What the files actually are.
Plain answers to the questions people ask when they see E57, MatterPak, DWG, and BIM on a quote for the first time. Nothing here is required reading. Order the package that fits your situation and the right files come with it. This page is for when somebody on your team asks what they are looking at, or when you want to check that we are giving you what your software can open.
Why the format matters at all
Four reasons, and only the first two matter to most buyers.
Whether your software opens it
The wrong export is not a worse file, it is a file your architect cannot use. Tell us the software and we send the format it reads.
Whether you can still measure in a year
Some deliverables are pictures of measurements. Others carry the measurements. The difference shows up the day the hosted link lapses.
What it costs
Some formats are included, some are add-ons, and one is quoted per building because it is a person doing modeling work rather than a button.
What it is safe to rely on
Every file here carries the same accuracy. None of them turns a documentation record into a survey.
What is a point cloud?
A point cloud is the building measured as millions of individual dots. Each dot has a position in three dimensions and a color, so together they form a shape you can rotate, slice, and measure from any direction. It is the raw output of the scan, before anybody draws a line through it.
The useful way to think about it: a photo tells you what a wall looked like, a floor plan tells you where somebody decided the wall was, and a point cloud tells you where the wall actually is. That is why designers work from it. Nobody has to trust a measurement taken on a Saturday, because the measurement can be taken again, from a desk, months later.
A point cloud is not a model. It has no walls, doors, or objects, only dots. Turning it into something with walls in it is what CAD and BIM deliverables are for, further down this page.
What is an E57 file?
E57 is the open, vendor-neutral file format for point clouds. It is the closest thing this industry has to a PDF: not owned by any one company, readable by nearly every professional package that touches scan data, and safe to hand to a firm whose software you do not know.
If you only ever keep one file from a Groundproof job, keep this one. It is the deliverable that outlives the hosted link, the software your architect uses today, and the relationship with us. It is included with every Proof of Conditions.
Recommendation: ask for E57 whenever the file is going to another professional, or when you do not yet know who will use it. Neutral beats convenient when the file has to last.
What is a MatterPak?
A MatterPak is a bundle of files exported from the scan platform: the point cloud, a mesh version of the building, and the floor plan geometry, packaged together. Think of it as the convenience version of the same measurements, aimed at people who want to drop the building into their software and start working rather than choose formats first.
It overlaps heavily with E57 and covers the same building to the same accuracy. The difference is packaging, not quality.
E57 or MatterPak?
The honest answer is that most people should stop reading and take the E57.
| Difference | E57 | MatterPak |
|---|---|---|
| Who controls the format | Open standard, no vendor | Platform export bundle |
| What is in it | The point cloud | Point cloud, mesh, and plan geometry together |
| Best when | The file is going to another firm, or archiving for years | One team wants everything in one download |
| Software support | Broadest. Nearly every scan-capable package | Broad, and convenient in workflows built around it |
| Cost here | Either one is included with Proof of Conditions, and $350 as an add-on elsewhere. Pick the one your team will open | |
Recommendation: take E57 by default, because open formats age better and you cannot predict whose software will open the file in five years. Take MatterPak when your team has told you they want it, or when one download for the whole building is worth more to you than portability.
Do I need DWG or Revit?
This is the question that costs money when it is answered wrong, because these are not two versions of the same file.
A DWG is a drawing. Lines on layers, the way a drafter would produce them, opened by AutoCAD and almost everything else in the drawing world. When somebody says "send me the CAD," they mean this. It is a flat, precise representation of the building.
A Revit-ready BIM file is a model. Instead of lines, it contains objects that know what they are: this is a wall, it is eight inches thick, it runs from here to here, this door belongs to it. That intelligence is what lets a design team schedule quantities, run clash detection, and change one thing without redrawing everything around it.
| Difference | DWG floor plan or full CAD | Revit-ready BIM |
|---|---|---|
| What it contains | Lines on layers | Objects that know what they are |
| Who asks for it | Drafters, remodelers, most trades, engineers doing layout | Architecture firms and design-build teams working in Revit |
| How it is produced | Generated from the scan | Modeled from the scan, which is a person's time |
| Turnaround | With your normal delivery | Longer, and we tell you how long before you order |
| Cost here | $250 for the floor plan in DWG, from $450 for the full building, all levels | Quoted per building |
Recommendation: ask the firm that will use it, in exactly these words: "do you want DWG or a Revit model, and at what level of detail?" If they say DWG, or they hesitate, order DWG. Ordering BIM for a team that works in AutoCAD is the most common way to overspend on a capture, and it is avoidable with one text message. If nobody has been hired yet, order the E57 and the PDF plan now and add the drawing later, because the scan does not expire.
What are SKX and FML files?
These are the sketch formats used by the two estimating platforms most property claims run through. An SKX is a TruePlan sketch that imports into Xactimate. An FML imports into Estimate by Cotality. In both cases the file carries the room geometry, so whoever writes the estimate is not re-drawing the room from photographs and a tape.
What that buys is time and agreement. The room dimensions in the estimate came from the scan, dated, rather than from someone's measurements taken after mitigation had already started.
Recommendation: if a loss is going to be estimated by anyone using those platforms, order the sketch with the capture rather than later. From $195 per loss. Ask which platform first, because ordering both is money spent twice. And to be plain about the boundary: producing the sketch is documentation. We do not write the estimate, advise on coverage, or negotiate.
What does plus or minus 20 mm actually mean?
Matterport specifies the Pro3 at approximately ±20 mm at 10 meters. In the units most people on a job site think in, that is about three quarters of an inch at 33 feet, with typical measurement error in a well-scanned room under 1 percent.
Put that against the decisions you are making. Across a 30-foot room, three quarters of an inch is invisible for laying out a floor plan, running a takeoff, sizing an HVAC load, pricing flooring, or deciding whether a sofa fits. It is not invisible for a cabinet run that has to land inside a scribed reveal, a countertop template, or a steel connection.
Recommendation: design from the record, verify before fabrication. Use the scan for everything up to the moment a shop is cutting material to a number, and put a tape on that specific dimension before it is cut. That is the same discipline good builders already apply to drawings, and it is why the deliverables are called documentation rather than survey.
Site conditions matter too. Glass, mirrors, very dark surfaces, and rooms full of stored material all make a scan harder, and where coverage was limited the capture-scope note that ships with your record says so.
What to order, by who you are
If your role is not listed, tell us the software your team uses and we will name the format.
| You are | Take these | Skip |
|---|---|---|
| An owner who wants a record | Walkthrough, PDF plan, photo set, E57 | CAD and BIM until somebody is hired |
| An architect or designer | E57, PDF plan, DWG. BIM if the project is modeled in Revit | Nothing, this is the full set |
| A remodeler or trade contractor | Walkthrough with measurement, PDF plan, DWG if you draft | BIM, almost always |
| A builder running milestones | Progress visits and the closeout archive | CAD unless a drawing set is being updated |
| A property manager or facility owner | Walkthrough, PDF plan, E57, plus a plan with tagged shutoffs and panels | BIM |
| A broker, host, or venue | Walkthrough, photo set, embed code, Street View if it is a storefront | Point cloud, CAD, BIM |
| An owner or manager after a loss | Walkthrough, dated photos, measurements, SKX or FML for the estimator | BIM |
Two things that are true of every file
You own them
Every deliverable is delivered to you and is yours to keep and reuse. We hold an archival copy so we can re-issue a file or re-activate hosting on request, and we never publish or share a job without written permission.
They do not depend on hosting
The interactive walkthrough runs on a platform that bills for every active space, so it comes with twelve months on Conditions and Place, and then sits under a plan. Your files keep working either way, which is the reason to take the point cloud even if you are not sure you need it yet.
Tell us about the building. We will reply within one business day.
Address, rough size, and what you need is enough to start. We confirm price, date, and deliverables in writing, and a 30% deposit holds the date for one-time jobs.
Founding clients through October 2026: 20% off the first job, DWG export included, and package pricing locked for 12 months.