When we first went looking for a 3D virtual tour platform, one thing that made Matterport stand out from the rest was Mattertags. Sure, they are a bit clunky and the icon seems to have been styled in the 1980s. But we at HomePlan NZ saw POTENTIAL.

This was long before Matterport changed its narrative from 'showcase' to 'digital twin'. We were already in the latter space - looking for a platform that could create a digital copy of a premises 'as built', then add other data on top to make it more functional.

The most common use of Mattertags is to point out simple stuff like features in a house for sale. Some use it to show images, videos, Google Maps and the like. Those who went deeper (excuse the pun) utilise Deep Links to jump to specific locations within the model, or URL links to jump between models.

All brilliant stuff. However there was one major drawback - Mattertags could only be created manually, which meant if you wanted to use more than a handful of them you'd need to invest a lot of time to individual create and position each and every one.

Here's an example of what we were, and are using Mattertags for. This is a pre-tenancy condition inspection of a rental property, using Mattertags to show hard to see places (e.g. inside the oven) plus highlighting any condition issues:



This is a functionally-rich 3D walkthrough that, utilising MP/embed, allows you to search, filter and jump quickly to any of the Mattertags within. The problem - creating the Mattertags just took far too long to make it financially viable as a service.

So - that's why we built our Automated Mattertag Creation software. Thanks to the Matterport SDK and API, we are able to:
1. Create a CSV file that has all the Mattertag data in it
2. Do a trial upload to review the uploaded Mattertag positions before saving them ('transient Mattertags')
3. Once happy, submit the Mattertags to be permanently saved into the model.

As this possibly raises lots of questions like "how do you know were to put them?" and "can you export them out of an existing model?" yes we can) - here's a video explaining and showing the software in action.



The result: We used to spend up to three hours doing post-production in a 3D walkthrough with 50-100 Mattertags in it. Now we spend less than 30 minutes - at times less than 15 minutes to add 50+ Mattertags! And behind this we've also automated how to capture the information onsite, how to store the 2D images online and how to prepare the data in the correct CSV format for our tool to use.

But back to the Awesomeness
Since investing in this software, which during lockdown we made available as a service to others, we keep discovering new and interesting ways that Mattertags are being used. Virtual stores is a big one, as is enriching a museum or exhibition tour with a narrative and high resolution 2D images of the features.

Do you have a cool Mattertag project you'd like to share? Or a development in progress than improves the functionality of Mattertags? If so - please share!

And I've you'd like to know more about the HomePlan NZ Automated Mattertag Creation service, feel free to ask or PM me