The power of visualisation

As 3D data are becoming more available, expensive professional software is no longer required to include point cloud data in your projects. By uploading data into Pointscene you get access to many useful tools for managing, visualising and making operations on 3D data. All procedures you can conduct in Pointscene are very easy and still incredibly effective. Did you know that just by changing visualisation of a point cloud you can obtain valuable information about a scanned area?

There are many ways to visualise 3D data. Let’s start with natural colours. To display point cloud in natural colours in Pointscene, open Options in the right-hand corner of the window, go to Point clouds tab and choose RGB. Displaying point cloud in natural colours is a major help when trying to recognise what objects have been captured during scanning. It’ll be very useful during classification.

Choosing the second option, marked as Z, displays height information. The default setting is based on lowest and highest point in the point cloud. Height values represent the surface model of the terrain. Model of the surface is often needed at the planning phase in construction and mining projects. One trick that I like to use for displaying height information is to set Edge effect active. It accentuates edges and results in a clearer image.

Another simple analysis is to identify objects that exceed a certain height. Firstly, you need to change visualization thresholds. There are two ways to do it. First one is to use plus and minus signs to change default values. Another is to click orange target mark at the left side of range values and assign new lowest value by clicking on the corresponding point in the point cloud and then choosing highest point value in the same way. One possible application of this method is to detect all regions 10 m higher than the road surface.

This colouring mode can also be used for checking the flatness of the horizontal surfaces. Just pick two reference points on the surface. All the points will be coloured according to the chosen range. It allows identifying areas with higher and lower height values. Using this method you can detect centimetre level differences on the point cloud.

The other method to colour the point cloud is to use intensity values (INT). It allows distinguishing areas with contrasting colours at first glance. The next visualization method is based on point classification (CLS). It is available only if uploaded point cloud already contained this information. Last but not least is mixed method (MIX). It allows colouring the point cloud using two of the previously mentioned methods at once. To give an example, display Z and RGB information to get information about object height and its type at the same time.

I hope you’ll find information in this text useful. If you’re working with the point clouds and are interested in more tools available at Pointscene, be sure to check next articles.

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