Anyone use an augmented tape measure?

[dizz]

I am increasingly being sent out by my company to attend site visits around the country where I measure walls and furniture for signage, wall paper and vinyl coverings.
Now the way we do it is take wide angle shots of the walls etc with a digital SLR and then make hand drawings in a A3 book adding the measurements after using a stretch rule.
Once back in the office we print the pictures out and transpose the measurements by hand too them ready for the designer.
All very long winded and time consuming both on site and back at the office, also on site we are against the clock so a large site is hard work.
I suppose the ideal would be a device that takes a photo and add all the dimensions automatically ready for printing when back in the office.
Is there a reliable and accurate (iPad app maybe) available that anyone has experience with?
Thanks in anticipation because my life is going to become one long exhausting marathon of site visits:-)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ptcoll]

Any good ?

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile...app-in-ios-12/

Pete

[dizz]

Any good ?

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile...app-in-ios-12/

Pete

That’s the sort of thing but the review seems to say it’s not very accurate and when tested was repeatedly 1/2” out which is too much, I’d get the sack!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[David_D]

No experience but I did see some nice piece of kit online recently costing about £3,000+. Unfortunately can’t find the link.

This looks interesting for £80:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-plr...-measure/4741k

[dizz]

No experience but I did see some nice piece of kit online recently costing about £3,000+. Unfortunately can’t find the link.

This looks interesting for £80:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-plr...-measure/4741k

That looks interesting because if it can transfer the (accurate) measurements automatically it would at least save me writing it down.
Will look in to one of these as sometimes a stretch rule has its limitations when on your own.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Franky Four Fingers]

The Apple one is terrible, we tested it at work and then checked with a tape measure and it was out by quite a bit every time.

[Comet]

I use a Bosch laser measure for surveys and used to use a great app called “my measures” for adding dimensions over a photo. Sadly it no longer works with the latest iOS so I now take photographs directly into GoodNotes on my iPad and add dimensions using an Apple Pencil.

[Mr.D]

I use multiple methods.

Leica distometer.
Photographs for photogrammetry
LIDAR
Tape measure
Mk1 eyeball

The only truly accurate ones are the tape measure and eyeball

[Dean Learner]

I think one of these may be the solution. Certainly looks to fit the bill and would be worth talking to a local distributor about

https://lasers.leica-geosystems.com/aus/blk3d/blk3d

With anything there’ll be a learning curve and cost/benefit/accuracy etc to weigh up but reckon this could be pretty close.

I’m spoilt rotten using laser scanners and drone photogrammetry but tend towards much larger measure up projects such as full buildings and infrastructure.

Main thing with all the tech is to try it out and see how it works for you. Everyone will some you some gear but you really need to trial it, test it and see how the workflows work for you and your intended outcome.

[Dean Learner]

The only truly accurate ones are the tape measure and eyeball

until the data corrupts when being transferred to paper by the hand

[acg]

We've got one of those in work and it's pretty good, certainly for a quick signage survey but we'd always send someone out to measure properly if the job goes ahead.

Main problems are the dot can be hard to see in bright sunlight, it needs something to bounce off of (we use a bit of L shaped angle and bluetack) and in can't do curves.

Not tried the app part of it though it sounds clever.

It's within a mm or two in the office when used against a tape measure.

No experience but I did see some nice piece of kit online recently costing about £3,000+. Unfortunately can’t find the link.

This looks interesting for £80:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/bosch-plr...-measure/4741k

EDIT:

There's this too which one of our suppliers raves about (though he does sellit...)

https://www.stanleytools.com/explore...rt-measure-pro

[David_D]

I think one of these may be the solution. Certainly looks to fit the bill and would be worth talking to a local distributor about

https://lasers.leica-geosystems.com/aus/blk3d/blk3d

That’s the one I saw. Even more expensive than I remembered! Looks an interesting piece of tech.

[dizz]

The Leica system looks like just what we need but my boss won’t pay that amount, if I were to get a nice pay rise and the surveys were allocated solely to me I would consider financing it myself, but too many ifs and buts :-)

The Bosch measure with the Bluetooth link is much more affordable and I will try to convince the company to switch to a more modern approach to surveys.

Thanks to all who replied, always a good cross section of people/trades/business here to ask for advice.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tixntox]

I remember back in the 1970's, a surveyor set out a housing site using one of the stretchy "cloth" tapes. By the time that they got to the bottom set of houses, they had no rear gardens left!!! :)

[benny.c]

I use a Leica Disto and pen and paper. I’ve tried a few digital recording/annotating solutions but ultimately each one was either not accurate enough, overly simplistic or slower than the traditional method. I guess it depends on your profession and what you are are surveying but for me as an architect I’ve yet to find anything better than “old school” methods for surveying a building.

Just as an aside, I use a Leica reflective target for bright days or long distances and it’s also handy for measuring external corners when surveying on your own.