What's new in Swyvl

Two things people kept asking for: measure what they are looking at, and walk through a scan the way they would walk the site. Both are in, on the hub and on client share links.

Measurement tools

Open any 3D or map file and there is a small pill along the bottom of the viewer. Expand it and you get four tools:

• Point for a coordinate
• Distance, point to point or along a path
• Area, click the corners
• Height, the vertical difference between two points

They work on orthomosaics and other TIFFs, 3D Tiles, LAS/LAZ/E57 point clouds, Xgrids LCC scans, Gaussian splats, and GeoJSON, shapefile and GPX files.

A few things worth knowing:

• Every measurement says how much to trust it. A georeferenced file is labelled Georeferenced, a file with true metres but no map position is True scale, and anything without a verified scale, such as a splat, is Indicative. Click the label and it explains why.
• Simple or Advanced. Simple gives you the number. Advanced adds the horizontal and vertical components drawn on the model, the deltas, slope, bearing, perimeter and edge lengths.
• Your units, your grid. Metric or imperial, with the unit chosen automatically or fixed. Coordinates can be read in WGS84, degrees-minutes-seconds, the file’s own grid, or the UTM zone. Files in US survey feet are handled properly.
• Click any number to copy it. The card can be dragged out of the way and stays where you put it.
• Measurements are for the session. They are not saved to the file, so you can measure freely on a client’s share link without changing anything.

Walk through Xgrids scans

Xgrids LCC and LCC2 scans now open with a Walk mode that behaves like being there:

• Collisions keep you at eye level and out of walls, on any capture that includes a mesh. On by default, with a switch on the rail if you’d rather fly.
• Click the ground to walk there. A ring marks where you will land.
• Walking pace. 1× is a real walking speed. The slider goes down to a tenth of that for inspecting detail, and up to ten times for crossing a site. Hold Shift to move faster.
• Set up lets the file owner choose whether a scan opens in Orbit or Walk, the starting walk speed, and whether collisions start on.

The same controls on every viewer

Every 3D and map viewer now has the same layout, so nothing needs relearning between a point cloud and a tileset:

• A rail in the top-left with Reset view, Orbit and Walk, and a help pill that shows the navigation hints for that viewer.
• A View menu in the top-right for what you see: point colouring, size and quality on point clouds; backdrop, brightness and lens on splats; basemap on maps.
• 3D Tiles get a Detail level. Medium is the default. High streams finer tiles and renders at your screen’s full resolution, which is the difference between soft and sharp on a Retina display. The file owner sets the starting level in Set up.
• Point clouds: scroll to zoom works again in every browser, and Shift runs in Walk mode.
• Splats: a fresh Reset view after you save a start view, and measurements stay in place if you flip a file.

Custom base maps were meant to show up everywhere a map does. In practice a few surfaces were still falling back to a plain street map, and the most visible one was the map your clients see. That is fixed, along with a batch of viewer improvements that came out of customer feedback.

Your base maps now show on every map

If you’ve designated a site base map, a drone orthomosaic or a georeferenced site plan, it now draws underneath your markers on every map surface:

• The 360° tour map, in minimap, split and full view
• The GPS minimap beside a geolocated photo, a video with a GPS track, or a flight path
• All of the above on client share links, not just in your workspace

Hide street/satellite imagery now carries through to those maps too, so your own imagery really does become the whole background rather than drawing on top of a street map. And the colour you pick for a collection now reaches your clients, instead of them seeing the default.

If you set a base map before today and wondered why your client’s tour looked different to yours, this is why.

360° video works with the map, not beside it

Three changes from feedback on 360° video paired with a GPS track:

• Click the track to scrub. Click anywhere on the flight path and the video jumps to the moment you were at that point.
• The marker shows where you’re looking. The cone on the map now turns as you look around, rather than only pointing along the direction of travel.
• Switching layout no longer restarts playback. Moving between minimap and split view keeps the video running where it was.

Bigger 3D Tiles

3D Tiles archives now extract up to 50 GB, up from 2 GB. Large city and site tilesets that previously stopped at the old cap will now come through.

Files tell you when something goes wrong

Previously, a file whose conversion failed could still be marked ready and then open to nothing. Now a failed conversion fails the file properly and shows you the reason, so a broken file looks broken instead of looking fine. Combined with the Reprocess button, a file that fails is something you can see and retry rather than something you discover later.

CAD drawings: DXF opens in the browser, DWG downloads

We had listed DWG as being converted to DXF automatically for browser viewing. That conversion was never reliable, so rather than leave the claim standing we’ve removed it. DXF files open in the CAD viewer with layers preserved, exactly as before. DWG files can still be uploaded, stored, shared and downloaded, they just don’t open in the browser. If you want a drawing viewable online, export DXF from your CAD application.

A batch of viewer and download improvements, led by a much better way to explore 3D Gaussian splat scans.

Explore 3D scans in Orbit or Walk

Gaussian splat scans (SPZ and PLY) now open properly framed on the scene instead of parked far away, and there are two ways to move around:

• Orbit spins the scene in front of you: drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, double-click to focus on a point.
• Walk puts you inside it: drag to look, WASD to move, Space and C for up and down, Shift to go faster.

Switch between them with the Orbit / Walk toggle, and press Reset view to jump back to the start at any time. Both are available to your clients on a share link too.

You can also set how the scene looks and save it for everyone who opens the file:

• Backdrop colour behind the scan (Dark, Charcoal, Light or White)
• Brightness to lift or darken the whole capture
• Field of view, Standard for truer geometry or Wide for roomier interiors

Your clients see the polished result without needing to touch any of the controls.

Downloaded 360° video stays 360°

When you download the 4K or 1080p version of a 360° video, it now keeps its spherical metadata. That means it opens as a proper 360° video in external players like VLC or YouTube, instead of a flat, stretched image.

Pick which version you download

When a file has more than one version available, for example the original plus a 4K or 1080p rendition, the Download button now always opens a short menu so you and your clients can choose exactly which version to grab. No more downloading the wrong one by accident.

Retry a file that didn’t process

On the rare occasion a file fails to process, it now shows a Reprocess button in its detail panel. One click re-runs it, no need to delete and re-upload.

When you connect 360° photos into a walkable tour, Swyvl draws a line between each stop in the order they were captured. Usually that is exactly what you want. Sometimes a long gap between two groups of photos leaves a stray line stretched across the map.

Hide the lines you don’t want

Open a 360° photo, bring up the tour map, and click any connecting line to hide it. The line disappears for everyone you share the tour with, and the matching on-the-ground arrow inside the 360° view goes with it.

• Hidden lines stay visible to you as faint “ghost” lines, so you can click one to bring it back whenever you like.
• Clients only ever see the tidy result.

Zoom in closer

The site map now lets you zoom in a couple of levels further, so it is easier to line up and click the exact connection you want.

This release is all about the map: getting your data onto imagery that actually reflects the site, drawing your survey tracks, and giving you more control over the links you send to clients.

Custom base maps

Turn a georeferenced GeoTIFF — an orthomosaic, aerial, or site plan — into the background of your site’s map. Your photos, scans and tracks now sit on top of your own imagery instead of a generic street map.

• Add multiple base maps per site, drag to reorder them, and set the opacity of each.
• Toggle “Hide street/satellite imagery” so your ortho becomes the whole background.
• Choose whether a base map also appears as a downloadable file, or stays as map furniture only.
• Base maps show everywhere the map does — in your workspace, on client share links, and in the viewer.

GPX tracks on the map

Upload a GPX track alongside your photos and Swyvl will:

• Draw the route as a line on the map.
• Place your 360° photos along the track by their capture time — and the GPX now takes priority over a camera’s built-in GPS, so a weak or missing camera fix no longer leaves a photo stranded off the line.

A rebuilt map experience

• A “Map content” panel to switch layers on and off, cluster or separate your markers, and colour-code collections.
• Connected 360° tours — step through a walk street-view style, with a synced mini-map, split view, or full-screen map.
• Faster photo-to-photo navigation, and a full-width, map-first layout for client share links.

Editable share links

You can now change a share link after you’ve created it — no need to delete and start over:

• Change who can access it — public, password, or invite-only.
• Change which files are shared, and whether new uploads are included automatically.
• See the password you set, with a copy button — not just set it and forget it.

A polish release for the two moments that matter most: looking at your data, and handing it to a client.

Crisper, deeper imagery

Orthomosaics and GeoTIFFs are now rendered and streamed from our servers rather than assembled in your browser:

• Sharper tiles at every zoom level, with none of the seams or grey patches on big imagery.
• Zoom in further — inspect the detail your drone actually captured.
• Large orthos open faster, on any device.

3D that appears as it arrives

Gaussian splats now load progressively — the scene starts rendering while the file is still downloading, with a real progress bar instead of a blank screen. Big photorealistic captures feel dramatically quicker to open.

Share links that carry your client’s brand too

With custom branding you can now go further than your own logo:

• Add your client’s logo to a share link — ideal when you’re delivering under their banner.
• Choose the landing view clients see first — the map, a card gallery, or a list.
• Fine-tune your accent colour so the whole page matches your brand.

Big captures deserve a platform that doesn’t flinch. This release raises the ceiling — a lot.

Files up to 100 GB

The upload limit is now 100 GB per file. That city-block point cloud, the full-resolution ortho of an entire mine site, the uncut 8K flight — upload it as-is.

A new engine for very large files

Behind the scenes, the biggest files now run through dedicated heavy-duty processing built specifically for them. Multi-gigabyte point clouds and orthomosaics that previously could stall now convert reliably, every time — in every data region.

Swyvl in your pocket

The whole app has been redesigned for mobile. Check a site from the field, review a client’s feedback from the ute, or open a share link on your phone — everything now fits and works on a small screen, for you and for your clients.

A smoother first day

New team members get a cleaner start: a simpler sign-up, a short checklist that walks them from first site to first share link, and a proper welcome to the platform.

Two of the heaviest things you upload — video and 3D model packages — just got dramatically better to work with.

Video that streams like it should

• Every video you upload now gets a smooth web version that starts playing immediately, with a quality toggle up to 4K when the source supports it.
• 360° videos are detected automatically and open in an immersive viewer you can look around in.
• Clients get the same experience on share links — no more waiting for a multi-gigabyte file to download before they can watch it.

Zip in, 3D model out

Upload a zipped 3D model package — the model plus its texture files — and Swyvl unpacks it and builds a single interactive, fully textured 3D model you can orbit in the browser and share with a link.

Easier file organisation

• Move files between collections with multi-select — reorganise a messy upload in seconds.
• Share-link downloads can now include the web-friendly versions of your files, so clients aren’t forced to pull the full-size originals.

Swyvl already recognises what you upload. Now it can explain it — and change it — for you.

AI site briefs and session summaries

Get an instant, readable brief of any site — what’s been captured, when, and what’s in it — and a summary of each capture session. Perfect for catching up on a project you haven’t touched in a month, or writing the email that goes with a deliverable.

Ask for the file you actually need

Open a file and ask in plain English: convert this to a different format, make this image black and white, brighten it up. Swyvl produces a new version alongside the original — the source file is never touched.

Full version history for every file

• Replace a file with an updated capture while keeping its share links and feedback intact.
• Every file now has a history panel — see what changed and restore any previous version with one click.
• Download either the original file or the lighter web version, whichever you need.

A simpler way in

• Uploading now happens in a tidy progress sheet that you can minimise and keep working — with per-file processing status so you always know what’s ready.
• Signing in is now passwordless: we email you a secure link, you click it, you’re in. Nothing to remember, nothing to leak.

This release is about keeping large projects tidy and making everything feel quicker.

Collections

Group related files into collections within a site — a set of 360° photos from one walkthrough, all the deliverables for a milestone, or every capture from a single flight. Collections carry through to share links, so clients see your files organised the way you intended.

A rebuilt viewing experience

• Gaussian splats now open in a new, purpose-built viewer — smoother navigation and more reliable loading for photorealistic 3D captures.
• Moving between files no longer rebuilds the whole viewer — switching from one deliverable to the next is instant and stable, in your workspace and on client share links.

Everything got faster

• Pages, thumbnails and file lists load noticeably quicker, especially on sites with hundreds of files.
• Files are now processed in the same region where they’re stored, so uploads become viewable sooner wherever you are in the world.

Account security

You can now protect your account with two-factor authentication.

Swyvl is officially live. If you capture the physical world — drone surveys, laser scans, 360° walkthroughs, site photos — this is the home for all of it.

Organised by site, not by folder

Create a site for each physical location you work on, and Swyvl keeps every capture session, file and conversation in one place. No more hunting through project folders or three different cloud drives to find last month’s flight.

Drop files in — Swyvl figures out the rest

Upload straight from your browser. Swyvl recognises what each file is — point cloud, orthomosaic, 360° photo, video, 3D model, CAD drawing and more — and automatically sets up the right interactive viewer, so anything you upload is instantly viewable online. No plugins, no downloads, no “can you send that in a different format?”

Share links your clients will actually open

Send clients a branded share link — your logo, your colours — with exactly the files you choose:

• Clients view everything in the browser: spin a point cloud, pan an ortho, step through 360° photos.
• They can leave feedback directly on deliverables — no email chains.
• No account or software required on their end.

Built for teams, from day one

• Invite your team to your workspace and work on sites together.
• A full activity trail shows who uploaded, viewed and shared what, and when.
• Choose where your data lives at sign-up — eight regions across Australia, the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Japan and Singapore.