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Exporting a Visites-virtuelles tour: what you get back, and in what form
Three different things are called "exporting a Visites-virtuelles tour": the raw backup from the Capture app, the public share link, and derived exports. Only one of them carries the original survey measurements.
Updated 2026-08-17
Three different things are called "export"
That is where the confusion starts, and it costs everyone time. When people talk about exporting a Visites-virtuelles tour, they may mean three objects that share neither their contents nor their purpose.
| What people call an "export" | What it is | What it contains | Rebuild a full tour? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capture backup (.zip) | The local backup written by the capture app, holding the raw scan data | The raw captures of every viewpoint and the measured point clouds | Yes, completely |
| Your public share link | The my.matterport.com/show/?m=… address of your published tour |
The images and viewpoint positions, as the player shows them | Yes, with estimated depth instead of measurements |
| Derived exports | Files produced from the scan: floor plan, mesh, point cloud, photos | A frozen result, with no navigable viewpoints | No — these are deliverables, not source material |
To rebuild a navigable tour, only the first two rows matter. The good news: either one is enough, and the second needs nothing but a link.
The Capture backup: what it really looks like
This is the backup the capture app keeps of your scans — not a download from the online workspace. Where it lives and how to export it depend on the version and the platform (desktop or iOS) and change with updates: look for the backup function inside the app, or write to us and we will tell you what to look for.
What does not change is what the archive must contain. And that you can check yourself in thirty seconds, before sending us anything.
The three files that settle it
Open the .zip (a double-click is enough, no need to extract)
and look for:
manifest.mfst— exactly one in the whole archive. It lists the aligned viewpoints and their positions. Zero, or several: the backup is not usable..swlfiles — one per viewpoint. These are the raw captures; without them there is nothing to display.…_sweep_cloud.pbfiles — one per aligned viewpoint. These are the measured point clouds, and they are exactly what separates a tour that is to scale from an approximate one.
In a desktop backup these files live under a
Jobs/<id>/ folder. In an iOS backup the
manifest.mfst sits one level deeper, inside
SweepProcessorData/, with the .swl files above it:
both layouts are accepted, you have nothing to reorganise.
The check that saves a round trip
Count the .swl files and the _sweep_cloud.pb
files. If the second number is clearly lower than the first, the backup is
incomplete: it was most likely copied while the app was still processing
the scan. Export it again once processing has finished.
Our analysis applies exactly these rules on arrival and answers you before any payment: unreadable archive, missing manifest, missing point clouds — each case has its own message. You never pay only to find out afterwards that the file was wrong.
If you do not have the backup
That is common: the scan was made by a contractor, the capture computer has changed, or the tour is simply older than you are in the job. In that case your public share link is enough. It provides the real positions of every viewpoint and the original colour rendering; depth, however, is estimated by AI rather than measured.
In practice, on our own demos, every viewpoint is placed in both cases — 29/29, 77/77, 130/130. The difference shows in how crisp distant volumes look in the dollhouse view, not in the walkthrough.
| What you have | Format to pick | What you gain | What you lose |
|---|---|---|---|
| The link and the backup | Hybrid | Measured geometry and original colours — the best result | Nothing |
| The backup only | Backup (.zip) | Measured geometry, crisp volumes | Colours rebuilt from the raw captures |
| The link only | Visites-virtuelles link | Original colours, every viewpoint placed | Estimated depth: distant volumes are approximate |
| Neither | 360° panoramas | No dependency on any third-party platform | Relative scale, and some viewpoints may not attach |
One limit that is not technical
Only export and submit captures you hold the rights to. Pulling the data of a space that is not yours may breach the vendor's terms of service and copyright — that is your responsibility, and you certify it when ordering. For your own scans there is no issue: it is your data.
What you do with it afterwards
Once the tour is produced you receive an archive of static files with no external dependency, plus Windows, macOS and Linux launchers. You put it wherever you like: see hosting your virtual tour. It no longer depends on anyone, not even on us.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know whether my Visites-virtuelles backup is complete?
Open the .zip and check three things: exactly one
manifest.mfst file, one .swl file per viewpoint,
and as many _sweep_cloud.pb files as there are aligned
viewpoints. If the point clouds are missing, the backup was copied before
processing finished.
Can you export a Visites-virtuelles tour without an account or a backup?
The public share link of a tour you own is enough to produce a standalone copy: the positions and the original colour rendering come from it, and depth is estimated. You must hold the rights to the tour in question.
What is the difference between the backup and the link, in the end?
The backup brings the measured point clouds: volumes are crisp and measurements are at survey scale. The link brings the original colours and the positions, but depth is estimated, so distant volumes are approximate. Hybrid mode combines both and gives the best result.
Are iOS backups accepted?
Yes. iOS backups keep the manifest in a SweepProcessorData/
subfolder with the raw captures one level above; that layout is recognised
automatically and you have nothing to reorganise.
What happens if the archive is rejected?
Analysis happens before the quote: you are told the exact reason (unreadable archive, missing manifest, missing point clouds) without having paid anything. And if a paid tour cannot be produced, you are refunded in full.
Got the file?
Send it over: the quote is computed automatically and shown in full before any payment. If all you have is the link, that works too.