Construction Specific Software

[Mr. T]

Things are changing quickly...What is the best software to utilize for Construction site work?

 

[pizzwizz24]

I was searching same topic. Any advice?


Sent from my iPhone using InspirePilots

 

[DStew]

I've been impressed with Drone deploy but I am new to construction and just dipping my toe in with 3D maps for residential build updates.


Sent from my iPad using InspirePilots

 

[Dave Pitman]

I've had good results with Map Pilot and know others that are happy with Drone Deploy. One thing to note is that once you have captured the image set, you can use any of the processors. You're not locked into a certain processor just because you use their capture App.

 

[BoxerJaxman]

I've been testing Drone deploy to make a business case to our company to support drone use for site visits. From a practical standpoint it produces fairly accurate point clouds that we can import into our BIM software for initial site layouts and I could see it having value in checking progress on some of our larger sites. The $99/month pricepoint is also a great selling point. I haven't tried Map Pilot yet.

 

[RMartin]

Things are changing quickly...What is the best software to utilize for Construction site work?

If you are not going to use GCPs, then Drone Deploy will work just fine. They have a great pricing plan and it is affordable even for small businesses. However, if you plan on using GCPs on site, and for construction work you should be, then simactives' Correlator3D UAV is the better choice for the price. Another option is Pix4d, which is more expensive then Correlator3D...

 

[**Kyle**]

Scenario-you have a site that poors concrete in layers. With-in the concrete, there are retainer bolts. These get covered up when a new layer is stareted. Crew wants to see where those bolts after they have been covered up. It would also be preferred that the program finds them automatically and highlights them. (I’ve seen this for roof inspections before)

I could take multiple low altitude shots and stitch them together to crest one high res photo to punch in close and find them all myself or.....

This is where I could use some advise/ideas. Much appreciated!

 

[RMartin]

Scenario-you have a site that poors concrete in layers. With-in the concrete, there are retainer bolts. These get covered up when a new layer is stareted. Crew wants to see where those bolts after they have been covered up. It would also be preferred that the program finds them automatically and highlights them. (I’ve seen this for roof inspections before)
I could take multiple low altitude shots and stitch them together to crest one high res photo to punch in close and find them all myself or.....
This is where I could use some advise/ideas. Much appreciated!

How accurate are the control points you plan on using? Without accurate control on site that is incorporated into your post-processing then your accuracy is not going to be sufficient to do the job. Honestly, if they need to know the location of anchor bolts then why doesn't the site engineer shoot them in with a total station? That is the most accurate method. The second being GPS and third place would be a UAS.
If you are determined to do this yourself, then you need flight planning software that the image processing software will work with to create a flight plan. Things like this are not manually flown. By low altitude I'm guessing around 90ft AGL? That is my preferred altitude for mapping and still retaining a decent (0.5 or less GSD) which you need for accuracy. You will also need accurate GCPs ( I use Propeller Aeropoints) though you could use a mapping-grade GPS to set control points. Again, the more accurate the better the output product. Finally, you need to be performing your own post-processing of the imagery in a good software package (Pix4D, Correlator3D, Bentley MicroStation, ect...)
Without the bare minimums to do the job and relying on your on-board GPS for accuracy, you can expect anywhere from a couple of feet to a few meters of accuracy which is not going to cut it for this application. We flew our UAS and checked its bare-bones accuracy and found it to be about 5 feet off and skewed to the southeast. With GPS-set control points I can tighten that up to 2-4cm depending on conditions. With the Aeropoints I can improve the accuracy to 3-12mm. There is still a problem with vertical accuracy inherent when using GPS-based units. Hope this helps a little.