About the site measurement process
The goal of this site visit is to measure the existing building, and document existing conditions which may affect your project. The intent of this site visit is not the initial design meeting. We prefer to discuss design and intent once we have all the variables which could affect your project thoroughly reviewed and documented. Examples include, but are not limited to, zoning data, building code constraints, site constraints. Etc. We prefer to have the complete picture prior to having detailed design discussions, but if you have any specific relevant information you would like to communicate to us at this time, we are happy to record that information for our project file to better prepare ourselves for your project.
Our detailed site measurement process uses both manual and sophisticated methods.
The Matterport scanner uses a combination of photogrammetry and lasers to accurately replicate a building in a virtual space. We can then use this information to create a digital twin of the existing conditions, known in the industry as an “as-built model”. You have seen this or similar technology used for real estate virtual tours.
In order to make scanning easy and as quick as possible we ask for a few things prior to and during our visit:
Access to all rooms within the entire building (see notes below)
A clear path of travel sufficient to move around a camera on a tripod (it is up to the technician’s discretion if a space can’t be scanned, to use manual methods to gather the necessary information. Excessive clutter may result in additional site visits.
We ask that everyone be out of the room that is being scanned (ideally, the space should be vacant or with minimum number of people not involved in the project, ie. building owner, agent, etc. Having more people in the space causes delays and affects the accuracy of the scan.
Keep pets in a separate room/outside during the scan
During the scan we will be turning on all the lights and leaving doors open. Please leave them on/open until the scan is complete. (We do our best to back track and turn everything off before we leave)
If tenants are in the space, please ensure they have the required notice and they have been made aware of the process documented in this message. Ideally, the space should be vacant. A typical residential apartment unit will take less than 30 minutes to complete, so this is not an intrusive process for your tenants.
Additional notes on privacy and security using Matterport virtual tours:
If there are any items that you would not wish to have scanned, please put them away in a drawer. If a specific closet needs to remain closed for privacy or security reasons, please point this out to the person performing the scan. It’s likely that one or two closets won’t prevent us from obtaining the information we need. We will assume we have access throughout the home unless otherwise specified by you.
The scans obtained are uploaded directly to MW Drafting & Design’s Matterport account, where access is only available to MW employees. We require your permission prior to sharing the tour with other stakeholders in the project, such as contractors, sub-consultants, etc., which we do recommend, as this can be a useful tool for everyone.
If you want to remove specific content from the tour, discuss this with the technician. There is a blur tool we can use to remove content. Faces blur by default (provided the programming doesn’t make a mistake).
For more information on Matterport’s data security information, please refer to https://matterport.com/trust
Should any changes or concerns come up, please notify us as soon as possible. Any cancellations within twenty-four hours may incur a rescheduling fee.