Matterport cameras are characterised as being simple to operate, and in a sense they are.

Just one button to check the battery and switch the unit on and off.

Of course, life is never really that simple.

The quality of the output, especially for AEC use, is dependent of the care that is taken during the scanning or capture as Matterport call it.

One factor is the number of scans in any given area, and this is a subject for another day.

This piece however concentrates on the need or otherwise to level the instrument prior to scanning.

Every time the Matterport Pro 3 LiDAR camera rotates it collects about 1.5 million points.

By the time you get to 120 scans that comes to 180 million scan points.

The Matterport Cortes AI system that processes your models is very powerful, but it would be foolish to give it additional work to do, especially with a large number of scans.

We know from our experience creating large models that levelling the camera means faster processing and less stitching errors.

This can become critical with tricky projects like those with long corridors, especially when the building forms a number of interconnecting squares, like those with corridors in a figure of eight.

So, adjusting the camera so each scan is close to being level makes a lot of sense.

We find levelling the camera by adjusting the legs to be tedious, and very time consuming.

If each scan takes a minute to level, then 120 scans will take two hours, and I would prefer to be finished up and on my way home.

At Hitechniques all our kits come with a tri-leveller and a large spirit level.

For our Matterport Pro 3 Expert Kit we have had a bespoke leveller and a unique spirit level and bracket created.

This combination allows speedy levelling reducing that 60 seconds down to 5 seconds, or less.

Put simply the two hours of faffing is reduced to 10 minutes, sending you on your way one hour fifty minutes sooner.