Getting a bird’s eye view of the jobsite is often delegated to drone flights and satellites.

The software for the popular DJI drones can stich together basic 2D and 3D maps of surveyed areas on the fly.

In Coatesville, Pa., a depressed, rust-belt town about 40 miles west of Philadelphia with a population of 13,100, the city manager and the town’s consulting engineers are using 3D reality capture to help prospective developers see a diamond in the rough.

With no relief in sight from a Federal Aviation Administration requirement that all drone flights be overseen by licensed drone pilots, a San Francisco-based company that had been developing an autonomous aerial jobsite survey system is adjusting.