If you are a Project Coordinator or Admin, contact your DroneDeploy representative, or support@dronedeploy.com, to learn more about BIM compare and get access to BIM Alignment.
After your BIM file has been uploaded to your project, alignment must occur in order to position the model relatively to your DroneDeploy project, for correct positioning relative to your 360 Walks. Project admin permissions are required for BIM alignment.
Note: We recommend setting up all of your levels + floor plans, and adding at least one 360 walk per level before aligning your model. Levels added after the initial model alignment will require another alignment to ensure we set the elevation/z position correctly.
XY Alignment
- Open any 360 Walk
- Open BIM Compare mode and allow the model to fully load
- You should see the Alignment tools in the upper right - if you don’t, reach out to support@dronedeploy.com to inquire about self-alignment.
- Select the ‘Fit to Bounds’ button in order to set the camera to orthographic and position the model top-down - feel free to make adjustments to zoom level as needed - we are positioning the model so that we can take a top-down screen grab for alignment.
- Once the model is positioned to your liking, hit the ‘Screenshot’ button - this will capture a screengrab of your model for XY alignment.
- Once the 2D alignment page opens, align your model screengrab to your project in 2D like you align DD overlays: place your 1 & 2 markers on known locations in the model (left-hand side), then match those to known locations in your project. You can toggle between the map, or floor plans for reference via the ‘Switch Level’ and ‘Align to’s dropdown. Hit done once complete.
- Great! Your model is aligned with your project in XY coordinates. This only needs to be once per model (you’ll need to repeat if a new model version is uploaded to your project
Z Alignment
- Next, you’ll want to map elevations in your model to your levels. This ensures you’re viewing the correct z-position in the model relative to your 360 walks.
- Open a 360 walk on the level you’d like to align and enter BIM Compare mode
- Wait until the model fully loads - You should see the Alignment tools in the upper right - if you don’t, reach out to support@dronedeploy.com to inquire about self-alignment.
- Use the ‘Z’ slider in order to reposition your model correctly relative to your chosen level. You may also input elevations directly for your z position.
- Repeat these steps for each level. This only needs to be done once per project - the z positions will be saved to your levels in DroneDeploy, so even if you upload a newer version of your model, they should apply - only XY alignment will need to be repeated.
Note:
*Interested in having your models automatically aligned? Reach out to your customer success manager or account executive in order to enable this workflow if a good fit for your needs*
FAQ
I’ve followed the steps above - why is my alignment off?
- Check if your 360 Walk is correctly aligned to your floor plan - misaligned walks will not be positioned correctly relative to the model.
- Did you align your model to the drone map? If your floor plans on levels are misaligned relative to the map, then any 360 Walks on levels may appear misaligned relative to your model. Taking care when aligning floor plans on levels can alleviate this.
- Is your position only slightly off? Errors of 1-5 meters are expected given the alignment process. Sub-meter accuracy for walk-to-BIM alignment is not guaranteed nor likely today.
- If none of the above is true, you can reach out to support@dronedeploy.com for assistance
I uploaded a new version of my model - do I have to realign it?
If you upload a new model to the project, you will need to repeat the XY alignment steps, but not the Z/elevation alignment. We store the Z alignment mappings to your levels, so they will be saved until updated and can be applied to new versions of the model originally aligned.
Will 360 Walk uploaded after alignment be positioned correctly?
Yes - once the model is aligned to your project in X&Y, and aligned to your levels in Z, then all future walks added will be aligned. Note - if you add new levels after initial alignment, you will need to repeat the Z alignment steps for the new levels.