As an intern with no task specifically assigned, I have been able to float around Direct Dimensions a bit and see a few of the distinct departments that the company has and get a good idea of what each one does. I started out in the cultural heritage/art preservation area and spent a good amount of time with the project management head there. He was able to walk me through a few of their client interactions from inception to completion, and the breadth of what they do here is genuinely impressive. One of the projects I was lucky enough to get a peek into involved working with the Central Park Conservatory to document, preserve and rehabilitate historic stonework and art installations including the Bethesda Terrace and the hippos in the Safari Playground. The Bethesda Terrace work mostly consisted of extensive scanning for documentation, but the hippo project consisted of scanning the sculptures for the explicit purpose of restoration and extended into the fabrication of exact replicas of hippo sculptures that were found to be in especially poor condition. The amount of work that this entailed was extensive but the end result is absolutely worth it, and now the hippo sculptures can continue to add to the makeup and personality of the park.
A project in the architectural division involved documenting a historical building in Anne Arundel County that was due to be demolished for reasons related to safety, as the building was vacant for a number of years and contained high amounts of asbestos and other harmful materials. The deliverable here was a bit nebulous, as the client wanted the building documented but did not have a specific use in mind for the 3D data that was obtained. Management was brainstorming things to do with the data that could add value to the final product and brought me into the conversation, where I was able to think about it a bit and see that the package that they give to clients at the end of a project contained all of the raw data gathered, as well as specific formats of 3D models based on what purpose they would be used for. I realized the presentational aspect was entirely absent, aside from a SketchFab link that would display the 3D model so you can interact with it. This isn’t nothing, but I felt that it stripped the context entirely and thought I might play around and see what I could come up with to bridge that gap. Over the last month and a half, I was able to put together a basic platform for the company to host and display their 3D data in a way that better suites their needs, while keeping that data entirely under their control. I concentrated on the context aspect, adding the ability to display extensive archival-grade metadata, annotations, and data overlays (like drone flight paths) as well as many other features that cover their wide array of work. It has been an incredibly fun experience and I have learned an absolute ton about displaying 3D data on the web, as well as what they have taught me about the data capture process. My hope is that this project can evolve into something more comprehensive and be a genuine addition to their offerings long-term.
Below is a screenshot of a scan they did of the National Katyń Memorial in Baltimore City presented in the web viewer I assembled. I did research and included the history of the memorial, the history of the massacre that the memorial is dedicated to the victims of, as well as the history of the scan that was performed. Direct Dimensions was contracted by the National Katyń Memorial Foundation to scan the memorial and do area calculations of the bronze and gold leaf materials for cost estimation purposes for repair and preservation. For this project the 3D model was more of a side effect than anything else, but we were able to create interactive documentation that the foundation can use to raise awareness for the memorial and preserve the memorial as it is right now for future generations, with full historical context present.
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