Topographic mapping and as builts
Vacant land topo, as builts for civil work, and water flow assessment are the highest volume work we have ever done. It is unglamorous, it is constant, and it is where a fast, accurate capture partner saves a firm the most money.
The work that keeps design moving.
Nothing in civil design starts until somebody knows what the ground does. A parcel that takes a two person crew a week takes one mobilization and a processing cycle, and the result is denser than a crew would ever collect on foot.
The other half is drainage. Water flow assessment on flat coastal ground lives or dies on vertical accuracy, and on a surface built from a classified cloud you can actually see where it goes rather than interpolating between shots.
What you get back
- Existing conditions topographic surface
- Contours at your interval, DWG or DXF
- Spot elevations at features and controls
- Breaklines along curbs, ditches and slope changes
- Civil 3D surface ready for design
- Drainage and flow direction exhibits
- As built comparison against design surface
- Cut and fill against a proposed grade
What makes a topo useful
Vertical control that is checked, not assumed
On flat coastal ground a tenth of a foot changes the answer. Control gets observed and checked, and the residuals are in the report.
Breaklines where the ground actually breaks
A surface built from points alone rounds off curbs, ditch bottoms and slope changes. Breaklines are how the model stops lying about the edges.
Classification before surfacing
Vegetation, buildings and low noise removed before the surface is generated, so the contours describe the ground rather than the brush on top of it.
Delivered against your design
If you send the proposed surface, the as built comparison and the volumes come back with it rather than as a second engagement.
Formats we deliver in
| Deliverable | Formats |
|---|---|
| Surface | Civil 3D, LandXML, DTM |
| Contours | DWG, DXF, DGN, SHP |
| Point cloud | LAS, LAZ |
| Exhibits | PDF, GeoTIFF |
Typical applications
- Vacant land due diligence
- Site design base mapping
- Drainage and stormwater
- Water flow assessment
- Earthwork estimating
- As built verification
- Subdivision and master planning
- Roadway and corridor design
Data from delivered work.
Every image below came off a real collection. Nothing here is a stock render or a vendor sample.
Where this work goes.
Common questions.
How much land can you cover in a day?
Can you deliver a Civil 3D surface directly?
Do you provide certified boundary or ALTA surveys?
What about wetlands and water?
Often collected on the same trip.
Aerial LiDAR mapping
Classified point cloud, bare earth under canopy, contours and Civil 3D surfaces from a single flight.
Read more →Photogrammetry and orthomosaics
Orthorectified imagery and colorized 3D mesh, tied to the same control as the LiDAR.
Read more →Digital twins
A measurable copy of the building on your server, so the next question does not need another trip.
Read more →Start with one site.
Send the boundary and the deliverable you need. We scope it, fly it, and return the data in your format, typically in under seven days.