Forensics & documentation
with the details that matter.
Measured scene and asset documentation for insurance, legal, and incident review. We pair the capture method to the way your team will use the result.
What needs to be
measured first?
Scenes and damaged assets change or get cleaned up quickly, so measured documentation has to happen fast and hold up later. We provide the capture and measured documentation - dimensioned exhibits, models, and a record of what was captured - rather than accident analysis or expert opinion, which belongs with a qualified reconstructionist or engineer.
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- Incident scenes
- Property damage
- Structural failure
- Equipment condition
- Insurance documentation
- Measured exhibits
Recording a scene before it changes
Documentation work is a race against cleanup, repair, and weather. The capture sequence prioritises whatever is most likely to be disturbed first, and it puts as much effort into recording how the capture was performed as into the capture itself.
Control and overall context
A control network and wide-area capture establishing the setting: the building, the roadway, the yard, and the spatial relationships between everything in it. Context is what makes individual measurements meaningful later, and it is the first thing lost when a site is cleared.
The area in question, densely
The specific geometry the matter turns on — damage extent, a failed connection, a surface condition, an equipment position — captured at close range from multiple positions so nothing important sits in a single-viewpoint shadow.
Individual items and assets
Components, equipment, or vehicles recorded as discrete objects where they need to be examined or referenced independently of the scene around them. Position within the scene gets recorded before anything is moved.
Sightlines and access routes
What could be seen from where, how someone or something moved through the space, and what obstructed it. These questions come up long after the site is gone, and they are unanswerable unless the geometry around the scene was captured too.
Aerial and exterior context
Site layout, roof and elevation condition, surrounding terrain, and access, captured from the air where conditions and airspace permit — particularly where a structure is unsafe to approach on foot.
Scene control, safety, and joint inspections
Access is controlled by someone else: an authority, an owner, an insurer, or counsel. Time on site is often limited to a single window with several interested parties present, and joint inspection protocols may govern what may be touched, moved, or removed. The practical consequence is that the capture has to be complete on the first attempt, because there is frequently no second visit and the site may not exist in the same condition next week.
Damaged structures bring their own hazards, and a scan is one of the few ways to document geometry without putting anyone under a compromised structure. Capture from standoff positions, from adjacent buildings, and from the air records a great deal without entry. Where entry is possible at all, it happens under whatever assessment the responsible party has made, and any area that could not be reached safely is stated explicitly rather than left ambiguous.
More on how this works in practice is on our guide to scanning without a shutdown.
Documentation that holds up later
The deliverable here is evidence of geometry, and its value depends on how well the method behind it is documented. We supply the measurement and the record of how it was taken; the interpretation belongs to a qualified expert.
| The decision | What to ask for | Why that one |
|---|---|---|
| Preserving a scene before it is cleared | Registered cloud with full control and coverage documentation | The dataset has to stand on its own years later, which means the method has to be recorded as carefully as the geometry. |
| Producing exhibits for review | Dimensioned plans, sections, and elevations | Measured drawings communicate to people who will never open a point cloud viewer. |
| Documenting a damaged asset or component | Object capture and a textured mesh where scoped | An item that has to be examined or referenced independently is recorded as its own object, with its position in the scene noted first. |
| Insurance and condition records | Point cloud plus measured drawings and imagery | Extent and dimensions are what a claim or repair scope is quantified against. |
Formats and what each one is good for are covered on the deliverables page.
What undermines scene documentation
- Waiting until it is safe and tidy — Every day of delay removes evidence. Cleanup, emergency repair, weather, and the simple movement of material all change a site, and the capture that would have been definitive last week becomes a record of what was left behind.
- No record of the method — A point cloud with no documented control, no residuals, no coordinate system, no dates, and no coverage statement is much easier to challenge than one with all of them. The report around the data is not paperwork; it is what makes the data defensible.
- Mistaking a walkthrough for a measurement — A navigable virtual tour is excellent for showing people a space and is not an engineering-grade measurement product. Using one as the dimensional basis for a claim or an analysis is how a number ends up wrong in a document that matters.
- Capturing the object and not the setting — The questions asked later are almost always relational: how far, from where, in what line of sight. An asset recorded in isolation, with its surroundings gone, cannot answer any of them.
What insurers, counsel, and owners ask
How quickly can a site be recorded?
Speed is the whole point of this work, and the constraint is almost always access rather than capture. Once someone with authority over the site confirms entry and the safety position is understood, a scene can generally be recorded in a single visit — which is the target, because a second opportunity often does not exist.
Do you provide expert analysis or opinion?
No. We provide the capture and the measured documentation — dimensioned exhibits, models, and a record of what was captured and how. Accident reconstruction, failure analysis, and expert opinion belong with a qualified reconstructionist or engineer, and we work alongside them rather than in place of them.
Can you document a structure that is unsafe to enter?
Often, yes, and it is one of the better arguments for this technology. Capture from standoff positions, from adjacent structures, and from the air records a compromised building's geometry without putting anyone inside it. What could not be reached is stated in the coverage note rather than glossed over.
What makes the record defensible later?
Documentation of the method. The control network used, the registration residuals, the coordinate system, the instrument and settings, the date and time, and an explicit statement of what was and was not captured. Data with that record behind it can be examined and tested; data without it is an assertion.
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