POINTCLOUDBUBBLEVIEWER command

Opens the Bubble viewer.

Description

Opens the Bubble viewer for the point cloud bubble with the associated specified index. The name of the selected bubble (active scan) is displayed in the title bar of the viewer.

Note: Bubbles can also be opened in the Bubble viewer from the Point Cloud Manager panel's Scans/Waypoints list via the Open scan in bubble viewer option in the context menu of the selected scan/waypoint.

Bubble Viewer

Depending on the original file format of the point cloud and the type of scanner used during scanning (static or kinematic), bubbles (green spheres) or waypoints (blue spheres) might be shown at all the scan locations. At these locations, you will experience the most realistic visual representations by opening the Bubble viewer.

Note: LAS and PTS formats do not contain scanner information, so they cannot produce point cloud bubbles.

Structured data is captured using a static scanner. In this case the location of the scanner is known for every point. Green bubbles are created at the locations of the static scanner from the scanned points.

Note: The bubbles have depth information and can be used for algorithms like fit planar and fit cylinder.

Unstructured data is captured using a kinematic scanner. In this case there is no exact location from where the points were scanned. Some of the kinematic scanners create panoramic images at time intervals. For these images the location is known and waypoints (blue spheres) are created.

Note: The waypoints are purely created from the captured images which don't have depth information. They have a pure visualization functionality and cannot be used for other algorithms.

Indicate a bubble index in the POINTCLOUDBUBBLEVIEWER command or double-click one of the bubbles in the model space to open the Bubble viewer.

Press and hold the middle mouse button and move the mouse to view the point cloud in any direction from that scan location.

Zoom in and out using the mouse wheel.

Press the Tab key to cycle through three different visual modes (view types).

  • The colors and colors (depth) modes display the points as their actual colors or in grayscale, depending on how the data was scanned.

  • The normals mode displays the points as red, green, or blue according to their normal vectors. The colors correspond to the UCS axes.

  • The distances mode displays the points from light to dark as the distance from the scan location increases.

Sync the drawing view to match the Bubble viewer by pressing Ctrl+A.

Note: Change the size of the displayed bubbles from the Point Cloud Manager's Render Settings tab. From here you can also turn off the display of point cloud bubbles. For cropped point clouds you can choose to display only the non-cropped bubbles (see Point cloud manager panel article).
Note: During commands that prompt for selection of a point, e.g. (poly)lines, you can use the Bubble viewer to snap to point cloud points.