A complete walkthrough of how the Colibri scanner detects and measures hail damage, how dents are classified, and how every dollar in an estimate is calculated — so you can review and approve with confidence.
Colibri is PDR-Team's proprietary hail damage scanner. It captures a complete, high-resolution 3D surface model of a vehicle and automatically identifies every dent — its exact location, diameter, and size class — in a single 5-minute scan. No human marking. No guesswork.
Colibri captures millions of surface data points and builds a full 3D model of every body panel on the vehicle.
A complete vehicle assessment in under 5 minutes. Up to 10 vehicles processed per hour at a single scan site.
The system automatically segments each body panel and identifies every surface deviation — no manual input between scan and report.
Every dent is measured at its widest diameter in millimeters and mapped to the industry-standard coin-size classification.
Scan the same vehicle twice under the same conditions and get the same result. The measurement is objective, not estimator-dependent.
Every report is time-stamped, VIN-tied, and stored with a unique Colibri scan number. Outputs in PDF, CSV, and JSON.
From the moment a vehicle arrives to the moment a report lands in your hands — here is exactly what happens at every step.
The vehicle is driven into the scan area — a 4m × 3m footprint with controlled, indirect lighting. The car must be clean, dry, and have a glossy paint finish. No equipment is attached to the vehicle.
Colibri's sensor array projects a structured light pattern across the entire exterior surface of the vehicle and records precisely how that pattern deforms at every point. Any inward surface deviation — a dent — is immediately apparent in the data.
The system builds a 3D point cloud of the vehicle and automatically segments it into body panels (hood, roof, doors, fenders, quarter panels, trunk, rails). For each identified dent, the software measures its diameter in millimeters and assigns it to one of six size classes.
Colibri compiles a complete Scan Report: every dent on every panel, its size class, and its exact location. The report includes a panel-by-panel matrix summary, a detailed dent count by size class, and color-coded 3D model images showing every dent mapped to its position on the vehicle.
The pricing methodology behind every Colibri estimate is the same industry-standard PDR matrix used across the US. There is no proprietary pricing formula. The coin-size system and the two-level matrix structure are what every professional PDR estimator uses.
Every dent is measured at its widest diameter in millimeters, then placed into one of six size classes named after US coins. These classes are the PDR industry standard — not terminology specific to Colibri.
| Size Class | Diameter | Approx. Imperial | Bucket Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dime | Smallest detectable – 18mm | Up to ~¾ inch | Bucket |
| Nickel | 19mm – 22mm | ~¾ – ⅞ inch | Bucket |
| Quarter | 23mm – 25mm | ~⅞ – 1 inch | Bucket |
| Half Dollar | 26mm – 34mm | ~1 – 1.3 inch | Bucket |
| Oversize OS | 35mm – 62mm | ~1.4 – 2.4 inch | Individual: $30–$50 per dent |
| Double Oversize DOS | 63mm and larger | 2.5 inch + | Individual: $52.00 per unit |
What makes a Colibri estimate trustworthy is not the technology alone — it is the methodology, the calibration process, and a proven track record built on 90,000+ scans.
PDR professionals across the US have used coin-size classification (Dime, Nickel, Quarter, Half Dollar, Oversize) as their measurement reference for decades. Colibri measures dents in millimeters and maps them to these same classes that your adjusters, independent appraisers, and all other scan companies use.
A Colibri estimate can be directly compared to an independent manual PDR estimate using the same reference system. These are not numbers generated by a black box — they are physical measurements expressed in a standard the entire industry shares.
A manual walkthrough is dependent on lighting conditions, the estimator's experience, and judgment calls. Two different estimators on the same vehicle in different lighting conditions can produce meaningfully different counts.
Colibri scans physical surface data. The same vehicle, scanned twice under the same conditions, produces the same result. Repeatability removes estimator-to-estimator variability from the process entirely and gives both PDR-Team and the carrier a stable, objective baseline to agree on.
Every Colibri estimate comes with a Scan Report. Here is what each field means and how to read it.
This is an actual Colibri scan report. Every estimate PDR-Team produces follows this format — vehicle identification, panel-by-panel dent classification, size counts, and 3D model images.
These are the questions we hear most often from insurance professionals reviewing a Colibri-based estimate for the first time.
If you are reviewing a specific Colibri-based estimate and have questions, we will walk you through it directly. No sales pitch — just answers from the team that produced the report.