Upload Terrestrial Laser Scans

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Overview of Static Scans
• Supported Structured Scan File Formats
• Preparing Your Cintoo Project for Uploading Scans
• Uploading Structured Scans with Cintoo Connect

Overview of Static Scans

Terrestrial scans, also called static scans, are generated from a device mounted on a tripod.

Each individual scan comes with its depth map, associating X, Y, Z data to each pixel of the panoramic image grid.

Structured scans need to be ‘registered’ (i.e. aligned in a same coordinate systems) using a registration software such as: Faro SCENE, Trimble RealWorks, Leica Cyclone, Leica Register 360, Topcon ScanMaster, Autodesk ReCap Pro etc. Once registered, the structured data contains each scan location, each panoramic image & depth map, and the 3D point cloud.

With structured scans, each scan location is visible in 3D space. It’s possible to be in each scan position, see the panoramic image and navigate from scan to scan.

Supported Structured Scan File Formats

• (Structured) RCP: the native format for Autodesk ReCap projects
• (Structured) FLS or LSPROJ: the native format for Faro SCENE projects
• (Structured) E57: the standard exchange format for terrestrial laser scanning
• Most point cloud software provides the option to export a structured E57 file.
• See Import Structured Scans for more information on how to generate a structured E57 from various registration software.

Preparing Your Cintoo Project for Uploading Scans

1. Before uploading scans, create a Work Zone to host all your scans.

2. Select the Work Zone in which you want to upload scans and click “Upload Terrestrial Laser Scanner ” from the drop-down menu:

or click on “Terrestrial Laser Scanner” from the Data Tab main view:

3. Cintoo Connect will launch on your computer:

Uploading Structured Scans with Cintoo Connect

1. Select the "Terrestrial Laser Scans" tab in Cintoo Connect.

2. Select your RCP (Autodesk ReCap), FLS (Faro), LSPROJ (Faro Scene project) or E57 file. Please note the data must be a structured project (i.e. it must include the location of each scan, the panoramic images, depth maps and the point cloud.)

• Please reference this video to understand the difference between a structured scan project and a unified or unstructured scan project.

3. Once the input file has been selected, all scans setups included in the file will display in the list:

• If some scans have ‘lost’ their structure, you will see the following:
  • This occurs most often when an RCP Support folder does not included the associated ‘RCC’ files for each scan. Cintoo Connect can still read and upload the scans.
    
    
• If your selected scan file is a ‘unified’ point cloud, this warning message will be appear:
  • In this case, please refer to the team in charge of the laser scanning to request the source ‘structured’ file in RCP or E57 format. For more details, see Scan File Contains No Static Scan.
    
    

4. Right-click any scan in the list and click "Scan details" to view more information about the scan:

• A pop-up window will then appear listing information for the selected scan:
  
  
  

• If some scans have a resolution lower than 1,000 pixels in one axis, they will be automatically unselected. This usually corresponds to survey points, which do not need to be uploaded. To include them, click the check box  in the Cintoo Connect scan list.
• Structured scans that have lost their structure and that have less than 250,000 points are also automatically unselected.
• On average, please allow around 1 to 2 min for the processing of one scan of 10 million pixels, 5 min for 40 million pixels, and about 25 min for 160 million pixels (times may vary depending on your computer).

5. Adjust the process in parallel setting to process more than 2 scans (default setting) in parallel if you have a multi-core PC:

• On average, you will need at least 400 MB of RAM per 10 million pixels to process. For example:
  • 8 GB of RAM will allow you to process 5 scans of 40 million each in parallel.
  • 64 GB of RAM will be needed to process 5 scans of 160 million pixels each in parallel.

6. Change the scale factor only if you have been told to do so by the Surveyor.

 

• This scale factor expresses the difference between the local coordinate system that you need for your scans and your models, and the geographical coordinate system (such as a State Plane Coordinate System) used during the capture process.
  
  

7. Regarding the ‘Do not import deleted points from RCP’ option, please see this article.

8. Regarding the ‘Blur faces’ option:


 

• This option is enabled by default, automatically blurring of faces captured in any panoramic images included in the scans being uploaded to Cintoo.
• Uncheck this option to prevent the automatic face blurring in the panoramic images.
• Face blurring cannot be undone in Cintoo after the scans have been uploaded.
• Any files uploaded without the 'Blur faces' option enabled must be deleted from the Cintoo project and re-uploaded with the option checked in order to apply automatic face blurring.
  
  

9. Click "Import" to begin the upload process.

• Once a first scan has been uploaded, you can see the data in Cintoo by going to the Data tab, Overview Map, or 3D View. You may need to refresh the browser to see the scans that have finished uploading.