Determine the translation used on the Reload From option for a point cloud

[Anonymous]

A customer sent me a Revit model and Recap point cloud. In order to view aligned model and scan, I open Revit model in Revit 2016, and reload point cloud by doing the following:

Insert / Manage Links / Point Clouds / Reload From...

Then I reload the RCP Link Name, providing the correctly aligned model/scan.

I am trying to determine the translation used to align the scan to the model, using Reload From option, since there is no way to set one of the usual load options of a point cloud, such as:

- origin to origin

- center to center

- by shared coordinates

Any thoughts on how to determine the translation used on the Reload From option for a point cloud?

Thanks!

Orso

[Alfredo_Medina]

When a link is reloaded with Reload From, Revit simply reads the file again , but it doesn´t ask again for a method of insertion nor changes the method of insertion that was used the first time. 

[Anonymous]

Alfredo, thanks for your response.

I tried to load the point cloud using center to center, origin to origin, and by shared, but none of the alignments matched the Reload From. What I am attempting to do is extract the translation that Revit has saved for a particular point cloud that is applied to the point cloud using the Reload From option. Is it possible to extract this saved translation?

Thanks

[Alfredo_Medina]

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@Anonymous wrote:

... Is it possible to extract this saved translation?

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I am confused by the word "translation" in this context. What do you mean by that?

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the confusion.

By translation, I am thinking of the N/S, E/W coordinates (translated coordinates from the point cloud origin/center, or whatever point selected) applied to the point cloud for alignment to the model.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the confusion.

By translation, I am thinking of the N/S, E/W coordinates applied to the point cloud (origin, center, or manually selected point by the user whom first loaded the point cloud) used in order to align scan to the model.

Thanks

[Alfredo_Medina]

So you mean Location (not translation). I suggest this: insert the point cloud in a Revit file, for example "A". Then, link that Revit file into your Revit project, for example "B", and then in "B", specify coordinates at point (if you haven't done that yet), then select the link "A", move and rotate it to the desired location, and then publish coordinates from "B" to "A". Next time, you can bring "A" into "B" by using shared coordinates. But it's not possible, as far I understand, to publish or acquire the coordinates directly to or from the point cloud file, but you can do it if you make it work as a link into a Revit file. 

[Anonymous]

Yes, I meant Location. Thanks for the correct Revit terminology.

In my case, a customer sent me a Revit model and Recap point cloud. In order to view aligned model and scan, I open Revit model in Revit 2016, and reload point cloud by using the Reload From option.

Is there a way to identify the location of this point cloud that was loaded using the Reload From option?

[Alfredo_Medina]

When you say reload, I assume that you are replacing a previous point cloud with a new one, correct? So, what happens when you do that? Is the point cloud moving from the previous position?

[Anonymous]

I first open the customer supplied Revit model. This model previously had a linked point cloud, but the point cloud does not automatically load into the Revit model upon opening. But, I can see that the scan was previously linked to the Revit model, as shown in the attached image. So, In order to "Reload From", I choose manage links, and choose the previously linked point cloud, and choose reload From to bring in the same point cloud (which I think is essentially updating the location of the scan). The scan shows up in the correct location. Is it possible to extract the location of the scan placements.

Thanks

[Alfredo_Medina]

So you reloaded the point cloud files, and they showed up at the correct location. Now you want to "extract the location" of these files? You mean, annotate a specific point with North and East coordinates? You can identify points with the Spot coordinate tool, and that will give you the coordinates of a specific point. I am not sure if I am understanding what you need to to do, sorry.

[Anonymous]

Precisely. Except, I am not wanting to identify the location of a specific point. Instead, I would like to know the location of the center/origin of the point cloud.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I guess one method would be to locate a point in Revit, using the spot coordinate tool. Then, if I can locate the exact same point in Recap, I will know the center of the point cloud!

Thanks

[Alfredo_Medina]

I understand now what you're asking. You want to know if you can "get" somehow the coordinates of a point in your point cloud. Well, the answer is no, you cannot just get that information from the file. What you can do is: ask the provider of the point cloud for the coordinates of their control points. Or, locate the point cloud in a position that matches a civil drawing that contains coordinates.