As more and more top construction firms embrace the benefits of construction reality capture data, two main avenues for collecting that data have emerged.
- Hire a professional reality capture firm like Multivista to come onsite to capture the high-quality data at the right time to ensure the project team has the actionable intelligence they need.
- Do it yourself and hope for the best.
However, with Hexagon’s new GoCapture app and accessing all your project data from a single of truth, Multivista’s secured cloud-based platform, the Self-Capture option just got a whole lot better. So, with that in mind, here are a few tips to help you and your teams capture the best visual as-built data possible, right from the first time and beyond.
#1 – Plan your walk
With the Hexagon GoCapture video documentation option, you can simple start recording, walk your jobsite and the 360 camera will automatically capture and save key frames to give you total coverage of current conditions. It’s best to plan your walk on the floorplan beforehand to ensure you don’t miss any rooms and confirm there are no hazards, materials or barriers on your ideal route. For best results record a new video walk every 10 minutes.
#2 – Lighting matters
Expecting to get useful information from photos taken in a dark room is a fool’s errand, but there is another aspect of lighting to consider while performing Self-Capture shoots. When using a 360 camera it’s best to consider when you go from bright light environments into darker ones (such as going from outside to inside environments), it’s better to break these two areas up into two separate shoots.
#3 – Use your time efficiently
Shooting 2D photos with your mobile device is a quick and easy way to capture specific areas of interest, but for larger spaces or entire floorplans using the Insta360 camera allows you to efficiently capture much more square footage within the space at one time.
#4 – Watch out for stairs!
Construction reality capture is traditionally organized by floor, so limit your capture groups to a full floor at most. Stairwells can still be captured separately and added as mapped points of interest on your project’s digital floorplan which is accessible on our secured cloud-based platform.
#5 – Know your role (and responsibilities)
Identifying roles and responsibilities is hugely important for Self-Capture, particularly if you’re trying to memorialize as-built conditions on a set schedule or frequency (immensely helpful for pay apps, deviation detection, schedule updates and QA/QC). Whoever’s job it is to walk the site at the right time needs to do it, and if they can’t make it, they need to assign those duties to someone else. Set a schedule and expectations for designated documentationand stick to it. Otherwise, the wheels fall off the whole operation and as-built conditions will not be properly documented or reflect the most up to date project progress.
#6 – Make the most out of your project data
Consistent visual jobsite documentation tied to your floorplans will provide you with easily shareable real-time project data. Consistent, properly captured documentation will help keep your schedule up to date, provide as-built project conditions for team members that may not be able to come on site regularly, and create a single source of truth showcasing exactly how your project is coming together at every stage of construction.
#7 – Don’t be afraid to call in the pros
Construction reality capture requires consistency, commitment and the proper equipment. And we all know jobsites are busy. The good news is, if your team finds themselves too busy with other duties or there is a gap in resources, you can always call Multivista to send in our professional documentation specialists to help capture your site conditions so that nothing important is missed. With Multivista’s full service, think of it as a failsafe backup for documenting your construction project regularly.
For more information or to request a demo on Self Capture or Multivista’s full service, click HERE.
