Gaussian Splatting for construction: site records, progress tracking and BIM
How construction and property teams use Gaussian Splats from drones and phones to document sites, share progress with clients and check work against BIM.
· 3 min read · SpatialSense team
Construction sites change every day, and most of that change is recorded as scattered photos in phones and chat threads. Gaussian Splatting gives teams something better: a photoreal 3D record of the whole site on a given day, made from the same drone flights and phone videos they already capture.
Why construction teams are adopting Gaussian Splats
- Capture is cheap and fast. A short drone flight or a walk-through video is enough. No specialist scanner is needed for a visual record.
- It looks like the site. Splats keep real colours, materials, reflections and clutter, so anyone (client, architect, subcontractor) can understand what they are seeing.
- You can go back in time. Each capture is a complete snapshot. When a question comes up months later ("what was behind that wall before it was boarded?"), the answer is there.
- It works in a browser. Nobody needs CAD software or a powerful workstation to look around.
Explore the gallery to see what splats look like in a browser, from single objects to whole streets and gardens.
Common uses on a project
Site documentation
A capture at each milestone (groundworks, frame, envelope, fit-out) builds a visual as-built record. It is useful for handover, for disputes and claims, and for maintenance teams later.
Progress updates for clients and stakeholders
Instead of a slide deck of photos, send a link. Stakeholders can explore the site themselves, from any angle, from their office.
Remote inspections and coordination
Design teams and specialists can look at real site conditions without travelling, and point at exactly what they mean.
Comparing over time
Lining up captures from different visits shows exactly what changed between them, which makes it easier to track progress against the programme.
Checking against the design
Overlaying the BIM or CAD model on a capture shows what was built against what was designed, so deviations are found while they are still cheap to fix.
Gaussian Splats and laser scanning
Splats do not replace survey-grade laser scanning where millimetre accuracy is contractually required. They complement it: a scan for precise geometry, and a splat for a complete, photoreal record that the whole team can actually use. Many teams use both, and splats are often the only 3D record captured on days without a scan.
Getting started
- Capture: fly a drone orbit or record a slow walking video of the area.
- Process: train a Gaussian Splat with a tool of your choice, or let a platform do it for you.
- View: open the result in the free SpatialSense Splat Viewer to check it. It stays on your device.
- Share and track: bring captures into a shared project.
Not sure what format your tool exported? See Gaussian Splat file formats explained.
Where SpatialSense fits
The free viewer is for looking at one file. SpatialSense is for running a project on captures:
- Share with anyone by link, on any device, with no app or account on their side.
- Compare over time: line up captures from different visits.
- Overlay BIM and CAD to check built against designed.
- Measure and track progress on the capture, with the whole team on one record.
Get a walkthrough to see it on a project like yours.