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3-D scanning

John doughty

I just built a 900 square-foot ADU in my backyard. I was a self contractor and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you the permit process was a whole Lotta fun even with an architect :-).  The one unexpected thing that came from it was that after the project was done my architect found out I had a MatterPort camera and we started scanning in projects for him which turns out to be a huge timesaver and game changer. I can scan a home or a piece of property in an hour or so and give him a complete set of floorplans a 3-D model and an OBJ file for CAD which gives him all the information he needs to start the remodel in one day. My problem is I have found this new market but I’m not sure how to get this information to you guys, “architects“ because This technology is so new to this industry I’m having a hard time contacting architects to give them this information. Any suggestions!

 
Jun 13, 20 10:11 pm
OneLostArchitect

you arent the only one... alot of companies are offering this service.

Jun 14, 20 10:23 am  · 
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This is has been around for years, and worked with a company on a large project for this.  My only issue and if the following is still not provided it's not all that useful - can I get the 2D plans in CAD and if so are they still being fixed by humans or is it automated now?  The OBJ is way too detailed to be of any use to most architects besides having a google map like model to explore, which is better than photos and videos.

Jun 14, 20 10:34 am  · 
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archiwutm8

New to this industry? it's not new at all. You don't provide point clouds to 99% of firms because they either don't know how to use it, its time consuming or they just don't have the software to be able to use usable point clouds.

3D meshed modelled don't work either because its either unreliable or far too large to work with.

You don't provide the client the data, you provide them the end product.

It's also super risky to be offering surveys without being registered or not understanding the tolerances.

Jun 14, 20 11:54 am  · 
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John doughty

Thank you for your input. All I know is from my experience with the architect  I am working with He has me doing one or two jobs a week so it must benefit them somehow. I normally fly drones and do video so this side of it is new to me. I just figured if it benefited them it might benefit others. I use the camera for Real Estate, looking for other uses for it.  Thanks again for the input.

Jun 14, 20 12:12 pm  · 
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randomised

I thought this was a thread from 2004 or something, brought back from the dead by some spambot...anyways good for you John to have found an additional stream of revenue. My advice would be to just make a promo package of an existing property and deliver a full set of drawings and files with it, so offices can see what this existing technology can actually do for them. I'd target offices that do remodels and refurbishments specifically, though they've might already been using this technology or very similar for years already ;) 

Jun 15, 20 3:14 am  · 
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mightyaa

I'd market to survey companies.  Convince them they can add this service and hire you as their consultant.  Basically, their clientele and yours would be substantially similar.  The added bonus is the quality of survey generally establishes the expectations.  Your "as-builts" aren't really what an architect would call 'as-built' since your scanner can't figure out structural assemblies or figure out material differences much less mech or elec systems.  So you are providing a 3d building survey to establish dimensions, much like a surveyor provides a 3d survey of the topography... and as architects, we've all dealt with and had to covert those to useful information we can use in our drawings and models. 

Jun 15, 20 10:37 am  · 
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archiwutm8

Market it to survey companies? We're already doing this with far more expensive equipment.

Jun 15, 20 5:32 pm  · 
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mightyaa

Cool... the survey firms we've engaged just do site and footprint, not plans or building shell or as-built conditions.

Jun 15, 20 6:35 pm  · 
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SneakyPete

I have yet to receive a file that's useful off the bat straight from the point cloud / photos. It's generally either too much data or has been remodeled by a human who has no idea how the building actually was built. If they do, the revit they supply is made of element types that are sloppy, the standards don't exist, and we end up redoing it all based on the data we need that is culled from the point cloud.

Jun 15, 20 5:55 pm  · 
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archiwutm8

Because you really shouldn't be using the point cloud data, it's really specific uses really.

Jun 16, 20 7:49 am  · 
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proto

if i may thread jack

am i the only one who wants a rectified plan of a surveyed space? ie, not every curve, facet, bump along a surface. And not transposed into curves, splines or hundreds of tiny line vectors.

scanning a structure is useful to me but not if i have to redraw it make it not tedious to use

point clouds? i have yet to see any value from my perspective...i want them translated to orthogonal lines/surfaces before I interact with them. Or, if they represent a curve, uniform curves

Jun 15, 20 6:32 pm  · 
2  · 

actually I think Sneaky and I somewhat agree and the OP has still yet to answer my question whether the simplification to something useful is automated or done by humans?

Jun 15, 20 10:15 pm  · 
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archiwutm8

Automated drawings from point clouds aren't anywhere near usable at this moment. I'd say about 90% of the useful outputs will be done by humans. You have to understand what outputs you need and why you need it, I see the same mistakes again and again by engineers and architects, they all ask for the every piece of information but they have no idea what they're doing with it. A surveyed Revit model or alike should only really be used for clash detection and close tolerance designing where accuracy is of paramount.

Jun 16, 20 7:54 am  · 
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well get to work on an algorithm buddy...might be some money in it.

Jun 16, 20 9:44 pm  · 
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SneakyPete

Younger folks in an office with a more senior person is best. You can teach about methods via real stuff, you can talk about tolerances and rounding, rectification, all that. Unless it's too big, you lose a lot of opportunity paying for the data.

Jun 16, 20 10:31 pm  · 
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