I shot an iGuide today for a contractor who is renovating a property. He wants the floor plan to make modifications to it before submitting to the city for permitting.
Have any of you used an iGuide for this purpose? Any suggestions that I can send to him – other than marking up the JPG or PDF? I don’t imagine that there’s an easy way to import the floor plans into planning software for modifications?
From the portal you can download DXF files. I don’t use autocad type software, but I have seen these files opened in that software. An architect or engineer could make use the the DXFs to modify the plans.
Ah, perfect. I knew there was a vector format (SVG) but I didn’t know DXF was an option.
Do you know how a client would access the DXF floor plans themselves? I don’t see that any iGuide Reports and searching the knowledge base for DXF comes up empty.
Thanks!
I am a contractor and download the DXF into chief architect then used millimeters to convert then draw over the lines to create a usable existing plan to draw a proposed from.
If your client created an account on the portal, you could make them an editor and they could download the DXFs on their own. Otherwise, you can download the files and email them as an attachment.
I also had an architect ask this. The DXF are 2D apparently and not much use to him.
I will be adding this scanner to my tool kit as soon as they finish updating the ap for the 2nd gen scanner. https://canvas.io/
Seems like the data would be there to output a 3D file from iGuide but maybe not. I’m sure there is a reason.
Excellent. Thanks for pointing that out.
Do you run into any downsides to making clients editors? I’ll probably just download them and send for now.
I’ve seen that app but I haven’t used it. Would you use it in addition to the iGuide output or instead of?
Maybe @Alex can chime in here about this topic.
Thanks everyone.
iGUIDE camera captures dense 2D point cloud that allows creation of accurate 2D floor plans, that are available in DXF CAD format as well. A 3D CAD model can be created from 2D floor plans by extruding them upwards and using ceiling and door heights, as well as heights and elevation of windows that can be obtained through iGUIDE’s newly released 3D measurements. This would not be an automatic process, however, but an architect could easily do it without having to leave the office.
When you look at 3D cameras, such as Matterport, Occipital (https://canvas.io or https://structure.io, they were used by GeoCV) or the just announced Intel’s time-of-flight(!) lidar camera (https://www.intelrealsense.com/lidar-camera-l515), they produce a 3D point cloud. That 3D point cloud is turned into a 3D model by computing a triangular 3D mesh, where size of triangles can be quite big at large distances away from the camera or due to optical occlusion by furniture. Triangles size limits the fidelity of the 3D model and accuracy of any 3D measurements that are made using that model. Look at any Matterport dollhouse to see how rough the mesh really is.
Experiment with the just released Matterport’s 3D measurements to see how limited and inaccurate the 3D mesh can be (https://try.matterport.com/measurement-mode/) - the lamp is measured to be 4" at the base and 2’1" at the top!
Using multiple panos per room and photogrammetry, we could create a 3D mesh from iGUIDE images, similar to how Cupix does it from 360 cameras or 360 images. But as seen above, that mesh can be quite rough and measurements taken on it can be quite inaccurate. To get a finer mesh, it would take an exponentially longer time and a handheld 3D scanner (like Occipital’s or Intel’s) would need to be used to “paint” walls and objects with it from a close distance.
In contrast to that, the way our new 3D measurements work is not relying on 3D mesh, but is using directly the measurement points you select, which allows us to also report the estimated uncertainty of each 3D measurement.
As you can see, the iGUIDE technology is the most practical tool for most real life applications.
I would use as an additional feature to what we already do _ I also scan every house that I scan an iGuide tour with an Theta 360 camera to give the clients a Zillow tour. (ie baby tour) It only take a few minutes.
Thanks @marswalker. Do you mind sharing how much extra you’ve built into your pricing for that? Do you clients clearly appreciate the Zillow tour?
I only have a few clients who are “hands on” types and want to be editors. Most don’t want to have another username and password to remember, or anything new to learn.
I haven’t found any downside though. They don’t ever seem to do much, with one exception. My hometown had me map their public buildings, and they do make some custom views for contractors and also for their website.
I use Sketchup for turning my floor plans into 3D models, and Sketchfab for hosting them. I made this from an iGuide FP: https://skfb.ly/6L7R6
Wow this is great
How much is the sw investment
Learning curve
Cost per use ?
Customer fee flat rate and or sq ft
$326 for Sketchup Pro. Sketchfab depends on the hosting size as I recall. I learned it in about a week using Sketchup Essentials on YouTube (that was my first model). If you liked building models as a kid, this can become very addictive! Beware of interior decorators. They can overwhelm you with revisions and max out your file size limitations. I’m still working on pricing as I get faster processing this.
Perfect. I’ve hesitated to make clients editors in case it opens the door to a stream of questions and support calls.
We use Chief Architecture Premier
