Smart way to manage construction site photos
Hi everybody,
i was wondering if there is a smart way to manage and archive all the photos from building site construction.
From my experience, everyone involved in the construction phase makes photos (es. owner, general contractor, subcontractors, engineers, architects and so on ... ) but when the project is finished, these photos are lost or it's very difficult to find the right one when it is needed.
So i was wondering if there is a method to store them in an unique place and a easy way to find them. For example, it could be useful to have a plan with point representing the place (and time) where photos have been taken.
Maybe also there is already a way to store them in the IFC file, but i don't know it.
I think that a lot of useful information are normally lost and there is a better way to manage that.
Thanks in advance,
Massimo
Comments
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This is a really good topic for discussion. So many photos remain in some weird digital limbo when they could be chronologically layered onto a digital twin.
Isn’t this something you could achieve with BCF? I know it’s normally used for issues, but I’ve implemented it on previous projects specifically for the purpose you described.
The only proprietary software I know which is able to connect photos to an IFC elements is snagstream/bimstream I think. But it's higly focused at the Dutch market. And I never used it, I have only seen a demo so far.
I know BIMField is able to do this with Revit models, not sure about IFC.
@vpajic i've never used BCF but, accordingly to the description, it is used for share construction issues in a smart way with everybody. Is it correct?
Do you know a method to use it only for photos?
Here is a idea for you. It's more of a gis venture then bim
https://opengislab.com/blog/2020/8/23/mapping-and-viewing-geotagged-photos-in-qgis
Gis ? Bim
If you have problems importing the constuction site as vectorfiles, let me know
@Massimo - There's nothing stopping you from using BCF for other purposes :). If you look at the documentation here you'll see a bunch of metadata that you use to your advantage, even for usecases that aren't issues.
If we think of the photo-documentation usecase, each "issue" could be a themed set of site photos. Each photo can then have a:
That's just a simple example, another would be where you use BCF to report planned/actual progress to/from the construction site, or to just about communicate anything about specific objects in the model, such that they can be understood in other software.
For simple scenarios like that above, I've found BCF to be more than handy. Of course, if you start developing more complex scenarios, you may be better off with a linked database?
@vpajic ok, for the purpose of this topic, i think that what you described is more than enaught and also, for starting, i think it is sufficient. I would like to try what you described, hopefully with a libre software, but i've never used BCF: do you know if there are already examples of that, pheraps in BlenderBim or FreeCAD?
@magicalcloud_75 what you post is very interesting, thanks!
I was thinking about using both methods, pheraps the "gis method" is more suitable for external photos (like roads, piping, external public lighting, etc ..) and "BCF method" is more suitable for indoor photos (new house building, house renovation, etc..). What do you think?
@Massimo unfortunately I haven't played around with bcf in BB yet, but it's definitely on my todo list when I get some free time again. The software I used to achieve the above workflows was Desite (owned by Thinkproject) but it is also something that could be achieved with BIMCollabZoom (I think, don't quote me on this), which has a free tier.
Correct that bimcollab zoom could be used for this. Its really just about having a model based documentation workflow. As you find issues on site you find the corresponding point in the model and attach a photo to the bcf issue created for that location/object.
Dalux Field here in Denmark does that very well. They even have AR/VR built in so you can see the model overlayed the half finished project. I've heard that for some sites here they mount indoors GPS stations so anyone can find drawing for where they are by their location - it only requires an origin and direction and the rest is math.
There are three approaches I can think of:
My recommendation would be option 2 as the most appropriate, unless you already have a photo management system, in which case option 3 would be preferred.
The Danish Technical University did some work on using BCF for asset management. See the BCF Wikipedia article for details.
Is any of this published? did not find..
"See the BCF Wikipedia article for details." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIM_Collaboration_Format#cite_note-4
@duncan thx
Using opensource software would be nice. The approach of using the IFC model to link everything is very interesting. There is a company called SitePlan that offers this type of integration but I don't think they're very OpenSource about their code.
When you think about it, if what you need is sharing documents and giving access to people, there is almost no other way to go than offering hosting and a webapp. So from the business model side, you could have your Code Open but offering the hosting services and the APP with it.
Yeah, that’s a really common headache in construction. Everyone takes tons of photos, but when you actually need one later, it’s buried somewhere in someone’s phone or scattered in multiple folders. I’ve had the same problem on projects.
I'm currently trying an app called Timemark Camera (www.timemark.com). It’s a job site photo app made for construction photo documentation and inspection reports. Every photo you take includes the GPS photo location, timestamp, compass, elevation, weather, project name, and other details (you can toggle on or off to customize). Then all those photos get organized in a shared cloud workspace where everything is sorted by project and team member. Recently they launched a feature to export photos as KMZ files and view photos on a map too.
It’s honestly the best app I've ever tried. Simple, lightweight but solid.
Hmmh,
I don't think it is a good idea to tie such Photos to the IFC or similar ......
I am a fan of a Project Folder.
For commercial projects I participated, nowadays there is usually a project management server for all participants working on the project. There is a rights management which party can access which data is relevant and accessible. Sorted in a Hierarchy of subfolders. Like for CAD and BIM data, Calculations, .... and of course Photos.
That is what I do locally on my Desktop. A Project Folder that contains Subfolders for working files for my different Applications, a Texture Folder, my Render Output, ...... and of course Subfolders for input sources,
like current CAD Files, .... as well as Photos. For the site, environment, for the building progress, .....
I also think it is good to keep GPS location and EXIF data such as Focal Length and Camera data, in case someone asks for a Visualization from a certain shot. But if such data is not available there are also ways to recreate a shot's POV and gear by "photo Match" Plugins or just manually.
What i really like are Point Clouds from Laser Scans. When you get in the "Bubbles" from Scanning Positions, which offer a Panorama View which looks like a Photo.