HoloBuilder™ Evolution to FARO Sphere® XG
Toward the end of 2023 and into this year, your trusted and reliable 360° construction progress management platform has been transforming, becoming the Sphere XG digital reality platform. Despite a rebranding, the features, functionalities, and seamless workflows you’ve come to know and rely upon have remained and, in some cases, supercharged.
New and Improved Dashboard, User Interface, and Functionalities
Sphere XG’s intuitive interface makes it easy for you to manage your reality capture data – point clouds, 360° photos, and 3D and BIM models.
To ensure your transition from HoloBuilder to Sphere XG is easy, we’ve included a toggle that allows you to seamlessly switch between the HoloBuilder and Sphere XG dashboard anytime. This way, you get to familiarize yourself with the new look, feel, and functionalities of Sphere XG, before the final transition. Rest assured that your data is always safe as we’ve obtained the internationally recognized System and Organizational Controls 2 (SOC 2) Type 2 attestation.
HoloBuilder to FARO Building Insights Social Media Channels
Similar to our goal of unifying all your reality capture data with Sphere XG, we’ve also consolidated our social media channels. On the new FARO Building Insights LinkedIn page you will find exciting news on anything reality capture related for architecture, engineering, construction and operations. These include updates for hardware and software, including new releases for Sphere XG, our mobile apps, and more.
Meeting You In-Person at Events and Tradeshows; and Virtually!
To say it was an eventful year would be an understatement as we’ve almost lost count of the thought-provoking events this year gave us. It goes without saying how everyone on our team thoroughly enjoyed meeting you in person and virtually. It is through these sessions, conferences, and forums that we gain valuable insights from your perspective as a valued customer or partner, that drives us to improve. Let’s review what happened this year:
Q1 2024 – January – March
The year started with a bang at the World of Concrete (WOC) conference in Las Vegas. The best part was seeing so many of you interested in learning how reality capture elevates your projects. It was also humbling to be given an opportunity to share our insights on reality capture during the MEP Innovation Conference in Orlando. We were back in Florida again for the MCAA Annual Convention, where we enjoyed catching up with some of you in person! Then, it was to Denver for RevUP’s eye-opening Revizto Global User Conference. We then wrapped up the quarter with a meaningful tribute to Women in Construction Week 2024.
Q2 and Q3 2024 – April – September
As soon as spring colors emerged, our ENR webinar on “Why Construction Companies Need to Embrace Digital Transformation” went live! Thank you to those who attended, and if you missed the stream, you can watch the recording here. Special thanks to Austin Lay of Layton Construction for co-hosting with us. Then, in September, we teamed up with Keith Alcorn of Ferguson Enterprises for another ENR webinar to answer the question “Is your reality capture toolkit approachable?”- thank you to Keith for joining us!
It was our pleasure to meet many of you live at the MCAA Fabrication Conference in Milwaukee and at the INTERGEO Expo and Conference in Stuttgart, Germany, discussing the latest trends in jobsite scanning and progress tracking.
Q4 2024 – October – December
The final stretch of 2024 remained eventful, with October kicking off the Reality Capture Network’s R-CON Reality Capture Conference 2024 in Idaho. It was fun demonstrating our products to fellow industry greats before heading off to SMACNA’s Annual Convention in California. It was then an enriching session with great minds at Autodesk University’s AU 2024 Design & Make Conference in San Diego. Heading into December, we met some of you at Procore Technologies’ Groundbreak 2024 in Denver, where it was great sharing and observing amazing reality capture innovations.
And hot out of the oven is our recent “6 Steps For Introducing Reality Capture Successfully” webinar in collaboration with Jason De Melfi of Hensel Phelps. Thank you Jason for your expertise on this topic! If you missed that, you can watch the recording here.
Refining, Improving, and Elevating FARO Sphere XG
Over the past 12 months, our flagship digital jobsite platform has seen significant improvements to enhance your efficiency when managing projects. See some of the key enhancements and updates made below.
3D Model Import
To provide you with a truly unified digital jobsite, we released compatibility for direct 3D model import into Sphere XG. We’ve made it easy to upload your 3D or BIM models in multiple formats, including Navisworks, Revit, IFC, DWG, and more. This upgrade unlocks greater navigation of 3D models and reality capture data for easy measuring, monitoring, and collaborating.
Workflow Improvements in Sphere XG
To ensure Sphere XG remains an efficiency booster in any scenario, we also made other tweaks that make your job navigating reality capture easier. These include new rendering profiles when importing point clouds that let you choose quality or speed when processing incoming data, depending on each use case. The new Align Wizard has been rethought from the ground up, featuring intuitive functions for precise sheet-to-cloud alignment. To ensure your data is correctly aligned to 360° photos, we’ve enabled the orientation lock button to ensure your visuals stay in place when navigating in Split Screen mode.
Enhanced Connectivity with FARO® Orbis™ Scanners & Connect and SCENE Software
To ensure tools within the FARO ecosystem work seamlessly together, enhancements were made to simplify work using Sphere XG with Orbis and Connect. First, we unlocked the two-way syncing of your Sphere XG and Connect libraries for better project alignment and visibility. Updates include the ability to register and merge two fully processed 3D scans directly in the cloud, without the need for desktop software. Optimizations were also made to include data from flash scans with Orbis directly to Sphere XG. As for SCENE, we’ve enabled direct uploads of your data to Sphere XG with optimized and precise point cloud processing abilities.
Improved JobWalk App Compatibility and Functionality
We’re excited about JobWalk App updates to enable bulk transfers of your VideoMode site captures for smoother workflows. This means direct one-click transfer of multiple videos from your 360° camera to your mobile device, and bulk upload from your phone into Sphere XG.
To ensure you can leverage the latest cameras with the JobWalk App, we’ve added support for the Insta360 X4 and ONE RS 1-inch 360 Edition. This means crisp, detailed, high-definition site captures of up to 72MP.
Concluding an Inspiring 2024; Looking Forward to an Enriching 2025!
What a fulfilling year it’s been! All these milestones and successful events were only made possible by your loyal, unwavering support and valuable feedback. It’s what fuels our drive to innovate and provide you with even better solutions. Thank you again for being part of our journey, and here’s to a memorable 2025!
