TL;DR
Fifteen services, one underlying capability — but most buyers don't arrive already knowing which of the fifteen they need. They arrive with a problem: "our as-builts are wrong," "we need to track a stockpile," "leasing wants a walkthrough," "our coordination model is missing half the ceiling." This guide starts from those problems and works backward to the right service, then gives the full reference table for everything else.
Fifteen services, one underlying capability — but most buyers don't arrive already knowing which of the fifteen they need. They arrive with a problem: "our as-builts are wrong," "we need to track a stockpile," "leasing wants a walkthrough," "our coordination model is missing half the ceiling." This guide starts from those problems and works backward to the right service, then gives the full reference table for everything else.
Start with your problem, not a service name
"Our drawings don't match the building." → As-Built Documentation for a permanent digital record, or Scan to CAD if AutoCAD drawings are the actual deliverable your team needs.
"We need a Revit model to design or coordinate against." → Scan to BIM, scoped to the LOD your decisions actually require.
"We have CAD drawings but no BIM model, and scanning the whole building isn't in budget." → CAD to BIM Conversion, with optional scan verification of the areas that matter most.
"We need to track a stockpile, excavation, or earthwork quantity." → Volumetric Scanning.
"Leasing or marketing wants people to walk the space remotely." → Interactive 3D Virtual Tours.
"Our facility team needs the building at their desk, indefinitely, not just once." → Digital Twin Services.
"Nobody on our team can open the point cloud files we already have." → Point Cloud & Panorama Hosting.
"We're documenting an active construction site over time, not once." → Recurring Progress Scanning.
"We're scanning a live industrial plant or process facility." → Industrial 3D Laser Scanning.
"We need what's above the ceiling documented for MEP coordination." → MEP & Above-Ceiling Scanning.
"We just need clean, registered scan data — no modeling." → Point Cloud Services & Registration.
"The building is historic and can't be touched or disturbed." → Historic Building Documentation.
The full reference table
| Service | What It's For | Typical Deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| Building 3D Laser Scanning | A millimeter-accurate 3D record of an entire building in one visit | Registered point cloud |
| Scan to BIM | A fully coordinated Revit model to design or clash-detect against | Parametric Revit model at your LOD |
| 2D/3D Floor Plans | Production-ready plans that match the building exactly | Floor plan set |
| Scan to CAD | AutoCAD drawings your team can edit day one | Architectural/structural/MEP CAD |
| As-Built Documentation | A permanent, defensible digital facility record | Point cloud + model + panoramas |
| Volumetric & Stockpile Scanning | Defensible volume numbers for billing and inventory | Volume report (1–2% accuracy) |
| Digital Twin Services | A measurable digital copy your whole team works from | Browser twin + point cloud + optional BIM |
| Interactive 3D Virtual Tours | A click-through walk anchored to real geometry | Web-hosted panoramic tour |
| Point Cloud & Panorama Hosting | Access to scan data without Revit or ReCap seats | Streaming browser viewer |
| Recurring Progress Scanning | A scan program that tracks a site over time | Registered scans on shared control, per visit |
| Industrial 3D Laser Scanning | Capturing a live plant without stopping it | Classified point cloud + LOD 300 model |
| MEP & Above-Ceiling Scanning | Documenting systems nobody can see | Point cloud + LOD 200–300 model by discipline |
| Point Cloud Services & Registration | Clean, registered, QA-verified point cloud data | E57 / RCP / LAS, with residuals report |
| CAD to BIM Conversion | A Revit model from drawings you already have | Revit model at LOD 200–300 |
| Historic Building Documentation | Precision records for irreplaceable structures | Measured drawings, orthophotos, archival point cloud |
Can more than one of these apply to the same project?
Almost always, yes — and it's worth knowing that up front so you don't scope five separate site visits for what could be one. A single scanning visit routinely feeds multiple deliverables at once: the same field day that produces a point cloud can also produce a floor plan set, a Revit model, and a virtual tour, because they all come from the same underlying capture. Panoramic tours in particular ride along with almost any other scan for minimal added field time.
What if your project genuinely doesn't fit one row?
Most real projects don't fit exactly one row — that's the normal case, not the exception. An occupied hospital renovation touches as-built documentation, MEP scanning, and possibly progress scanning all at once. A campus program touches point cloud services (for the registration), digital twin services (for the facilities-team deliverable), and scan-to-BIM (for the renovation floors). Describe the actual problem — the building type, the occupancy constraints, what decision the data needs to support — and the right combination becomes clear fast.
What actually stays constant across every one of these 15 services?
Underneath the different names and deliverables, the underlying capability doesn't change: mobile LiDAR capture at ±5mm accuracy for buildings (±6mm for hybrid industrial work), delivered in open formats your team can actually use, from a provider based in Powell, Ohio and working across the Midwest and nationwide. What changes from service to service is entirely what happens to that captured data afterward — whether it becomes a Revit model, a browser-hosted viewer, a volume report, or a set of AutoCAD drawings. That's worth understanding before a scoping call, because it means the conversation is never really about which technology to use. It's about which output your project actually needs, and one site visit routinely produces more than one of them.
How do most buyers actually start this conversation?
Not by picking a row from a table. Most scoping calls start with a building, a deadline, and a problem, and the right service — or combination of services — gets identified from there in a few minutes of conversation. If you're not sure which row above fits, that's a normal starting point, not a gap in your own knowledge. See our guides on point cloud vs. BIM model, drone vs. terrestrial vs. mobile LiDAR, and whether to buy a scanner or hire a provider for more on the decisions that sit alongside this one — or start with the full services page and work from there.