Laser Scanners vs Digital Tape Measures - Which is Better?

Are Laser Scanners (LiDAR) in competition with Digital Tape Measures? It's a question we hear often in conversation and the answer surprises many.

Laser scanners are great ways to capture a large amount of contextual data over entire spaces and provide more context than photos or videos alone.

However, in the absolute best case with top of the line scanners, 3mm (1/8") of accuracy can be expected (and usually much worse of 25mm (1") or so for iPhones).

REEKON Tools Digital Tape Measures hold tolerances or 0.5mm (0.02") easily which is needed when you are spending tens of thousands of dollars to order windows, doors, parts, or other items with critical fit dimensions.

No one is ordering parts based on point cloud data alone.

With there clearly being benefits and differences with both technologies, how can these work together and what's the best solution?

Use them both in the BOLDR Pro Platform - Laser Scans (or point cloud data) to get better context than a photo can and add in as built dimensions directly from a tape measure only where it matters.

REEKON views these two products as working in harmony with one another as point clouds are superior for getting a large amount of contextual data for spaces and digital tape measures for supplementing areas where critical dimensions are needed.

Point clouds generated from laser scans contain sometimes millions of points. This is great for checking 3D conditions but can be supplemented with a handful of points where critical dimensions matter.

Pictured below is a point cloud scan of a window replacement project where the point cloud is used for context in 3D space and a handful of critical dimensions are measured with the T1M Utility Digital Tape Measure then annotated together.