A dimensionally accurate three-dimensional record of a site, structure, or asset — delivered as a dense point cloud and textured mesh your VDC and BIM teams can coordinate against. Captured across Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and West Palm Beach and the surrounding South Florida corridor.
Photogrammetric 3D reconstruction takes the same overlapping image set used for mapping and solves it differently. Instead of flattening the result into a 2D map, processing reconstructs the three-dimensional position of every matched point across the image set, producing a dense point cloud — millions of individually positioned points describing the real geometry of what was captured.
That point cloud is then meshed into a continuous surface and the original photography is projected back onto it as texture. The output is a model that is simultaneously measurable and photographically real: you can take dimensions off it, and you can also see the actual condition of the surface.
Capture combines aerial passes from the Matrice 4E with oblique and close-range angles where structure geometry requires it. Vertical-only capture produces poor facade reconstruction, so flight planning is built around what the structure actually needs.
The most common use is existing-conditions capture. Design models describe what is supposed to be there. A point cloud describes what actually is. Bringing captured reality into Revit, Navisworks, or Civil 3D lets VDC coordinators check design against as-built condition before a clash becomes a change order.
Point clouds are delivered in LAS and LAZ, the standard interchange formats every major BIM and civil package ingests natively. Textured mesh models are delivered as OBJ. Neither requires proprietary software on your end to open.
Phased capture is where this compounds. A model captured at foundation, again at structure, and again at closeout gives you a dimensional record at each stage rather than a single snapshot — useful for coordination during the build and for as-built documentation after it.
These models are produced photogrammetrically, from imagery. That is the right tool for most site, structure, and asset capture, and it produces a visually rich model that LiDAR alone does not.
It is not the right tool for everything. Photogrammetry needs to see a surface to reconstruct it, which means dense vegetation canopy, water, featureless reflective surfaces, and heavily shadowed interiors reconstruct poorly or not at all. Ground penetration under canopy is a LiDAR problem, not a photogrammetry problem.
If a project genuinely requires LiDAR, saying so upfront is more useful than delivering a dataset that will not hold up.
Ideal for: VDC and BIM coordinators, general contractors, structural and civil engineers, asset managers, and developers.
A dimensionally accurate model of a real structure serves whoever needs to measure, coordinate, or document it.
In practice the terms overlap heavily. A 3D model is the geometry — the point cloud and mesh describing shape and position. A digital twin generally implies that model is maintained and updated over time so it continues to reflect the real asset rather than a single moment.
Recurring capture is what turns the first into the second.
Dense point clouds as LAS or LAZ, and textured mesh models as OBJ. Both are open interchange formats that Revit, Navisworks, Civil 3D, ReCap, CloudCompare, and every other mainstream package reads natively. No proprietary viewer required.
For many site, structure, and asset applications, yes — and it produces far better visual texture than LiDAR alone. For anything requiring penetration through dense vegetation canopy, or capture of water, highly reflective, or featureless surfaces, no. Photogrammetry can only reconstruct what the camera can see.
Where a scope genuinely requires LiDAR, that will be stated plainly rather than substituted around.
Interior and confined spaces are captured with a 360-degree sensor system rather than drone photogrammetry, which produces navigable walkthrough documentation. That is a different deliverable with different strengths, covered under 360-degree interior capture.
It is accurate enough to coordinate against, and RTK capture with ground control tightens it further where a project demands it. What it is not is a certified survey product. The licensed engineer or surveyor on your team validates the dataset and remains the certifying party.