Matterport headquartered in Sunnyvale develops immersive 3D technology. They offer a platform for prosumers and professionals to capture, edit and share 3D models of physical spaces. These navigable virtual tours are presented in Matterport's proprietary photo-realistic digital media format.
$9.99
per month
SketchUp
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
SketchUp is 3D modeling software with an emphasis on usability. SketchUp is a Trimble product.
$119
per year
Pricing
Matterport
SketchUp
Editions & Modules
Starter
$9.99
per month
Professional
$69.00
per month
Business
$309.00
per month
Free
$0.00
per year
For Schools (free with G Suite or Microsoft education account)
Matterport is very well suited for showing what a space looks like without having to have contractors, designers, or clients on-site multiple times. We have used Matterport to send out existing and current information to help with bidding, design, and construction documentation. The Matterport app does not do as well on the outside of a building where there are not a lot of differences in-between scans. Matterport does work very well for interior spaces, homes, and businesses.
SketchUp is great for individually studying options for building design. It is an awesome conceptual tool to be able to quickly model and manipulate a building to study different designs. It is not good for complex geometries, especially curves. Surfaces have a hard time registering and cutting into one another. It also eventually needs to go into Revit to be more realistic as it is not good as a documentation tool
Quickly exploring solutions in 3D: We get a lot of "what if" and "what would that look like" questions. While hand-sketching and hand-drafting can be fairly quick, SketchUp allows me to quickly create 3D and 2D views of a detail or solution, change dimensions and materials in a flash, and show a client or installer the plan in minutes.
Creating professional design documents in LayOut: Projects of any scale need good documentation. Using a combination of SketchUp and LayOut, I can create a Design Intent Set, plans for permitting, a set for mechanical trades to mark-up, etc. Having clear, appropriately-scaled drawings with dimensions or notations is a must, and we don't always have the time or budget to get an architect involved!
Using live files to guide discussions: Not all clients are "visual" people, so opening their model and orbiting around their space in real time has been extremely helpful. Clients and trades enjoy the perspective views so much that we often include them in the full-sized drawing sets to give a good "overall" view of the project intent. For complex or tight spaces, sometimes un-rendered plans and elevations just aren't enough!
The Matterport Capture app has some bugs and issues where some scans don't align well and additional time is needed re-scan in the same location multiple times.
We typically wait a few years in between renewing, as even older versions are powerful tools for modeling, and we make sure the amount of feature changes are worth the re-investment.
It is very user friendly and easy to learn. It's simplicity allows for a low learning curve so more people can learn it faster. The downside is that most schools are no longer teaching it, so many younger professionals come out of school not knowing it and knowing more complex software and they have a hard time "dumbing down" their skillsets
Sketchup is so intuitive; I can't recall ever looking for official support. However, there are many user forums online that can answer more questions. The usefulness of the online forums is, however, tempered by the fact that there have been many versions of the software under different ownership and support regimes, and thus finding the right information for the right version of the software can be a challenge.
We have looked at other, "Matterport like" products. One of the greatest advantages Matterport has over the other products we have reviewed is the ability to automatically create 3d walkthroughs and host the walkthroughs where we need them. Many of the "Matterport like" apps focus on Showing existing homes and spaces. We have used Matterport for this purpose but our primary use is to show the process of a construction project from the beginning, throughout, and to the finished product.
We have not evaluated any other competing software to this one. I heard about this software from a friend who teaches how to use it. She showed me in just a few minutes and I was HOOKED. I saw immediately the possible help it would be to my business. Thank you.
