Seven states between a site and a signature.

The work starts on the ground, with the building or the plot as it actually is, not as the design set describes it. Scope is agreed against the receiving authority’s requirement, so the survey is shaped by what has to clear at the end.

Every subsequent measurement has to sit on something. Control is set and referenced to a known datum, so scans, boundaries and unit areas all resolve into the same coordinate framework rather than three incompatible ones.

3D laser scanning records the built condition at density no tape survey reaches. Where the deliverable is a boundary or a demarcation, conventional instrument survey does the same job with less data and more speed. The method follows the deliverable.

Individual scans are registered into one coordinated cloud tied to control. This is the measurable record of the building. It is the point at which the site stops being a place you have to visit and becomes data you can interrogate.

The cloud is drawn up into whatever the next discipline needs: 2D plans, elevations and sections; a 3D CAD model; or a coordinated BIM environment. Areas are taken from the measured condition, not carried over from the design intent.

The record is checked against the requirement it has to satisfy before it leaves the office. Most rejections are format and completeness failures, not measurement failures. That makes this the cheapest step to get right and the most expensive to skip.

The file is lodged in the receiving authority’s own format, then followed through every query and resubmission it draws. Sending the file is not the end of the work. Following it through is.