Lidar vs. Disto - any thoughts?

[NC Hammer]

I've been mobile since 2011~ with A La Mode Total. Does anybody utilize lidar exclusively? If so, how does it compare to laser measuring with regard to time and ease of import to appraisal software? Any advice would be appreciated. It seems the new UAD requires ceiling height of all rooms and I think lidar automatically records that information.

 

[cashcatz]

Lidar is going to continue getting better and cheaper: https://spectrum.ieee.org/solid-state-lidar-microvision-adas

 

[CCAAMO]

Lidar is great, but always double check with some measurements with the Disto

 

[OSU Beavers]

Since our county is pretty good at providing blueprints or assessor sketchs i was wondering if Lidar can be used to verify those measurements instead of drawing from scratch?

 

[CCAAMO]

Why wouldn't it be?

 

[OSU Beavers]

What I mean is, instead of having Lidar scan and your mobile app draw as you go, can you just stretch or shrink an existing drawing on your mobile app as you walk around the outside?

 

[CCAAMO]

It’s easier to scan the corners. If the sketch is from blueprints it’s not ANSI compliant

 

[Dublin ohio]

What I mean is, instead of having Lidar scan and your mobile app draw as you go, can you just stretch or shrink an existing drawing on your mobile app as you walk around the outside?

For the most part, in the counties I work in (eight of them) the measurements are pretty accurate. I usually find a difference of a couple of tenths or so.

 

[jpowers]

The import piece is what I keep coming back to. Is that some LiDAR apps generate a floor plan, but getting
it cleanly into appraisal software is still pretty manual for most people — you're redrawing or copying dimensions by
hand. If a clean import solution existed, would it actually change adoption? My guess is for a simple rectangular
ranch it probably doesn't matter — easier to just sketch it the traditional way and move on. But once you've got
angled walls, complex geometry, or multiple ceiling heights, the margin for error sketching by hand goes up and LiDAR
starts pulling ahead.

Worth noting that ceiling height is a UAD 3.6 required field — and dwelling volume is too, which LiDAR handles
automatically. Calculating volume by hand on an irregular footprint is tedious. That's where the time savings start to
add up.

CCAAMO's ANSI point is the real constraint either way — assessor sketches don't satisfy it regardless of how accurate
they are.

Curious how appraisers who've actually used LiDAR day-to-day feel about it. Is it genuinely faster end-to-end, or does
the learning curve and setup eat the time savings?

 

[Surf Cat]

The import piece is what I keep coming back to. Is that some LiDAR apps generate a floor plan

I've never used Lidar. I really like that it generates a CAD like depiction of the dwelling. Interior walls, rooms, doorways, Etc. The finished product looks pretty slick.

I don't do interior walls in Total sketch. I'll throw in stairs, fireplaces, and open to below areas. But overall, my sketch is just the outline of the exterior with the names of the rooms.

The important part though, my sketch is accurate. Secondly, I don't have to pay extra to have a pretty sketch that I'm not getting any more compensation for.

When Lidar gets to the point of being accurate, with a simple walk through of the house that will generate the sketch and layout, then I'll look into it. That would be saving me time and worth the investment.