So, now it’s obvious. If you want to create a 3D model of a house as quickly as possible, you use a laser range finder as a replacement for a measuring tape. Then you want to input that data into your modeling software as quickly as possible. That means it’s easiest to have your modeling software running on a mobile Raspberry Pi and your laser range finder connected directly to your Raspberry Pi. So, how do we do this?
How do laser measuring tapes work? How do you know you are getting the right thing? First of all, there are two main types of laser measuring tape. One is the phase shift type, that sends out a pulsing pattern with a multitude of wave frequencies and checks the return signal for interference levels against the original signal. The distance is solved using the phase shift of the various frequencies. The other method is the time-of-flight method. This uses clever techniques such as a lock-in amplifier and super-resolution to get a higher timer resolution, so reasonably precise measurements can be made. Finally, some really cheap devices are not a laser measuring tape at all, but actually just a sonar range finder that use a laser beam to help you aim. Also, some devices are simply just infrared near proximity sensors. Don’t go with those if you are trying to replicate an aluminum measuring tape. Also, of course, laser tape measures have a distance limit, and very long tape measures compromise on precision.
So, what are your options? Around the years 2011 - 2014, some people tried to hack low-cost laser tape measures. Some companies such as Leica specialize in survey products and have higher-end equipment that exposes a 9600 baud serial interface. But nowadays, apparently you can buy the laser rangefinder modules separately and get a nice serial interface that you can connect to a Raspberry Pi. An extreme option is to build your own laser rangefinder. However, for one attempt at this, it was not recommended for production use due to the fragility of the setup.
20181013/DuckDuckGo raspberry pi laser range finder
20181013/https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1169231
20181013/DuckDuckGo laser measuring tape raspberry pi
20181013/https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/323
20181013/https://hackaday.com/2014/03/29/hacking-a-laser-tape-measure-in-3-easy-steps/
20181013/https://hackaday.com/2014/02/28/homebrew-phase-laser-rangefinder/
20181013/https://blog.adafruit.com/2012/09/28/raspberry-pi-distance-measuring-sensor-with-lcd-output/
20181013/DuckDuckGo Sharp GP2Y0A02YK0F
20181013/DuckDuckGo how a laser measuring tape works
20181013/https://home.howstuffworks.com/laser-tape-measure.htm
20181013/http://fardevice.com/how-does-a-laser-distance-measurer-work/
20181013/https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/255947/how-do-laser-tape-measures-work
20181013/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock-in_amplifier