Guest on 2D Is Against My Religion

Gregor Willhauck

Go-to-market, cloud for field systems (Trimble Connect), Trimble

Gregor Willhauck joined Trimble in 2010 when it acquired the eCognition business of Definiens, an image analysis startup founded by Nobel laureate Gerd Binnig, and has since worked in product management on photogrammetry and laser scanning software and rugged handhelds. On 2DIAMR, recorded live at INTERGEO 2026, Gregor Willhauck talked about Trimble Connect, Gaussian splats for UAV data, AI search on project data and why Scandinavia leads in reality capture in the cloud.

Episode

31 min

Expo & conference podcast

Trimble Connect: point clouds, 360 images and AI search in one place – Gregor Willhauck, Trimble

Gregor Willhauck · Trimble27 Oct 2026

In Gregor’s words

“The hardware equipment is, in a way, exchangeable. You can use one over the other.”

Listen at 27:56 · Trimble Connect: point clouds, 360 images and AI search in one place – Gregor Willhauck, Trimble

“If I'm looking at the use of reality capture in the cloud, the Scandinavian countries are way ahead.”

Listen at 24:58 · Trimble Connect: point clouds, 360 images and AI search in one place – Gregor Willhauck, Trimble

“Talk to our engineers. It is harder than rocket science.”

Listen at 21:06 · Trimble Connect: point clouds, 360 images and AI search in one place – Gregor Willhauck, Trimble

Quoted in our tech guides

Gaussian splatting vs photogrammetry: what 14 practitioners say →

“Representing it through a surface model can take out a bunch of information. Gaussian splats really provide a really good way to visualize that.”▶ 13:07

SLAM vs terrestrial laser scanning: what 13 practitioners say →

“The hardware equipment is, in a way, exchangeable. You can use one over the other.”▶ 27:56

Questions Gregor answered

What is Trimble Connect used for?: Per Gregor Willhauck of Trimble, it began as a BIM collaboration environment for architects and is now one place for all project data, including point clouds and 360 imagery, with tools to share, collaborate on and analyse it. ▶ 10:07
Does Trimble Connect support Gaussian splats?: Not yet publicly, per Gregor Willhauck: as of October 2026 splats for UAV data from large civil projects are an in-development capability, not yet out in the wild. ▶ 13:59
Does Trimble make a SLAM scanner?: Per Gregor Willhauck, Trimble has SiteVision, which uses SLAM on an iPhone or tablet with GPS, but no dedicated SLAM scanner; Trimble traditionally focused on TLS and mobile mapping and often partners instead. ▶ 22:17
What is new about the Trimble ST30?: Per Gregor Willhauck, the ST30 is an active prism with GPS and an IMU, and a laser inside the pole measures the prism height automatically, removing manual height entry as a source of error. ▶ 20:17
Which country uses reality capture in the cloud the most?: Per Gregor Willhauck, the cloud overall is used more in the US, but Scandinavian countries are way ahead in reality capture in the cloud; in Norway some projects are only granted to contractors who prove digital workflows. ▶ 24:58

Talks about

Michael Schoelkopf – Director, Product Management Reality Capture, NavVis
Barry Bassnett – Digital twin practitioner, author of Tower of Twins
Zlata Karpushina – Go-To-Market Strategist, FJ Dynamics
Mehdi Boroumand – SLAM scanning practitioner, Australia
Arek Szadkowski – Global Lead, ArcGIS Reality, Esri
Florent Poux – Point cloud researcher, founder of the 3D Geodata Academy, Neurones 3D