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Menu: Analyze / Surface by sections
The main interface for Surface by sections presents many different elements:
- Name
- Bounding box
- Sections
- Template
- Drawing and exporting
Name
Enter a name in this text box for the surface to be created. This name will be used if surfaces are created and exported.
Bounding box
Create a bounding box for the area to be vectorized. The dimensions and orientation of the bounding box are determined here. The thickness of the sectional view and the interval between the sections is also determined here. Only the points contained within the bounding box will be included in the sectional views. The dimensions can always be modified if the bounding box is not satisfactory, however, the sections must be erased to do so. Note that the bounding box can be adjusted in the point cloud by manipulating the arrows of its axis.
- Modify: Allows a modification to the bounding box. The bounding box cannot be modified if sections are present in the sections list. To modify the bounding box, the sections must be deleted first.
- Show: Displays or hides the bounding box on the main screen.
- Hide out: Hide the points outside of the box
- Length: Length of the bounding box - represents the length of the sectional view.
- Width: Width of the bounding box - represents the width of the sectional view.
- Height: Height of the bounding box. The sectional views will be perpendicular to this height and the Step for the sections will be determined from this axis. The value changes automatically if we change the minimum or maximum elevation.
- Center: Represents the center point for the bounding box. Pick a center point on screen by clicking on the "..." button.
- Min elevation: Minimum elevation for the bounding box. If a change is made to the Height field, the value in Min elevation and Max elevation will be adjusted.
- Max elevation: Maximum elevation for the bounding box. If a change is made to the Height field, the value in Min elevation and Max elevation will be adjusted.
- Move: This option will move the center of the bounding box. This can be useful because the Center point is picked on an existing point and sometimes the desired center point is not on a point.
- Rotate: This option will rotate the bounding box to be more adequately oriented with the element to be vectorized.
- Thickness: Thickness of the sectional view. It's preferable to keep this value quite small.
- Step: The step is the default interval between the sections upon creation.
Sections
Below the Bounding box section, there are two tables - one for the sections and the other for the template.
- Create all sections: This button creates stations along the alignment using the interval value in the “Dimensions” section to determine the distance between each station. If a template exists in the template grid, “Create all sections” will use the template to populate the station list. Using this method will apply the template to all stations with one click.
- Detect: Lunch the automatic detection to generate the building outline.
- ...:Settings for the automatic detection
- Perpendicular icon: Positions the secondary view perpendicular to the alignment axis.
- Pick new section: The user must pick a point in the point cloud and the tool will create a station at that point, along the selected alignment, regardless of the offset.
- Edit points: When this option is activated, vectorized points in a section (picked points in the secondary window) can be displaced by using CTRL+Click.
- Previous: Switches the secondary view to the previous station. CTRL+1 is also available as a shortcut.
- Text box between “Previous” and “Next”: This text box presents the station value of the current selection. If this value is changed to a value which isn’t present in the station list, a new station will be created, just as the “Pick new section” function would.
- Next: Switches the secondary view to the next station. CTRL+2 is also available as a shortcut.
Template
Open icon: Replaces the current template with a previously saved one
Save icon: Saves the current template
Insert before/after icons: Inserts an empty point into the current template.
Pick and add: When this option is activated, points will be created in the template when picked in the secondary view. The points will be added to the end of the list, regardless of the position in the template.
- Pick and insert: When this option is activated, points will be created in the template when picked in the secondary view. The points will inserted between two points in the template point list.
Closed checkbox: Closes the template by linking the first and last points of the template.
- Update section: This button applies the current template to any given section; simply select a section in the list and click on Update section.
Drawing and exporting section
The bottom section of the tool presents a number of options for drawing the progress made and saving and exporting the results. Some options are available:
- Draw
- Draw sections:
Draws - Draws the sections in the main view, allowing the user to view the results before exporting.
- Erase sections: Erases the sections in the main view.
- Create surface: Creates a surface in the Objects tab of the Explorer using the given Name and draws it in the main view.
- Erase surface: Deletes the surface in the Objects tab of the Explorer with the given Name and erases it from the main view.
Save: Exports the results to a CSV or a TXT text file that may be reused by the software. Can be useful if many surfaces will be created in the same project.
Load: Loads a CSV or
a TXT text file JSON (.ssec & .json files) to replace the current stations and template.
Export: Exports the surface as a DXF, SHP, GeoJSON, KML or MapInfo file. The surface must be created before exporting the data.
- Close: Close the "Surface by Section" window
