Construction Viz

Project Management Perfect

Microsoft 365

Location, Location, Location: Add Location Data to Images and Video with Construction Viz

Media |

It’s handy to know where photos and videos are taken in the field, especially when filling out a daily or inspection report. Check out this article to see how Construction Viz can enhance your experience with its robust geolocation features.

data to construction images

Geolocating Images and Video in Construction Viz

Adding images and videos to a field report is a must for documenting project progress and identifying defects. Knowing where the photos or videos were taken helps to provide additional metadata and context.

Construction Viz can automatically and manually geolocate each image or video using a simple but effective mapping UI. To start, Construction Viz automatically geolocates files using the following logic when uploading the photos or video:

  • If the device location is enabled, Construction Viz uses the device's latitude and longitude as the location.
  • If location data is not available for the device or files, Construction Viz uses the project's latitude and longitude for location.
  • If no project, device, or file location is available, then a location in the middle of the U.S. is used as a starting point.

Moving the Location Pins

While assigning a default latitude and longitude for images and videos is a big time saver, Construction Viz also includes an interactive geolocation feature where users can move a pin to the exact location on a modal map. This custom geolocator can be especially handy if no existing latitude and longitude data is associated with the files, and you are back at the office completing your report.

Finally, to make this feature as flexible and easy to use as possible, Construction Viz provides three options to update files:

  1. Upon uploading an image or video from the device
  2. From within the uploaded grid view of all files
  3. Using the flyout menu

So, depending on your preference, there is an approach that will fit your work process.

Ready to streamline your construction project workflows? Discover how Construction Viz can revolutionize your project management with built-in image and video geolocation, as well as other powerful features. Request a free demo today by filling out the form below, and see the difference it can make for your organization.

Customized Questionnaires Now Available in All Construction Viz Apps

Forms |

Whether you are completing a site inspection, daily report, or even a risk assessment, you may need to create customized questionnaires where you can add unique questions and choose the types of responses, like a date or checkbox. With our latest release of Construction Viz, we aimed to deliver a truly dynamic questionnaire solution that is available across all our apps. Check out this article to find out more.

The new questionnaire component delivers robust and dynamic features on all fronts, and as with all Construction Viz applications, the data is stored on your SharePoint sites.

Questionnaires Available in All Construction Viz Apps

The questionnaire component is available across all Construction Viz apps. It is available in the daily and inspection form apps by default, but you can activate it on any of our apps.

Need questionnaires in a Change Request or Submittal form app? No problem. Activate the questionnaire feature in the settings.

Construction Questionnaire

Construction Viz Questionnaire Component Features

Custom response data types

Want different response data types for each question? When creating a questionnaire template, an admin can assign each question a unique response type, such as a checkbox, currency, date, date/time, instruction, location, number, percent, and text.

Construction Questionnaire

User enabled questionnaires

You might have a set of questions that require responses in a form by default, but you might also need the flexibility to respond to questions depending on the unique circumstance or condition.

The new user-enabled questionnaires allow the initiator to enable other related questions depending on the situation, providing the ultimate flexibility.

Form type questionnaires

We added a new form type field to select forms that can drive which questionnaires are enabled in the form. So, when a user selects a safety inspection form type in an inspection report form app, the safety questionnaires are made available by default.

Construction Questionnaire

These new questionnaire features in Construction Viz provide the ability to adapt to dynamic business needs and increase overall efficiency on construction projects.

Lydon Solutions continues to innovate and deliver solutions to real-world problems with Construction Viz. You can request a demo of Construction Viz for Microsoft 365 below.

Construction Viz Makes Handling Photos and Video Easy

Construction Viz |

The ability to take images and video in the field and store them online is one of the most asked-for features of a construction project management system. Unfortunately, most systems only allow uploading images and videos to folders. Construction Viz, for Microsoft 365, makes it easy to work with photos and video while allowing for metadata tagging, enhanced search, and reporting!

Check out this article to find out how capturing project photos and videos in Construction Viz offers many advantages over competitors in the market.

What's the Difference Between Folders and Metadata?

Most construction project management systems, including OneDrive, provide image and video management within a file explorer structure where you upload files to named folders. This approach makes it simple for the user, but that simplicity comes with tradeoffs in getting that data back out for reporting and search.

With Construction Viz, we leverage metadata to store the files, making them easy to search and retrieve.

How Construction Viz Handles Photos and Video

When a user takes a photo or uploads multiple images or videos out in the field, Construction Viz displays thumbnails in an interactive grid so that the user can add key metadata, such as a title and description, before saving the files. The key is making this step as easy as possible so the end user can quickly, easily, and correctly tag metadata.

Construction Viz provides you with three opportunities to get it right:

1. On upload of the file. Users can edit the photo and video metadata on the upload screen.

2. Once saved in the image grid. Users can edit the image grid and update metadata after saving the photo.

3. From the grid flyout menu. Users can click on a photo and open a flyout menu that displays a larger image's thumbnail and metadata in a form layout for ease of editing.

How Do I Get To My Photos?

You can activate the Construction Viz image uploader in any app. You read that right, not just a daily report or an inspection report. You can access and upload media to any of the other 50+ Construction Viz apps.

All images are available in the app grids, allowing you to sort, group, and filter them using the added metadata. And you can create custom project and personal views using the same metadata so you can easily find what you are looking for.

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How Does SharePoint Factor Into This?

Construction Viz stores metadata with the image in the SharePoint site where it is deployed. Specifically, images are stored in SharePoint document libraries, and the metadata in Construction Viz is displayed as columns. This file storage approach provides the added benefit of being able to leverage SharePoint search, view filtering, Copilot AI, and the ability to archive in place.

Streamline Your Construction Project Management

If you are interested in Microsoft 365 to manage your construction projects, you can request a free one-hour consultation with our professionals at LydonSolutions.com.

If you are looking for a turnkey construction management solution for your Microsoft 365, you can request a demo of Construction Viz here.

Request a Free Demo

Customize Form Statuses and Notifications with Construction Viz

Notifications |

Configurable statuses and notifications for the way you work!

Every company, project, and project manager manages construction projects differently. Having unique form statuses and defining when a user receives a notification is no different. Check out this article to see how Construction Viz can adapt form statuses and notifications to your processes.

Customize Statuses and Notifications Easily in Construction Viz

Keeping your process flexible is the name of the game in construction, and this is why we built a custom form app status and notification feature in Construction Viz.

Form statuses can be different on every project, depending on the contract requirement. For example, you might want a form review status of a submittal to be “Ready for Review” instead of “Open” or an RFI status to be “Acknowledge” instead of “Review Required.” These may be slight differences, but depending on the client, they can make a big difference with regard to ball in court and turnaround time.

With Construction Viz, you can create your own statuses, identify default statuses when you create a new form, and determine which ones will trigger a notification for users to take action. We made the entire process simple and straightforward so you can set up quickly and focus on what matters: getting work done.

See our lineup of construction form apps here.

Construction Project Management Your Way

Our configurable statuses and notification features let you customize your communication workflows to meet your needs. You can find out more about Construction Viz on the features page.

Ready to streamline your construction project workflows? Discover how Construction Viz can revolutionize your project management. Request a free demo today and see the difference it can make for your organization.

Get a Free Demo

Construction Viz Has Now Entered the Microsoft Dataverse!

News |

Our initial tests to deploy Construction Viz to the Dataverse have been successful. Find out how deploying Construction Viz to YOUR Dataverse opens up a whole new world of possibilities!

Construction Viz is an enterprise construction management solution deployed to a client’s Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online. While the code runs in the cloud, all client data remains stored in their SharePoint lists and libraries. It’s a revolutionary approach to deploying a construction management solution, but we are just getting started.

Dataverse, here we come in 2025!

What’s Microsoft Dataverse?

Microsoft Dataverse is a secure cloud-based database in Microsoft 365 and so much more. It began as the Common Data Service for Microsoft Dynamics but is now a pillar for the modern Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Virtual Agents) and Microsoft Project for the Web.

Microsoft Dataverse provides the following:

  • Power Platform Integration. It is the underlying data platform for Microsoft’s Power Platform.
  • Ability to leverage all data technologies. The Dataverse is designed to work with any data type and incorporates all the major categories of data technologies that your organization needs—relational, non-relational, file, image, search, and data lake.
  • Rapid app development. Citizen developers can rapidly develop and deploy applications using Power Apps. The platform abstracts much of the complexity of database design.
  • Simplifies application development. Dataverse reduces development efforts by offering pre-built connectors, data types, and relationships. This simplifies the creation of applications, as developers can leverage existing structures rather than starting from scratch.

How Will Combining Construction Viz and Microsoft Dataverse Benefit You?

Our integration of Construction Viz with Microsoft Dataverse opens up multiple powerful capabilities for our clients, including:

  • Build and integrate your own applications. You will be able to build your own Power Apps using the same data source and integrate applications and data into Construction Viz. For example, you could create an offline daily report in Power Apps and access it in Construction Viz or even update Microsoft Projects through the Construction Viz hub in real time.
  • Integrate with Dynamics. Many construction organizations use Dynamics as their ERP/CRM tool. Construction Viz will extend the capabilities of Dynamics for project-centric applications, and you can share Dynamics data with Construction Viz.
  • Data consolidation. Aggregate all your data into a single location, simplifying security, analytics, and application building.
  • Database-intensive applications. Need something custom on a large scale? Instead of building an SQL Server database, which can take considerable effort, you can quickly spin up a Dataverse environment with all of these considerations already baked in.

Ready to Harness the Full Power of Construction Viz and Microsoft Dataverse?

The integration of Construction Viz with Microsoft Dataverse is more than a game-changer—it’s your opportunity to transform how your organization manages construction projects. From rapid app development to seamless data integration, the possibilities are endless.

Take the next step toward a more efficient, connected, and innovative construction management solution. Contact us today to schedule a free demo and see how Construction Viz with Dataverse can elevate your operations in 2025 and beyond.

Get a Free Demo

Construction Viz Document Control 2.0

Document Control |

Every company, project, and project manager does things differently in construction. Lydon Solutions continuously updates Construction Viz to accommodate our clients' unique business cases and integrate those features into the baseline product.

Document control is one of the cornerstones of Construction Viz, and we have recently made some powerful enhancements at our clients' request that you may find super helpful for your projects.

Check out this article to find out more.

Enhancements to Document Control in Construction Viz

There are several new document control features that we recently released that are unique to Construction Viz that might help you manage project documentation:

Tag files wherever you are

Most users store files in folders because they traditionally use File Explorer or shared drives. Folders are great, but metadata provides another level of document management because it frees you from a rigid nested folder structure.

Construction Viz leverages metadata throughout every application. With this latest update, we now allow users to tag files (including images and video) with metadata through the entire file lifecycle: On the upload file screen, within a form attachment grid, in a file-specific flyout menu, and the form documents view.

So, now there's no excuse not to assign metadata to your files. Your document control team will thank you, and the PMs can rest assured that they can find the files they are looking for.

Finalize document records

There are working files and final files. Working files are updated frequently by one or more team members. Final files are for end-user consumption, such as the final version of the contract in PDF format. You typically want to isolate these two types of files.

With the new finalize feature, you can select working file attachments in a form and click finalize to move them to another finalized file attachment area within the same form. This feature keeps the two file types separate and even allows them to be permission-controlled within the same form. This new component can also be added to any form to provide an additional layer of control at the document level.

Save and view files from another document library

You will likely use multiple related forms on a project but want to share a single file attachment location. For example, let's say you use two forms, like a Bid for the overall bid documents and Tasks for the bid requirement deliverables. Theoretically, you could have many tasks to complete a bid, but you don't want the uploaded associated files to reside in the individual Task forms. You might wish to have task files reside in the Bid form itself.

With this update, you can add the Bid form documents library to every task so that when you upload a file to a task, it is automatically saved to the Bid form, essentially sharing document libraries across forms. This new embedded component can be added to any form.

Simplify Your Construction Project Management

These pretty slick new features will help with your document management workflow, save your projects time and money, and avoid claims. You can find out more about Construction Viz on the features page.

Ready to streamline your construction project workflows? Discover how Construction Viz can revolutionize your project management. Request a free demo today and see the difference it can make for your organization.

Get a Free Demo