Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 8:26 am Post subject: info request for a school assignment
Hi,
i am new to this forum, and to laserscanning in general.
I am studying Industrial Engineering in Belgium (master) , and i got an assignment to make a study about the different programs and methods to import a pointcloud ( generated by laserscanning) into a 3D program.
Now here is my first question: can anyone give me a list of the most used programs to import a pointcloud?
The list i got this far is: PointCloud, Revit(?), Civil 3D
Another question: are there other ways besides "time of flight" and "phase difference" to make a laserscan? Are there other methods to make a scan, or this the general method how these laserscanners work?
This study is a preparation for next year, when i will receive a pointcloud of a church, which i have to import into Revit and make slices of it.
Suggestions and any help will be highly appreciated,
Q)Now here is my first question: can anyone give me a list of the most used programs to import a pointcloud?
AW) There are many software that can do it. The first difference is: inside AutoCAD and vertical product (Like Civil 3D) or outside AutoCAD platform. Also depends of which are your needs and your final results (Only cross-section on the cloud or a 3D model for making cross-section, Virtual reality and Rapid prototyping).
Q)Another question: are there other ways besides "time of flight" and "phase difference" to make a laserscan? Are there other methods to make a scan, or this the general method how these laserscanners work?
AW) I know only these "working methods" for terrestial laser scanner. Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_scanner
Q) This study is a preparation for next year, when i will receive a pointcloud of a church, which i have to import into Revit and make slices of it.
AW) I have some doubt that you can import a Point Clouds inside Revit. You can see the following software product that can manage a Point clouds inside AutoCAD (CloudCUBE - http://www.cloud-cube.com). This product is developed by my company, but there are other software that can manage Point clouds.
Joined: Jun 03, 2008 Posts: 17 Location: Orlando, FL
Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:45 am Post subject:
Sikken,
These are loaded questions with many "right" answers...
Typically, the CAD program you want to import the point clouds is the program you will use to "process" them or visualize the clouds to do what you want with them... whether its create a 3D model, or use the cloud itself to check for interferences, etc...
Most commonly used programs in traditional CAD drafting and design in Civil/Survey applications are: AutoCAD (Land Desktop, Civil 3D, Architectural Desktop), Microstation... most of these use a point cloud "plug-in" to enable these programs to handle the vast amounts of points... Most programs can import "ascii" points or a text file where each single line is a 3d point with x,y and z coordinates and sometimes reflectivity or color information. But, remember that these programs were not intended to handle this data and a plug-in is essential to be able to load and manipulate the clouds.
The other popular CAD packages are commonly used to design parts, machinery or components or even manage whole databases of a CAD designed assembly like in a power plant... PDS, PDMS, Solidworks, Pro-E, Revit, Inventor, etc... many of these are starting to see the benefit of using point clouds natively and some companies have developed plug-ins to work inside these programs.
For the majority of users though, a 3rd party software is needed to create objects efficiently from scan data. Programs like Geomagic, Polyworks, Inovx, Cyclone, Cloud-cube, Pointools, Reconstructor, LFM, Kubit, etc... all are high performance applications to convert clouds to useful objects like piping or create a digital terrain model for a survey project...
As for Revit, they can import ascii points but efficiency may strain.. you may want to try and model what you want in another program like say AutoCAD Architectural Desktop and then import the model into Revit for further processing... this is typical in industries like CGI and animation where the final product may have to go thru numerous programs to get to the finished product. _________________ Ed Oliveras
3SPACE, Inc.
Measurement Specialists
Joined: Jun 03, 2008 Posts: 17 Location: Orlando, FL
Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:50 am Post subject:
Sikkens wrote:
"Another question: are there other ways besides "time of flight" and "phase difference" to make a laserscan? Are there other methods to make a scan, or this the general method how these laserscanners work?"
SURE...
When you say laser scan, I assume you mean a point cloud, right? Besides lasers and their respective measurement technologies of phase-shift and time-of-flight scanners, there is lots of other 3d measurement tools to create in essence a point cloud... of the most practical and widely used for your application of building modeling I would have to call out Photogrammetry. This is what was used before scanners were around and still being used today...
One cool site to check out is this...http://www.photomodeler.com/products/scanner/architecture.htm _________________ Ed Oliveras
3SPACE, Inc.
Measurement Specialists
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