Construction & design-build
with the details that matter.
Progress capture, installed-work verification, and coordination support. We pair the capture method to the way your team will use the result.
What needs to be
measured first?
On an active project the value is timing. Capturing embeds before steel, slabs before topping, and MEP before ceilings close means deviations surface while they are still a two-day fix rather than a commissioning problem.
Every facility has a different risk surface. We start with access, geometry density, and the decision the capture needs to unlock — then choose between laser scanning, drone mapping, or both.
Talk through a scope- Progress capture
- Embed verification
- Slab and steel checks
- MEP coordination
- Facade surveys
- Close-out as-builts
Capturing work before it disappears
On an active project the entire value of reality capture is timing. Every element is visible for a defined window and then buried under the next trade, and a scan taken a week late documents a problem instead of preventing one.
Embeds, anchors, and blockouts
Anchor bolt patterns, embed plates, sleeves, and slab penetrations, captured after placement and before the pour. This is a one-day window, and it is the cheapest possible moment to discover that a bolt group is rotated or a sleeve is in the wrong bay.
Slabs and decks after the pour
Elevation surface across the slab before topping, flooring, or equipment goes down, plus edge and opening positions. Deviation that is trivial to correct with a topping thickness becomes expensive once the finish trades are committed.
Structural frame as erected
Column positions, beam elevations, brace locations, and connection geometry once the steel is up and before it is enclosed. Comparing erected geometry against the model early is what keeps a curtain wall or a precast panel schedule intact.
In-wall and above-ceiling services
Rough-in before board goes on, and overhead systems before the ceiling closes. After that, everything in this zone is inference, and every future renovation of the building starts from a guess about what is behind the finish.
Progress and close-out
Periodic captures aligned with the schedule for documentation and progress review, then a final as-built record at substantial completion. The close-out capture is the one the owner keeps using for the next thirty years.
Working on a live site
Active construction is straightforward to work in and hard to schedule. The crew works to the site's PPE and orientation requirements, coordinates with the superintendent, stays clear of picks and active work areas, and moves in short setups that do not occupy a zone for long. The real constraint is sequencing: a capture has to happen in the gap between one trade finishing and the next covering their work, and those gaps move constantly.
The practical answer is to agree the capture moments at the start of the project rather than calling for a scan when something has already gone wrong. A short list — embeds before pour, slab before topping, steel before enclosure, rough-in before board — tied to the construction schedule gives everyone predictable dates and lets the field crew plan around them. Weather matters more than people expect: an exposed slab, standing water, and low light all affect what a capture can achieve on the day.
More on how this works in practice is on our guide to scanning without a shutdown.
Verification deliverables and who acts on them
Verification output is only useful if somebody has agreed in advance what counts as acceptable. The deliverable is a measurement of difference; the tolerance and the decision belong to the project team.
| The decision | What to ask for | Why that one |
|---|---|---|
| Checking installed work against the model | Registered cloud aligned to the project coordinate system, with deviation output | Comparison only means something when both datasets share the project datum, which has to be set before capture. |
| Documenting concealed work | Point cloud plus record images per area | The value is in the record itself: what is behind the wall, captured at the one moment it was visible. |
| Progress documentation | Periodic captures with a consistent coverage scope | Comparable captures across dates are far more useful than a more detailed one-off nobody can compare. |
| Owner handover | Close-out as-built drawings and model | The facilities team inherits this and will use it long after the project team has moved on. |
Formats and what each one is good for are covered on the deliverables page.
How verification scans get wasted
- No shared coordinate system — A cloud registered to its own local frame cannot be compared with a design model without a re-alignment that introduces error of its own. Establishing the project datum and control before the first capture is the single most important decision on a verification scope.
- No agreed tolerance — A deviation map with no acceptance criterion generates argument rather than decisions. Who defines the tolerance, who reviews the output, and what happens when something falls outside it are questions to settle before the first scan, not after a color map appears.
- Capturing after the trade has moved on — The scan that would have saved a week is the one taken before the topping, the board, or the ceiling. Once work is covered, the capture becomes documentation — still valuable, but no longer capable of preventing anything.
- Comparing against the wrong model — Design models, coordination models, and fabrication models describe different things at different levels of development. Comparing installed work against a model that was never meant to be dimensionally authoritative produces deviations that mean nothing.
What contractors and project teams ask
When should we scan during construction?
At the moments when something is about to become invisible. Embeds before the pour, slab before topping, structure before enclosure, rough-in before board, and above-ceiling before the grid closes. Fixing that list against the schedule at the start of the job gives predictable dates and costs far less than reacting to a problem after the fact.
Can you compare what we built against our model?
Yes, provided both sit in the same project coordinate system — which means agreeing the datum and control before the capture rather than trying to align afterwards. The output is a measured deviation; whether a given deviation is acceptable is a decision for the team against a tolerance that has been agreed in advance.
Will this get in the way of the trades?
Very little. Setups take a few minutes each and the crew moves along a planned route, staying clear of active work areas and picks. The area of a floor being captured is occupied by one person and a tripod at a time, which in a busy building is less disruptive than most deliveries.
Do you produce the close-out as-built set?
That is one of the more useful things to scope from the outset, because a final capture at substantial completion is dramatically cheaper than reconstructing an as-built from marked-up drawings months later. What the owner ends up with is a measured record of the building as delivered rather than an approximation of it.
Pair TLS interiors with drone exteriors for one coordinate story.
Roof, yard, tanks, structures, and the building envelope can live in the same project handoff when the control is planned upfront.
See existing conditionsMake the invisible
measurable.
Tell us what is inside, outside, and on the line. We will help you scope the capture and the handoff — in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut.
Request a scan quote