The PointCloud Viewer

The Carlson PointCloud viewer is where all virtual surveying and visual inspection of data is done in PointCloud. It has both 2D view mode functionality for viewing images and scans (as a flat image) as well as 3D view mode for viewing three dimensional data. Drawing in the viewer is divided into two different modes, dynamic and static. Dynamic mode draws a greatly reduced version of the current scene to improve draw speeds, while static mode will draw the full detailed scene. Typically, the viewer will run in dynamic mode when the user is attempting to do something interactive that involves camera, such as rotating the scene or zooming in, and it will draw in static mode when the camera isn't being manipulated. Options that pertain to how much detail is drawn in the current scene in dynamic and static mode can be changed in the Scene page of the Project Manager.

By default, the left mouse button operates in an orbit mode similar to the 3D viewer in the Carlson Civil Suite, the middle mouse button pans, and the right mouse button zooms. Mouse behavior for the current viewer can be changed in the Camera Tab of the Project Manager.

The Camera Shortcuts Toolbar and Menus

The toolbar and the menu at the top of the viewer have several shortcuts to functions commonly used in the Camera page. These icons and their functions are as follows (from left to right):

	Tile Windows will align the Project Manager window with the Viewer window next to each other on screen
	Top Extents places the camera directly above the center of the scene's bounding box, and will manipulate the camera's properties to allow visibility of the entire scene.
	Bottom Extents places the camera directly above the center of the scene's bounding box, and will manipulate the camera's properties to allow visibility of the entire scene.
	Front Extents places the camera directly out along the negative y axis from the center of the scene's bounding box, and will manipulate the camera's properties to allow visibility of the entire scene.
	Back Extents places the camera directly out along the positive y axis from the center of the scene's bounding box, and will manipulate the camera's properties to allow visibility of the entire scene.
	Left Extents places the camera directly out along the negative x axis from the center of the scene's bounding box, and will manipulate the camera's properties to allow visibility of the entire scene.
	Right Extents places the camera directly out along the positive x axis from the center of the scene's bounding box, and will manipulate the camera's properties to allow visibility of the entire scene.
	Scanner position moves the camera to the scanner position of a scan in the scene, if there is more than one scan this button will cycle through each of the scanner positions, if there are no scanner positions, this button does nothing.

	Orthographic Projection sets the camera to parallel projection mode.
	Perspective projection sets the camera to perspective projection mode.

	Zoom To Window allows the user to select an area to zoom into. First click will place the first vertex of the zoom window and the second click will complete it and zoom the viewer to fit the window.
	Zoom extents moves the camera to show the extents of the full scene, if in parallel projection mode, changes the width of the projection to fit the scene.
	Zoom Previous resets the Point Cloud viewer to the previous view limits and orientation.

	Save PDF Provides the user with settings to save the current view to a PDF format with borders and user specified title block information.
	Distance Click this icon to check distances between points. Distances will be reported in Command history window. Click this icon a second time to end the distance function.
	Layer Properties Manager This button opens the Layer Properties Manager dialog box.
	Layer Selector Allows the user to select which layer to display.

	Select Window Inside This button changes the cursor mode to rectangular selection and the selection mode to Select Inside.
	Select Window Inside This button changes the cursor mode to perimeter selection and the selection mode to Select Inside.

	Extract Bare Earth This button changes the mode to Bare Earth Extraction. Hold the Ctrl key while clicking on the scanner position to start extraction. Bare Earth works only in Plan View (viewing from Top).
	Extract Contours This button changes the mode to Extract Contours. The settings dialog for extracting contours will be shown.
	Extract Profile This button changes the cursor mode to Extract Profile. Draw profiles on the screen by left-clicking the mouse to complete each line segment. Right-click to complete the last profile.
	Extract Sections This button changes the cursor mode to Section Extraction. The settings for Section Extraction will be shown on the Action Tab of the Project Manager.
	Extract Plane This button changes the cursor mode to Plane Extraction. The settings for Plane Extraction will be shown on the Action Tab of the Project Manager.

	Create Point This button changes the cursor mode to Point Creation. The Point Creation Panel will be shown on the Action Tab of the Project Manager. You can exit this mode with End Action button or the Escape key.
	Extract Tree This button changes the cursor mode to Point Creation and the extraction mode to Tree Extraction. The Point Creation Panel will be shown on the Action Tab of the Project Manager. To change Tree Extraction settings, click on the Options button next to the Feature Type dropdown.
	Extract Pole This button changes the cursor mode to Point Creation and the extraction mode to Pole Extraction. The Point Creation Panel will be shown on the Action Tab of the Project Manager.
	Extract Hydrant This button changes the cursor mode to Point Creation and the extraction mode to Hydrant Extraction. The Point Creation Panel will be shown on the Action Tab of the Project Manager.
	Create Polyline This button changes the cursor mode to Polyline Creation. The Polyline Creation Panel will be shown on the Action Tab of the Project Manager. You can exit this mode with End Action button or the Escape key.

	End Action This button will end the current mode. Some modes can also be ended via right-click and/or the Escape key.

File Menu

Save PDF Exports the current onscreen view to a PDF. Not available for Clouds in the Pointools engine.
Exit Closes the current viewer window only. To close all windows use the Exit button on the Project Tab of the main PointCloud window.

Edit Menu

Show All Shows any points which have been hidden via the Hide command.
Hide Hides selected points.
Delete Deletes selected points from a Mesh. Not available for Clouds.
Translate Moves selected items. To move a cloud, right-click and choose "Transform" from the Project Tab.
Rotate Rotates selected items. To rotate a cloud, right-click and choose "Transform" from the Project Tab.
Scale Grows or shrinks selected items. To scale a cloud, right-click and choose "Transform" from the Project Tab.
Sequence Transforms selected items in multiple steps. To transform a cloud, right-click and choose "Transform" from the Project Tab.

Selection Menu

All of the same functions that can be found on the Action Tab along with the ability to show more information about the current selection by clicking on Information.

View Menu

Shows all of the available options to change the current view - similar to the options in the Shortcuts Toolbar along with the option to open the Layer Properties Manager.

Create Menu

In here the user has all of the functions that can be found in the Shortcuts Toolbar along with options that are found in the Create Panel within the Action Tab.

Tools Menu

Distance Click on this to check distances between points. Slope, Horizontal and Vertical Distances will be reported on screen and in the Command history window. Click this icon a second time Right click to end the distance function.
Cloud
- Clean Will open the Clean Cloud dialog.
- Resample Will open the Cloud Resample options.
- Bare Earth Changes the mode to Bare Earth Extraction. Hold the Ctrl key while clicking on the scanner position to start extraction. Bare Earth works only in Plan View (viewing from Top).
Mesh - See Meshes for more information
- Clean To remove spikes from a mesh
- Simplify Reduces the size of the mesh surface so that it can be transferred over to CAD software
- Smooth Allows the user to create a new mesh or modify the existing mesh
- Image Ability to import an existing Geo-referenced mesh (bmp, jpg, tiff, tiff)

Orbit

The Orbit guide displays a primary circle with circles at the cardinal directions. These circles help guide the user when performing three dimensional rotations of the scene.

The Bounding Box

The scene bounding box is an axis-aligned box that encompasses the full range of the data currently in the scene. The bounding box is used indirectly in several functions that affect the entire scene.

The Pivot Point

The current camera pivot is represented by a point in the scene, which is red by default. When the camera is working in Orbit mode, this point is the point that the camera orbits around when you drag the mouse. By default, this point moves to the valid data nearest to your cursor when you press the left mouse button in Orbit mode, but this behavior can be changed in the Camera Tab.

The Reference Point

The current reference point is represented by a point in the scene, which is yellow by default. It is used for preliminary data checking without having to create any objects in the project itself. All functionality that uses the reference point can be found on the Data Tab.

The Elevation and Range Legend

The elevation and range legends display the range of elevation/range colors and the values associated with those colors in the current scene. The values associated with each color are not absolute and can change from scene to scene. Elevation coloring ranges from Blue, as the minimum elevation, to Red, as the maximum elevation, while range coloring ranges from white being the closest point to black for the furthest. The ranges for range coloring are calculated from the distance between the origin to the current point in clouds and meshes, while for scans the scanner position is used.

The Orientation Axes

The orientation axes are the red, blue, and green arrows that are located in the bottom left of the viewer by default. These show how the current camera's view direction relates to the world axes and can be useful when determining what direction the camera is looking in. The red arrow is the x axis, the green arrow is the y axis, and the blue arrow is the z axis. The size and position of the orientation axes can be changed in the Project Settings dialog.

The Status Bar

At the bottom of the viewer is a status bar that is divided up into four blocks. The leftmost three of these blocks display the x, y, and z position information of the data under the cursor (if it is valid data), and the fourth block displays any prompts to the user that may be important.

Customizing the Viewer

There exists several options for customizing the PointCloud viewer; these options can be found in the Project Settings dialog, which can be accessed from the Project Tab of the Project Manager at the top of the window. See documentation on the Project Settings for more information about these options.