About — As Built World
About / 01

A reality capture firm built around the work, not around the sales pitch.

We document buildings the way they actually are — not the way the drawings say they should be — and we ship the data in the formats AEC and FM teams already use.

As Built World was founded in 2014 with a deliberately narrow brief: capture buildings, sites, and infrastructure with high-accuracy reality capture, deliver the data on time, and let the work speak for itself. No upsells. No proprietary file formats. No mystery line items in the invoice.

A decade later, we operate nationwide across six service lines — from precise as-built plans to operational digital twins — and we still answer the phone the same way: ask what the project is, scope it honestly, send a fixed-fee proposal back the next business day.

Our position / 02

The industry treats reality capture as a commodity. We treat it as the foundation every downstream decision rests on — drawings, models, renovations, lifecycle maintenance, dispute resolution. If the foundation is wrong, everything built on top of it inherits the error.

Four operating principles. Non-negotiable.

A scan is only as useful as it is accurate, complete, on-time, and portable. We hold ourselves to a published version of each — and we'll tell you which projects we're not the right fit for.

01
Accuracy

Validated accuracy or we don't ship.

Every dataset we deliver is validated against control points and registered to project tolerances before it leaves the office. Our Matterport Pro3 capture standard holds to ±20mm; aerial is ±2cm with GCPs.

If the validation fails, we re-scan on our cost. We've done it; we'd rather absorb a return trip than ship a dataset we don't trust.

Published tolerance Capture ±20mm · Aerial ±2cm · BIM LOD 100–300
02
Speed

Shipping windows that match the work.

Standard residential as-built plans deliver in 5–7 days. Commercial scans deliver in 7–14 days. Operational digital twins ship in 4–8 weeks. These windows have been our defaults since 2018.

We don't promise turnaround we can't hit. If your project genuinely needs faster, we'll tell you on the discovery call whether we can hit it — before you sign anything.

Standard turnaround Residential 5–7d · Commercial 7–14d · Twin 4–8 wk
03
Format

Open files, your data stays portable.

We deliver in the formats your downstream teams actually use: Revit, AutoCAD, IFC, RCS, RCP, E57, LAS/LAZ, OBJ. No proprietary viewers. No platform lock-in. No "you can only access this through our portal" arrangements.

The deliverables are yours. If you change vendors next year — even to one of our competitors — your data goes with you.

Output formats .rvt · .dwg · .ifc · .rcs · .rcp · .e57 · .las · .obj
04
Transparency

Scope & expectations, up front.

Every proposal we send is fixed-scope with line-item detail. Square footage, deliverables, format, accuracy spec, schedule. Change orders happen — buildings are messy — but they happen with explicit written approval, not through surprises.

We tell you exactly what you're getting before any work begins. If we're not the right fit for a project, we'd rather say so than win the work and underdeliver.

Engagement model Fixed scope · Line-item detail · Clear expectations

A five-stage workflow. Same on every project.

From the first phone call to final delivery, every project moves through the same five stages. The duration changes; the structure doesn't. This is how we keep work consistent across 300+ engagements.

/01
Scope

Discovery call

30-minute phone or video call. We ask what you're trying to do, the building you're capturing, and what the data feeds into next. No sales pitch.

/02
Proposal

Fixed-fee scope

Next business day, you receive a written proposal: deliverables, formats, accuracy spec, schedule, fee. Sign and we book the field crew.

/03
Capture

Site work

Field team arrives with calibrated equipment. Most residential captures take a day; commercial 1–3 days; campus or industrial 1–2 weeks.

/04
Process

Registration & QA

Point clouds registered, models built, drawings produced. Internal QA checks against published tolerances before any deliverable leaves the office.

/05
Deliver

Hand-off & review

Final files delivered through your preferred channel. 30-minute walkthrough call so your team knows what they have and how to use it.

Six things every project receives.

Independent of which service you commission, every engagement at As Built World ships with the same six baseline deliverables. The specifics scale to the project; the standard doesn't move.

/ 01

Registered point cloud (when scoped)

High-accuracy 3D dataset of every captured surface. Open formats. Validated against control points. The raw truth your team can verify against directly.

Format: .e57 / .rcs / .las
/ 02

2D plan deliverables

CAD plans, sections, elevations, and reflected ceiling plans where scoped. Industry-standard layer naming, dimensioning, and annotation conventions. Drops directly into your team's drawing set.

Format: .dwg / .pdf
/ 03

BIM model (when scoped)

Native Revit model at the LOD you specify. Architectural, structural, and MEP coordinated. Family library uses your office standards if you supply them, ours by default.

Format: .rvt / .ifc
/ 04

Project documentation packet

Field notes, scanner station map, registration report, accuracy validation, and the QA log. The audit trail from raw capture to delivered file.

Format: .pdf packet
/ 05

Walkable preview

Matterport 3D walkthrough of the captured space. Shareable URL — no software install — useful for design coordination, remote review, and tenant or owner sign-off.

Access: Web URL
/ 06

Walkthrough call

30-minute live session at hand-off. We open the deliverables on a shared screen, walk your team through the file structure, and answer questions. Recording sent after.

Duration: 30 min · recorded
By the numbers

A decade of work, documented and delivered.

300+
Projects completed since founding in 2014.
14M sf
Cumulative square footage documented across all engagements.
42states
U.S. states served, with field crews dispatched nationwide.
98%
Of repeat clients return for a second engagement within two years.

Buildings of every kind.

A reality capture firm sees the entire built environment. These are the sectors we've worked across most consistently over the past decade.

Residential
Commercial
Industrial
Healthcare
Higher Ed
Higher CRE
Logistics
Heritage
Data Center
Education K–12
Hospitality
Civil & Land

About working with us.

Don't see yours? Email us at [email protected] — we usually respond same day.

Where are you based, and where do you work?

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Headquartered in Oakland, California. Field crews dispatched nationwide — we've worked in 42 of 50 U.S. states. Travel is built into the proposal as a transparent line item; we don't pad fees with hidden mobilization charges.

Do you only work on large projects?

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No. We've scanned 800-square-foot residential ADUs and 1.2 million square foot university campuses. Our largest active engagement is a multi-year contract. The minimum threshold is simply a project we can scope honestly and ship with confidence.

Are you union? Insured? Licensed?

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$5M general liability, $5M aviation liability for drone work, workers' comp in every state where we operate. FAA Part 107 certified pilots for all UAV missions. Certificate of Insurance available within 24 hours of request, with your additional-insured endorsements as needed. We partner with licensed surveyors when stamped deliverables are required by jurisdiction.

What happens to our data after the project?

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It's yours. Point clouds, models, drawings, scan archives — all become your property at delivery. We retain a copy under MSA terms for QA, support, and any rescan you commission, but never resell or repurpose it. Standard MSA available; happy to use yours.

How quickly can you start?

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Discovery call within 48 hours of inquiry. Proposal next business day. Field crew typically dispatched within 1–2 weeks of contract signing for in-region work, 2–3 weeks for remote dispatch. We've turned around emergency inquiries (forensic, dispute, time-sensitive renovation) in under 72 hours when needed.

What makes you different from other reality capture firms?

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Three things, said plainly. One, we're transparent about scope and turnaround windows up front. Two, we ship in open formats — no proprietary platform lock-in. Three, we own all six service lines (as-built, scanning, project site, twins, FM, drone) under one roof, so handoffs between disciplines happen internally instead of across vendors. Most competitors deliver one or two well; we deliver the whole stack.
Talk to us

Let's scope your project.

Tell us what you're building, renovating, or operating. We'll send a fixed-fee proposal back the next business day. Most projects scoped on a single 30-minute call.