I'm a huge fan of attaching site pictures to sketch plans when ever possible.
I was wondering if anyone has any slick methods of using site images for client review or for project documentation?
I used to use upload my site pictures in Agisoft and it would take the GPS data from the image and plot it over the Open Street Map database and label it with the file name of the image so I would have a plot of every image I took (but no orientation). I no longer have Agisoft so I cannot do this, does anyone have a similar workflow?
Also I really like the idea of incorporating 360 degree video for site documentation. My idea is I would wear a Insta360 camera on a stick 2' above my head or suction cupped on the roof of our vehicle and record site video as I do my initial site walk. I could later pull stills or video clips, framed however I wished. Has anyone developed a method doing this that they really liked? I would love to be able to host the video online where anyone with a link could manipulate the POV and extract their own stills.
We also use the 360 camera on lots of projects but mainly for internal use. If you can navigate the complexities of uploading 360 imagery to Google Earth for use by clients, it can be done. We've done it a few times but they keep changing the process and structure so it's been hard to keep up with things. We haven't done that for about a year but our originally published data still resides in Google Earth for all to see.
Lately we've expanded into wearable SLAM lidar surveying which has it's own internal 3d hosting that is shareable to anyone. It's super slick but not cheap.
If you are working with a scanning instrument you can capture and colorise a point cloud from each instrument setup.
It just becomes part of your job data, available right through a project from design to client delivery
In Civil3d there is a function called "NOTES" which you can use to attach notes and files, including photos, to points. The attached files don't become part of the dwg file itself, only a reference to them does.
You can use OpenDroneMap to do terrestrial mapping:
The Lightning version is available if you do not want to learn the desktop or server versions. It supports 360 cameras and multi-camera setups. The version 1 book is free. A few Apriltags/control flags and you are GTG.
Another option is Dot3d. Carlson has their own version of it. Much more time consuming, but the results are decent. Their Edit software allows for the creation of geo-referenced .RCS files in Civil3d.
See attached example. Approximately 30 minutes of scanning with an iPhone 14 Pro to document the site. It sucks at vegetation and open areas (ie. gravel, asphalt, or other things without "defining" features). We use it to document and as checks on our measurements. The "you only need 3 or 4 control points" is..............optimistic..........in our trials.
https://www.dotproduct3d.com/products.html
Carlson's version:
https://www05.carlsonsw.com/product/carlson-scan3d
The only reasons we didn't go for Carlson was because: 1. pricing was harder to come by, 2. the Dot3d documentation seemed better and 3. the Dot3d software seemed to have more updates at the time.
