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One of the benefits that we’ve seen to virtual tours is the use of the dollhouse and floorplan function in order to plan renovations/buildouts. The fact that you can see exactly where things are going before you put them in is a huge boon. You can also do before and after scans of common renovation type that you do in order to show off your abilities. I don’t currently have any before and afters that you could use as an example, but heres an example of one of our renovations: 6 Pidgeon Hill.

The other day I was tasked with scanning a warehouse that had been built out into an indoor playground. The warehouse measured around 15000 square feet and half of it had significant buildout, from offices and party rooms, to bathrooms and reception. So I put my Matterport thinking hat on, and thought about the best, most efficient way to scan the premises for future uses. I tried to think about what a potential future tenant would like to see from this sort of space, and it hit me. It was a warehouse use. It would be very unlikely to see the same buildout that was currently there. I decided that the most important aspect was to get a fluid tour that really emphasized the size of the space, and the wide open areas within it.

The approach I took for this tour was simple. Minimal scans in open areas to give the feel of travel time between scans makes the space feel even bigger in my opinion. In smaller, tighter corridors I elect for more scans, especially in offices or areas with seating. When one takes a tour of  a future office, they want to see as many angles as possible to really immerse themselves in the future office. Check out the differences in scan density in this tour here.

One trick to get more use out of your camera is using the 3D views option to get still images for your own use. However, did you know that there is no scan component to these? This opens up the camera to some more “flexibility”, especially those of us who are lucky enough to have the Pro2 version with its print quality images.

For instance, I had a problem the other day: I needed exterior photos of out property 7777 Leesburg Pike, but I don’t have an actual camera to take stills. So I simply took some 3D views at multiple angles nearby so that I could later go into the workshop. At the same time though, I’m selling my truck, which is parked right outside of the shot. So I used the same 3D scans to get a clear picture of my truck!

Obviously this has other applications as well. Say you had a property that you didn’t need a tour of, and you wanted still images of it, but, like me, you didn’t have a traditional camera. In theory, you could simply open up a previously completed scan, add a 3D view at a new location, and upload that for no cost, so that you could extract the stills you need at your leisure.

As always, thats all theoretical, a measure you could take as a stopgap if you were in a jam. Thanks for reading and I hope this helps!

So for this tip, I’ve got a quick time saving tip for scanning an entire floor all at once, and then breaking it up into segments. We did this as the current space is one large contiguous area, but we were considering dividing it up to better suit our future tenant’s needs. So on top of the initial scan of the entire space, we also needed 3 scans of each smaller space. Here’s how I saved a good deal of time:

Using Matterport’s ability to reupload, you can forgo rescanning one of the areas entirely should you need to do what I did, and separate the floor into smaller spaces. I went with the lower third, as it was the biggest and hardest to scan of the three. To accomplish this, simply delete the scans of the other two spaces after you have uploaded the entire floor. This leaves you with just the one section. After some mild trimming, you should be able to upload again, saving yourself time, and the fee to upload a new space. If you’re trying to be exceptionally frugal, you could even remove the trim after you upload, begin scanning the next space, and then delete the prior scans and reupload again, giving you another free scan. Repeat this process a 3rd time, and you’ve saved yourself almost $60 total.

I hope these tips helped you as much as they helped me stay within the budgeted free scans, and to save time on this one very specific case. To see the tours for 10 Pidgeon Hill, please follow this link.

 Sterling Village Center is where I’ve done a number of virtual tours used in examples for tips and tricks that I’ve posted. For instance, the bakery I’ve previously discussed along with the convenience store are both located here. The main perk of shooting here is the delicious food at Buffalo Wing Factory though. Its some high quality stuff. All of the tours for Sterling Village can be found here on our website. There is also plenty of other commercial real estate for lease, such as a turnkey nail salon, and a bakery. I think it would be great to open a Bakery in Sterling.

An extremely valuable use for the Matterport Camera is documenting renovations. This is especially helpful when you have contracted renovations out to someone else. You can use the same scans and take multiple tours of the same space, without having to be charged for a reupload. We use this to show off the various finishes we can do on the space, and to highlight the care we put into our buildings. The tenants can use the new tour to show potential customers their location before they check it out of the first time. Its a win-win for everyone!

Sterling Village Center. A pretty Zen little shopping center next to a buddhist temple. We generally recommend keeping your shoes on before walking inside any of the shops or restaurants here.

One unique offering that we have for this particular center is a turn-key bakery. I had a blast shooting the virtual tour for this space due to all of the various reflective surfaces. There was a lot of hiding involved. To take the tour of this space with me, visit our website and click the tab labelled “Virtual Tours” and then Suite 114.

One fun note, I actually shot this tour in reverse, as I knew I was in a bit of a time crunch, and wanted to hit the areas I knew would be challenging due to reflections and trimming required. So naturally I started on the actual Baking side of things. But for the sake of the tour, I’ll run through it the way I intended it to be toured.

So first of all, you have just the main cafe area:Here you have some seating, and various display cases used for showing off your baked goods, as the is a bakery. Pretty nice layout if you ask me. I personally like the bright red counter.

After that, if you walk down to the right, you’ll find the office: Sometimes, you need to get some administrative tasks done when you’re not baking, or selling your baked goods. Its a nice perk to have.

After that, there is a little sink that separates the two spaces. I personally love lots of sinks, because I’m a bit of a germaphobe. It definitely pays off to stay clean in food service industries.

Up next is the bakery. Its where all the baking magic happens. I happen to know very little about baking, but I’ve heard that its basically tasty chemistry, and I can get behind that:This bakery comes with tons of baking equipment, and is ready to go day one, so with this tour I really sought to capture that aspect. Lots of shots directly in front of equipment for convenience sake.