Procore is the dominant construction project management platform. If you work on commercial construction projects, there is a reasonable chance it runs your RFIs, submittals, drawing register, and daily reports. It is deeply embedded in large construction businesses and for good reason — it is genuinely good at project management.
But there is a gap that Procore does not fill: spatial data delivery. When a surveyor or drone operator uploads a LiDAR point cloud or orthomosaic to Procore Documents, it sits there as a downloadable file. Nobody on the project team can view it in the browser. The data is stored, not delivered.
This post is about that gap — what it costs construction projects, and what a purpose-built spatial data delivery platform does that Procore cannot.
What Procore is and what it does well
Procore is a construction project management platform. Its core product manages the administrative and operational workflow of a construction project:
- Drawings: Revision-controlled drawing register with comparison between versions
- RFIs: Request for information workflow, with tracking through to formal response
- Submittals: Submittal log, routing, and approval workflow
- Documents: General document management for contracts, specifications, reports
- Financial controls: Budget, commitments, change orders, forecast
- Daily logs: Site diary, weather, resources, events
- Observations and quality: Punch lists, inspections, defect tracking
- Scheduling: Project timeline and lookahead
For construction project management, this is a capable and well-integrated feature set. It connects field teams, project managers, and clients through a shared data environment. On a complex multi-year build, the value of having all of this in one place is substantial.
Procore is not trying to be a spatial data viewer. It is a project management tool that includes document storage. The spatial data problem arises because the types of files that flow into modern construction projects — LiDAR scans, drone orthomosaics, photogrammetric point clouds, IFC models — are not standard documents. They require specialist viewers that Procore does not provide.
What Procore cannot do with spatial data
When a point cloud, orthomosaic, or E57 scan file lands in Procore Documents, the options are:
- Download the file — and then open it in specialist software (CloudCompare for LAZ, QGIS for GeoTIFF, Cyclone or Revit for E57). This requires software that most project stakeholders do not have.
- Do nothing — which is what most project team members do when they encounter a file they cannot open.
This is not a criticism of Procore. It is simply describing what the platform was built to do. Procore’s document management is optimised for PDFs, Word documents, spreadsheets, and CAD drawings — the traditional outputs of construction documentation. It does not have WebGL-based point cloud renderers or tiled GeoTIFF viewers, because that was not the problem it was built to solve.
The problem this creates is real. I wrote about it in detail in the post on file sharing for construction: the data that costs the most to produce is the data that gets used the least, because it is delivered in formats that most stakeholders cannot open.
On a project where monthly drone surveys are producing orthomosaics and point clouds, those files often sit in Procore unviewed. The project manager can see from the file listing that the survey was done. They cannot actually look at what the survey captured without downloading files and fighting with unfamiliar software.
Where Swyvl fits
Swyvl is a spatial data delivery platform. It is built specifically for the problem Procore does not solve: letting clients and stakeholders view spatial data in the browser, without software installation.
The core workflow for spatial data on a construction project:
- Survey or drone operator processes their data — produces LAZ, GeoTIFF, E57, or IFC outputs from their processing software
- Data is uploaded to Swyvl — files are classified automatically, browser viewers are assigned
- A portal link is shared — with the project manager, the client, the engineer — whoever needs to see the data
- Recipients open the link — the point cloud loads in Potree, the orthomosaic renders on an interactive map, the IFC model opens in a 3D browser viewer
No Procore. No download. No specialist software. Just a browser.
Swyvl is not trying to replace Procore for project management. It is filling the viewer gap that Procore leaves open.
The two tools work alongside each other
A practical question: if you are on Procore, do you need to choose?
No. The tools address different problems:
Procore manages the project. It tracks which survey was commissioned, links to the survey contractor’s submittal, stores the signed-off deliverable as a record, and manages the contractual workflow around the survey.
Swyvl delivers the spatial data. The point cloud, orthomosaic, and scan data are uploaded to Swyvl and shared as a browser-viewable portal. That portal link can sit alongside the Procore document entry — the Procore record links to the Swyvl portal.
This is not an awkward workaround. It is the right architecture for two different purposes. Use Procore for what it does well — project management, document control, contractual workflow. Use Swyvl for what it does well — spatial data delivery with browser viewers, client branding, and audit.
Comparison table
| Procore | Swyvl | |
|---|---|---|
| Point cloud viewer (LAS, LAZ) | Download only | Browser Potree viewer |
| GeoTIFF orthomosaic viewer | Download only | Interactive browser map |
| E57 scan data viewer | Download only | Browser viewer (via conversion) |
| IFC / BIM viewer | Basic 2D viewer | 3D browser viewer |
| OBJ / GLB 3D model viewer | Download only | Three.js browser viewer |
| Gaussian Splat viewer | Not supported | Browser WebGL viewer |
| Branded client portal | Generic Procore interface | Your logo and colours |
| Client access without account | Requires Procore invite | Link only, no account needed |
| Portal view analytics | Basic document access log | Per-view logging with IP, geo, timestamp |
| File upload size | 5 GB per file | Multi-GB supported |
| Link permanence | Permanent while on plan | Permanent while on plan |
| RFI management | Yes | No |
| Submittals workflow | Yes | No |
| Drawing register | Yes | No |
| Financial controls | Yes | No |
| Price | $375–$499+/month (full platform) | From $0 (Solo: $49/mo, Team: $199/mo) |
| Purpose | Construction project management | Spatial data delivery |
Who in construction is this relevant to?
Survey contractors delivering to construction clients
If you are a surveyor or drone operator delivering point clouds, orthomosaics, or scan data to construction projects, your clients are often on Procore. They are expecting to manage your deliverable through their Procore workflow. That does not mean they can view it there.
A common setup: the formal deliverable record is managed in Procore (the submittal, the sign-off, the document entry). The viewing experience is provided through a Swyvl portal link. Your client gets both: the project management record and the ability to actually see the data.
Construction companies managing their own spatial data programme
Some larger construction companies have moved drone survey in-house — they own the drone, they fly the surveys, they process the data. The question then is how to distribute that data internally and to clients.
Procore handles the project management layer. Swyvl handles the delivery of the processed outputs — the monthly progress orthomosaics, the point cloud captures of completed sections, the BIM-to-reality comparisons.
BIM consultants and scanning companies
IFC models and terrestrial scan data (E57) face exactly the same problem as point clouds and GeoTIFFs in Procore: they are stored as downloadable files, viewable only to those with Revit, Navisworks, or Cyclone. For broader stakeholder review — client presentations, project team coordination, progress reviews — a browser-based viewer with no software requirement changes who can participate in the conversation.
For related reading on construction spatial data management, see the post on moving construction spatial data off SharePoint and file sharing for construction.
The underlying principle
Construction project management and spatial data delivery are genuinely different problems. The mistake is treating them as the same problem and trying to solve both with one tool.
Procore is an excellent answer to the project management problem. It is not an answer to the spatial data viewing problem, and it was not designed to be.
If your construction project is producing spatial data — and most are now, as drone surveys and LiDAR scanning have become standard practice — that data needs a delivery mechanism built around the actual challenge: rendering specialist formats in a browser, for stakeholders who have a browser and nothing else.
Use both tools for what each does well. Do not use Procore as a point cloud viewer. Do not use Swyvl as an RFI tracker. The right tool for the right problem.