Cloud Compare - Trace a polyline in a point cloud

you may want to trace a polyline in a 3d point cloud that you are working on in this video I'd like to show you how to do that using cloud compare and the tool traced polyline a polyline it's a very common object that is used for 3d drawing but also and above all for a two-dimensional drawing you can trace a polyline inside a cloud compare kind of the snapping at points of the point cloud and exporting that point cloud in a format file that could be a shapefile or a DXF file a CSV file that could be imported in other software such as a GIS CID software that may take a great advantage from using a polyline cloud compare allows you to draw trace and export a 3d polyline in order to do whatever you want to do another software so let's go inside out compare and let's see how you can do for tracing a polyline the tool is here and you can go here tools trace polyline there's also a shortcut which is control + P and once you click here there's a new window a new tool window here and now you have the tools active for tracing a new polyline you can see here the the arrow became a little hand and now you have active the tool for picking points on the point cloud defining vertex is of this new polyline so you can do whatever you want you have active you you still have the chance for rotating and moving around also zooming in and zooming out the point cloud because it's crucial for the tracing of the polyline being able to orbit a point cloud in order to really see really really really well the the area of the point cloud that you would like to to cover or where you'd like to trace your polyline so let's assume I'd like to to trace a polyline ad at the base of this of this this thing well actually I don't know how to say in English this is and this is something that has been built for avoiding avalanches to reach an area here where there are some houses some sorry in Italy is called the original against avalanches really really sorry about that I should prepare bærum these videos let's assume that light is raised a polyline here this basis so I got the two active so I just have to click I can zoom in click here and I need to snap well there's no snapping but the software needs an area with a point if I click here I'm clicking but nothing happens because there are no points of the point cloud here there are some points so let's click here and let's move along for with this polyline as you can see probably you will not have this value of with about 10 here I've just modified it in a previous previous test that I did you have a width of 1 which do not we doesn't allow you to really bad clearly see the polyline once while you are tracing it so you can at any time increase this number and as you can see you can go from 1 to 10 you really better see now the polyline that you are tracing by default the polyline that you are editing is colored in green but then once you have saved it you can color it with any color that you can choose be to inside the tools for editing colors or object inside Club compare so I'm moving I really hit a bad point here so but doesn't matter I will go on I'd like to to move this size some he I'm just stuck here so I can zoom out but if i zoom out I'm not able to clearly see the point's where I'd like to snap so I can that's no problem I can right click and move the point cloud from right to left and the tool is still active I do not have the chance for clicking a new vertex now but these this piece of polyline is still here so that means that the tool is still active I just have to click plus here continue the current polyline edition and a new segment is linked to the last vertex that I just edited and I can go on editing this polyline so again here I'm moving all the way here click plus and I can keep on going with this polyline I'm here again this is kind of a curve and I'm moving all the way to the right and again here now I can keep on editing this polyline with this kind of view of the point cloud but I can rotate the point cloud to better see what I'm editing so I just right click I can rotate the point cloud with the left clicking of the and left click and pay and moving dragging now I can again click plus the polyline keeps on going and let's see that I'm gonna stop here it's not the base but that's the same when I've done right click the editing of the polyline is stopped I can still add some more points so for instance if I'd like to join this this base with the this bases with this road here I can keep adding points with a plus button or I can do whatever I want with this polyline I've got some options here I can click this button that says export current polyline to the main D beam so that means that if I click here and I'm doing now so let's pay attention here I click here this new polyline has been added to the database here and but the tool is still on so I can keep on editing and join tracing another polyline the other options that I have here are this one so I'm gonna show you this one so I'm editing a random polyline here I have the options for reset current polyline pay attention that I'm gonna reset just the green one but not just the last vertex but the whole polyline that I've traced so pay attention to that tools because it will delete the old the entire green per line that you just edit it let's go with another polyline so let's assume they'd like to trace a polyline here at the top of this tool here of this stuff here and let's talk about the snap sites so I'm moving here and I'm moving all the way here snap site is a tool that allows you to increase the radius of kind of a sphere that the software uses for making you able to select a point of the point cloud is napping on it and making it a vertex of this polyline the bigger these videos the the better is in case of a dense cloud that is not so dense dense cloud where points are not so close one to each other so if you have kind of a sparse point cloud you can increase these nap sites in order to be able to better snapping the vertexes of the polyline that you're editing but if you have a point cloud like this which is kind of a dance increasing the snap sites mainly you may lead you to some mistakes in terms of precision and accuracy of the point that you are picking so by default this number is one and it's much more it's more conservative number that you can choose I try to stay fixed on one but sometimes if you have a dense point cloud that is not so dense you can increase it so you can snap so I'm gonna and keep on adding and you new vertexes and I'm gonna move all the way to the right here of course if you need to be extremely precise you need to go here maybe increasing the point sites and you need really need to get deep in terms of zooming for for the best spot line that you can trace in this case this is not the purpose of this video this is this video is just for showing you that you have the chance for tracing a polyline inside cloud compare so I'm not gonna go so deep in terms of accuracy and that's it right click and I'm done I'm gonna edit again to the DB and here we go this there's another polyline that is called the same way that the previous ones so I advise you to rename them and I'm gonna show you how to do them in order to keep your area your database here as much as to avoid messy to avoid mass in this database because it could really distract you from the from the editing of the polyline stool that I'd like to show you is the the over sample which well actually is not a tool it's it's a settings of the trace polyline over sample as it is said as it as you can understand from its name it's over sampling it's creating something more inside an element inside something and what it does increasing this number means that the software will increase the number of points between two points to vertexes that you have picked inside the point cloud by default this number is one and there won't be any points inside two points to vertexes of the polyline that means that once is the segment just one segment between two vertex is if you increase this number you are increasing the number of segments that the software will try to to define between two vertexes that you have picked this vertex is are automatically calculated by the software and are related to the position of the segment between the two main vertexes and the points of the point cloud that that vert that segment somehow hits in in this position so that's right with a over sample of 10 and let's trace a polyline from here to here and from here to here and then stop when you edit the polyline so when the polyline is green you you do not have the chance for for for seeing all these new vertexes but once you click here and you'll save the polyline in the DB tree in the database look at that it becomes white and I'm sorry this is not the best area to see what happens but I we're gonna go in through that in in a few minutes by here there are some vertexes that the software created due to the fact that you choose another sample of ten if the software is able of doing that he will try to distribute this point these new vertexes among the all length of the segment if it is able of doing that it will try and do its best for over sampling going as close as it can to this number of segments that you choose here so I'm gonna trace the last pole line and it's really another random polyline here and that's it just to let you to make you to show you this tool with this comment here which is confirmed polyline creation and exit so if you click here you just save this polyline in the DB tree and exit the tool now you have four polyline here that have each of the and each of this polyline have a point cloud related to it this point cloud is a point cloud that is made by the vertexes of that polyline I'll go through that in a while of course they are named the same so I strongly suggest you to rename in order to keep it really clear you can do by clicking f2 or by double click here and type in whatever you want so 0 1 0 2 0 3 and 0 4 that's it you can even create a group at an empty group you can call it for instance poly and you can select all this this stuff here and moving inside this folder and it really helps for having the best experience inside cloud compared now this polyline as a point cloud related and I can switch off the main point cloud to better see the polyline here we go this are the four polyline that I traced one two three four you can edit any of them as you want maybe you can like maybe you would like to color it by using another color you can choose whatever you want and you can use all the editing tool that cloud compare has for you and that's it these are three dimensional element and just have a nightlight just to show you the result of the over sampling here this is the polyline that I asked for in terms of over sampling and here we go as you can see if i zoom in this polyline I just basically I just pick this three points number one number two and number three but inside between these these points in this segment the software had defined a number of vertexes in order to segments to divide this segment in ten I even have the chance for better see that if I I cannot move this point cloud that is related to the polyline because it's related to the parlament but I can clone it so I'm gonna switch off this this stuff just keep this polyline active I click on this point cloud I clone it so I make a copy and now I'm switch on this polyline this point cloud and now you can see I'm gonna increase the point sides now you can see the new vertex is that the software created when I trace the polyline with the over sampling number with the over sampling active and I choose 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 here we go these are new 9 new vertexes and he was able to do that even here too one two three four five six seven eight nine ten here we go it can really help it depends on the point cloud that you are working on and depends on what you'd like to have in output from that tool once you have a polyline traced you can click on it you can hit save and you can save wherever you want choosing one of these file format DX f bi n it's a format file for the project inside coming inside cut compare but DX F shape file and CSU our common format file for vector elements that you can bring inside other software so this is a three dimensional polyline that you have the chance for bring in in any software that is able to dealing with this kind of data so I hope that this video was useful I think that the poly line is a really nice tool for working inside the two-dimensional area but also it's kind of a it's kind of a bridge between three-dimensional to two-dimensional working on a point cloud it's far different from working on ortho mosaic for distance in an orphan mosaic you I'll just have to to draw to trace a polyline over a two-dimensional image inside a cloud compare you have the chance for working directly in a three-dimensional space working on the three-dimensional point out so it's really powerful you really need to pay attention especially if you have a point cloud is its complex is maybe it could be scattered you may have some different planes that if you change your views could be could be piled one over the other and if you do not pay attention to the point that you are snapping on you mean you may click you may define a vertex in another plane so you you are just tracing a bad polyline so really pay attention to that you can zoom in you can even segment a point cloud in order to avoid mistakes of the stipe and tracing the best boilin that you can that you may have inside cloud compare so feel free to share this video feel free to connect with me a www.a trickle talks calm hope you enjoy you hope you enjoyed it sorry about that see you in the next one and thanks for watching ciao

Channel: Metrical Talks

Views: 2,248

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: cloud compare, polyline, poly, 3d, point cloud, open source, open source software, software, editing, how to, tutorial, metrical talks

Id: rTGH5ry4IRw

Length: 20min 13sec (1213 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 03 2020