they now needed to ensure the newly discovered heritage remained accessible to the community. This challenge was addressed by capturing the entire landmark, including its hidden treasures, in ultra-realistic 3D.

Solution: Artec Leo, Artec Ray II, Artec Studio

Result: Each gravestone was meticulously scanned with Artec Leo and turned into its precise digital twin. To digitize the entire floor of the church, which presented a massive amount of data, the team used Artec Ray II. With the project soon complete, the historically significant church stands fully renovated, and its detailed 3D plans are accessible to everyone for a virtual walkthrough using VR headsets.

Why Artec: Artec 3D is acclaimed for its scanning technology in heritage preservation and renovation, with Artec Leo excelling in rendering cultural objects, and Artec Ray II capturing entire architectural structures. The duo enabled full restoration and the creation of lifelike digital twins, preserving the national monument while also capturing its surroundings with accuracy.

Church renovation with a plot twist

When you look at a mysterious medieval building, you might be wondering what secrets it hides. Are there forgotten treasures within these walls – or beneath the floor? It turns out that sometimes there truly are! The Hagha church in the Netherlands, located in the small northern town of Heeg, seemed to hold no mysteries at all until a renovation team was tasked with replacing its deteriorating wooden floor.

The Hagha church and its surroundings being scanned with Artec Ray II. Photo courtesy of Edwin Rappard and Bart Wever

Dating back to 1745, Hagha is the oldest of the three churches in the town. Over time, its tower started sagging and was in desperate need of renovation. Thus, a decision was made to fix the building’s precarious tilt. The project team came up with a plan to replace the wooden floor with concrete. We can only imagine their surprise when they began removing the old floor, only to find an original surface beneath it, which was entirely covered with gravestones!

The idea of pouring concrete onto the floor was dismissed quickly since it would have ruined the gravestones forever. And while the renovators found an alternative method to reinforce the tower without resorting to concrete, it was clear that laying any new floor would hide the new discovery. The challenge remained: to make this part of the town’s history accessible to everyone who treasures it.

Preserving heritage in 3D: a tandem to the rescue

What comes to mind first when you need to preserve a piece of cultural heritage is creating true-to-life digital replicas of the objects. In the Netherlands, when it comes to anything 3D-related, your go-to experts are 4C Creative CAD CAM Consultants, an Artec Ambassador offering a full range of hardware and software solutions that are essential for high-precision workflows, from prototyping to quality inspection. In Heeg, the 4C name was already familiar, thanks to their customers at Miedema Sails, who previously used Artec Leo to scan the hulls of sailing and motorboats for creating boat covers.

While working at Miedema, Sjoucke Hooghiem heard of the challenge and had an idea: to digitally capture the old church floor, preserving it for generations to come. “We have a 3D scanner with 3D visualization, and then I thought: we should scan it, then they can do whatever they want with the floor. Then we have the floor recorded in 3D, so later on, we can do whatever we want with that data,” recalled Hooghiem.

Tombstones to be captured with Artec Leo in high-res 3D. Photo courtesy of Edwin Rappard and Bart Wever

The team then decided to test the Leo, and was happy with the results they got. Renowned for its wireless portability and ease of use, the scanner was a perfect fit for scanning the slabs. With Leo’s built-in touchscreen and onboard processing, there was no need for an external computer, allowing for quick and efficient scanning, simply moving from one gravestone to another. The AI-driven scanner delivered high-res, detailed scans, as it always does when digitizing artifacts, architectural landmarks, and heritage sites.

However, it quickly became clear that scanning the entire church with Leo would result in an enormous amount of data. To find a solution to create a floor plan where each gravestone would be located accurately, the team consulted with 4C, who had the new Artec Ray II right at hand. This high-accuracy, long-range laser 3D scanner allows for precise and rapid capture of large to massive objects, scenes, or areas from distances of up to 130 meters. Infallible in similar applications, this LiDAR solution was exactly what was needed to scan the interior of the church.

Seamless workflow for scanning inside and out

The team ran eight scanning sessions from different positions, including two from the left and right sides of the organ, positioned approximately four meters above the floor. Performed at the highest resolution, the entire scanning job inside the church took only about 50 minutes, with all vibrant texture details faithfully captured as well.

4C’s experts working on capturing data with Artec Ray II. Photo courtesy of Edwin Rappard and Bart Wever

Having scanned the church from the inside in no time, the team decided to capture it from the outside as well. With a total of eight scans covering all sides of the building, the scanning specialists finished the job in just two hours, achieving a complete 360-degree view of the church’s surroundings.

“Working with the new Ray II is a real eye-opener,” said 4C’s Edwin Rappard. “The ease of use is incredible, and since the scanner ‘knows’ where it is in space, all scans are already pre-aligned when imported into Artec Studio. Working with Ray II – it’s almost too easy!”

The reaction of the local community was predictably positive. “Because this means that the history of the entire place is preserved for future generations,” said Piet Vlas of the Heech fan âlds foundation. “Not only the church itself is on the monument list, but also the organ, the pillars, and the pulpit.”

Secrets revealed to live on

The seamless collaborative workflow with Ray II and Leo met the expectations of the local community and everyone involved in the project. A cherished national landmark, the Hagha church holds a dear place in the hearts of locals, and the success of this initiative paved the way for many more people to experience its rich heritage through immersive virtual tours, to be available soon.

Artec Leo and Artec Ray II form a robust duo for 360° data capture, excelling in scanning both intricate details and entire rooms or scenes.

With written records dating back to 1132, the community of Heeg is deeply committed to preserving its cultural heritage. The resulting 3D model, crafted with precision using both scanners, offers fidelity that will be a great resource for renovation specialists, architects, and heritage conservators. A source of valuable digital data, the model holds insights into the church’s structure and history.

By delving into the past we gain a deeper understanding of the present and ourselves. With access to next-gen technology like Artec scanners, Heeg’s 2,200 residents are lucky to be able to do just that, as well as have the means to safeguard their legacy for generations to come.