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Point Cloud Indexing from FARO Scene

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Message 1 of 9
tom
Enthusiast
3089 Views, 8 Replies

Point Cloud Indexing from FARO Scene

Using Civil 3D 2013 and FARO Scene v 4.8.2.25521

 

After upgrading to Civil 3D 2013 I think I am having trouble indexing a point cloud directly from the FARO Scene workspace .FWS file.  It will index, but I cannot seem to find out how to get it to display the colorized points correctly.  I have viewed the point cloud in both 3D wireframe and Wireframe.  There is some color being diplayed (other than the layer color), but it is definetly not the correct color.  I went back to our Civil 3D 2012 and indexed the same .FWS file and the color came in correctly.  What cryptic switch or setting haven't I turned on or off or set properly?

 

Any help or direction would be appreciated.

8 REPLIES 8
Message 2 of 9
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: tom

Hi,

 

>> What cryptic switch or setting haven't I turned on or off or set properly?

Select the point-cloud ==> right click ==> "Point Cloud Properties" and within this dialog chose a style that shows the rgb-values of your point-cloud-data.

If it's set to another style, you won't see the points with the rgb-values colorized.

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 3 of 9
tom
Enthusiast
in reply to: Alfred.NESWADBA

Alfred,

 

Thanks for the quick response.

 

The point cloud indexed directly from the FWS file is a "Non-Civil 3D Point Cloud", so it doesn't use a style.  I got into the habit of not adding Civil 3D properties after about a million fatal errors when trying to Add Civil 3D Properties with 2012.  Even when I do Add Civil 3D properties to the point cloud in 2013 the color is still not correct.  I don't mean that red looks dark red, I mean that orange is blue and brown is blue and green is aqua and brown is aqua.

Message 4 of 9
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: tom

Hi,

 

>> The point cloud indexed directly from the FWS file is a "Non-Civil 3D Point Cloud"

The indexing of a pointcloud does not lose data If the point-cloud has color-values for each point, the indexed file will also have the colors saved in it.

With the phrase "non Civil 3D Point Cloud" you mean you have just used it in the way plain AutoCAD uses it?

If so, then I have success with these two steps:

  • a) change to visual style "Realistic"
  • b) select the point-cloud and within the property-windows you can set the point-cloud-color to "True Color (RGB)"

...does that help? (I hope so 😉 )

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 5 of 9
tom
Enthusiast
in reply to: tom

Thanks for keeping on this.  Yes, I am indexing the point cloud using the "POINTCLOUDINDEX" command, followed by the "POINTCLOUDATTACH" command.  Even with the Realistic visual style, the colors are off.  I have indexed scans from several projects to try and figure this out.  The colors that come in are all very similar no matter what the real life colors are; there are a lot o blues and aquas almost like its a color scheme. I have attached two images - one showing the point cloud in color as indexed from 2012 and one showing the same FWS file indexed with 2013.  Notice the orangy building is now blue, the yellow stripe in the road is now blue, the yellow-green grass is now blue-green , the portion of the street colored red by the car that drove through the photo is now a purple.  It almost seems like the colors are inverted, but I'm  not positive about that.

Message 6 of 9
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: tom

Hi,

 

ok, I see now that colors are used, but maybe interpreted wrong.

To differentiate now what the part is that distorts the color could you do the following tests:

a) index the file with 2012 and attach this indexed-one in 2013

b) index the file with 2013 and attatch this with 2012

 

As you do have Civil3D, have you tried to create the index-file with Civil- or with Map-command of 2013?

I tried 2 RGB-pointclouds I have with 2013, they both look good.

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 7 of 9
tom
Enthusiast
in reply to: tom

I have tried to attach the file indexed with 2012 into 2013 and the colors come in correct.  I don't think I can attach the 2013 point cloud in 2012 as the point cloud object is changed.  I get a message that "The point cloud file is not valid! Attach point cloud failed".  I have not tried to index the file as a Civil 3D or Map point cloud.  The direct indexing from the FWS file seems like a big time saver as I don't have to export anything from the FARO Scene software.  If I get time later, I will try it though.

 

Thanks again

Message 8 of 9
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: tom

Hi,

 

>> I have tried to attach the file indexed with 2012 into 2013 and the colors come in correct

That makes me feeling that the 2013-"indexer" has a fault with this format, at least not having exactly your file format I'm not able to reproduce that for you. I would send a message to Autodesk therefor.

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 9 of 9
tom
Enthusiast
in reply to: tom

Alfred,

 

I just got a response back from Autodesk.  This is a known issue and the development team is investigating.  Thanks for helping me out.  I appreciate it very much.

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