Creating surfaces from non-classified data

Creating surfaces from non-classified data - Exercise

Task 1: Load smaller Point Cloud dataset

For the following tasks, we will use a smaller point cloud data set. The data is from the same original point cloud that was captured from the drone fly-over. It is only smaller to demonstrate the procedures but reduce the long processing times that are typical when using large point clouds.

1. Continue from the drawing created in the exercise from the first module objective.
2. On the Insert tab, click on the Attach Point Cloud icon.
   
   
   
   
3. Browse to the exercise data set and select the file Small Area.rcs.
4. On the Attach Point Cloud Dialog box, click on Details and notice that this point cloud is about one-tenth the size of the original.
   
   
   
   
5. Select one of the point cloud boundaries and click on the Point Cloud Manager icon. Tip: enter POINTCLOUDMANAGER at the command line to go directly to the mange dialog box without having to select any point clouds.
   
   
   
   
6. In the Regions and Scans dialog box, turn off Development Area – Keep.
   
   
   
   
7. As alternate to step 5, you can delete the entire Development Area – Keep point cloud. We will not need it from the remainder of this exercise.

Task 2: Create surface from Point Cloud - Direct method

This method uses the entire point cloud data, it does not filter by classification.

1. Select the point cloud to display the context ribbon. Click on Create Surface from Point Cloud.
   
   
   
   
2. The Create TIN Surface from Point Cloud wizard is launched. Enter in a name for the surface or keep the default name.
3. Change the style to Contours 1m and 5m(Background).
4. Click Next.
5. Click on the Select Entire Point Cloud icon.
   
   
   
   
6. Select the edge of the visible point cloud or hit enter and select Small Area from the list.
7. Verify the Total number of points that will be processed. We will need to get this number below 2 million, so we will change the Distance Between Points of points that will be imported for the surface build.
8. Carefully click in the Distance Between Points cell and change that number to 0.125 and notice the change in Total number of points. It is below 2 million.
   
   
   
   
9. Click Next.
10. Select No Filter option.
11. Select Create Surface.
12. Dismiss the Information alert.
13. Notice the task tray icon in the lower right, indicating that a surface is building in the background.
    
    
    
    
14. Close the Event View after reading the reason for the notices: ignored – duplicate.
15. Change the Display to 2D Wireframe so the contours are visible.
    
    
    
    
16. Notice the surface has been built using all the points and is not a good representation of the existing ground.
    
    
    
    
17. Select on the surface and view in the Object Viewer.
    
    

This drawing will be used in the next exercise.