So, by that deflection may we infer that you have no actual data or analysis to support your assertion about over estimation? It was you that made the claim, not me. I said nothing either way.
I was sent a plan by one of the forum members, whose name I can't mention that had the outside and inside dimensions and floorplan generated by his Cubi Casa Scan of a home that was rather simple, at I think 1200 sf. He told me at first that as far as he could see the numbers looked good. He sent it through private email on this forum and so I assume the plan is to be kept confidential. But, look I am pretty good at studying CAD floor plans - I do it all the time. And the first thing is to reconcile interior and exterior measurements. You find two external walls without anything between them and subtract the interior measurement from the exterior and divide by two to get the exterior wall thickness. They used 9". The once you have that find an area where there is only one interior wall between two exterior walls. Add the two interior room distances, plus two times the exterior wall thickness and subtract from the exterior wall dimension to get the interior wall dimension. It was exactly 8". So, they used 9" for the exterior wall dimension and 8" for the interior wall dimension. This is in the deep south in a hot state. Here in California, in all my years here, I have never come across an interior wall that was anywhere near 8" unless it was a double wall in the kitchen or bathroom. I asked him if his interior wall was really 8" and the next day replied that his laser meter was not set correctly - something about it rounding to the inch. So, ..., in other words, in this particular case, we can assume it was off.
I had a demo by Cubi Casa and asked all of the relevant question:
1. How do you calculate exterior wall thickness? To which the rep said they use their in-depth research to determine wall thickness, which he said was 8-10 inches. Of course this is nonsense. Most houses around the SF Bay Area have exterior walls that are 5-6.5 inches and single interior walls 4.5 inches (at most).
2. How in the hell they get 8" for interior wall thickness between the living room and a bedroom through their so-called "in-depth" research is beyond me - if that is a general rule. Of course this could be a concrete block house, with concrete block interior walls. But the guy who sent me the floor plan never did get back with his measurements. I get the impression this was a house he already inspected and couldn't get back into. Hmmm.
3. Are you ANSI compliant? To which the rep never stated yes or no. Instead he went into great lengths to tell me that FNMA and "all of the organizations" approve their product and that it has been use in thousands of appraisals. Their webiste says only that they "align" with ANSI. - WTF does that mean? In case that is a misleading statement.
You and your organization, which you represent, should, to put it mildly apply your teams of Ph.D.s the task of actually testing this product in complex homes.
I have seen other appraisers using Cubi Casa and the homeowner remarking how fantastic it was, So, I would assume it is indeed used now by thousands of lazy and incompetent appraisers. What else could anyone expect?
Why do you think the public thinks appraisers are a joke?
Do you understand LIDAR? Drone operators who do extensive mapping are very familiar with its weaknesses. Skydio, bless that company, often looses its way when it goes under bridges because it is too dark. Reflections cause problems.
This is not a Cubi Casa problem per se, but a LIDAR softare and LIDAR hardware problem. The Phone 12 Pro Max ( or 2020+ Ipad Pro) does have relatively good LIDAR. However, it doesn't work very good on the outside of the house because of reflections from sunlight. It simply can't do measurements in those areas. For example, I went around the outside of my house with my IPhone 12 Pro Max and "3D Scanner App" - which is very popular. It couldn't measure anything from the gutter of the first floor or higher. And this was in the morning on a cloudy day.
Cubi Casa does not even recommend using its product outside of the house.
And by the way, ANSI does not talk about estimating exterior measurements from interior measurments. It talks about DIRECT exterior measurements. So Cubi Casa BY DEFINITION is not ANSI compliant.
To understand this, you just need to be able to read English.
Oh, and need I mention that we just occasionally run into homes where the lighting is poor even with all of the lights turned on.
And you do know that you have to avoid mirrors. But there are other kinds of reflective objects that can get in the way.
You seem to take this all very lightly. And if you do, then I assume Marty and others at your organization do as well. You are essentially speaking for your company. Maybe you could put all those Ph.D.s you brag about being at your disposal to doing some real work.
