Matthäi Automates Surveying Across Multiple Projects
Matthäi has integrated Sodex technology into its daily construction workflows, replacing manual surveying with automated, vehicle-mounted scanning. Across landfill monitoring, road construction, and large-scale earthworks, the team now captures terrain data continuously without weather delays or large data gaps. The results are faster decisions, complete documentation, and more efficient use of machines and people on site.
Overview
Matthäi has integrated Sodex technology into its daily construction workflows, replacing manual surveying with automated, vehicle-mounted scanning. Across landfill monitoring, road construction, and large-scale earthworks, the team now captures terrain data continuously without weather delays or large data gaps. The results are faster decisions, complete documentation, and more efficient use of machines and people on site.
Used Systems
SDX-CloudSDX-CompactSDX-PocketScan
The challenge
Keeping Up With Data Across Multiple Projects
Matthäi operates across a wide range of civil engineering sites: landfills, road construction, and underground utilities are just a few examples. Each comes with its own documentation and surveying demands. Monitoring height compliance on a landfill. Recording road conditions before and after construction. Tracking material volumes across tens of thousands of square meters. Documenting pipes and cables when they are put into the ground.
Traditionally a surveyor would walk the site with a rover, capturing data point by point. The process was slow, and the data was usually not as dense as needed. Important spots were missed, photos forgotten or never taken at all, and by the time results were compiled, conditions on site had already changed. Field books had to be filled out manually at the end of each day and for a team managing multiple active sites, this approach could not keep up any longer.
Our Solution
Automated Scanning Built Into Everyday Operations
Matthäi permanently mounted the SDX-Compact on a site vehicle. The ATV typically drives the site once a day, and more frequently when significant changes are happening, to maintain an up-to-date overview. Thanks to the auto-start functionality of the system, the operator does not need to interact with the system at all, he just needs to drive across the site. Data then flows directly into SDX-Cloud, where it becomes available for analysis within minutes.
At a construction site for the installation of a base and surface lining at a landfill, the system runs daily. Every drive across the site generates up-to-date terrain data used for height monitoring, compliance checks, and documentation. When specific areas need closer attention, the team simply drives them again.
For a federal road construction project spanning roughly one kilometer, the SDX-Compact captured the full road profile, elevation data, and positions of street signs, guide posts, and other installations in a single drive-through. What would have taken a surveyor the entire day on foot was completed in about an hour and a half.
Beyond the SDX-Compact the team also relies on excavator solution – AutoDoku – for site documentation in underground utilities as well as the SDX-PocketScan for flexible, handheld data capture across multiple projects.
Customer Feedback
"Data collection is significantly more comfortable and faster than walking the construction site with a rover pole, and I never get the data at this density either, because something always gets forgotten somewhere - you just walk past it and miss it."
Christian Bosdorf
Surveyor, Matthäi
Next Steps
Expanding Into More Use Cases
Matthäi sees strong potential for a continued use in road construction, where pre- and post-construction drive-throughs deliver complete documentation with minimal effort. Curb alignment, road axis recording, and height control are all workflows the team plans to support with Sodex Innovations technology going forward.
Beyond individual projects, the goal is to make automated scanning a standard procedure of operations across Matthäi construction sites, turning what used to require a dedicated surveyor into something any foreman can handle during a routine site visit.
The Result
From Manual Effort to Continuous Insights
By embedding Sodex systems into daily routines, Matthäi has eliminated the gap between fieldwork and data availability. Terrain information is no longer something the team waits days for. It is captured while machines are already working, processed automatically, and accessible to everyone involved within a matter of minutes.
The combination of SDX-Compact for vehicle-mounted scanning in earthworks, AutoDoku for as built-documentation in utility construction, SDX-PocketScan for flexible site capture, and SDX-Cloud for analysis and collaboration gives Matthäi a connected workflow across all project types. Data is denser, documentation is more complete, and decisions are made faster.
A key to the successful implementation was Makineo – the local Sodex Innovations authorized distribution partner, specializing in surveying and construction technology.
Makineo:
Customer Feedback
"To deploy the machines and personnel as efficiently as possible, we used the SDX-Compact and were able to see in near real-time, using the cloud solution, where material needed to be removed or added. This allowed us to optimize the entire installation process."
Fabian Niehoff
Construction Manager, Matthäi
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