Surfaces
Menu: Explorer / Objects / Surfaces (Mesh)
There are two ways to generate Surfaces. Surfaces can be generated using the Ground Detection tool found under Menu: Analyze / Ground (see Ground Detection for details). Once created, surfaces will be listed in this tab, where users can choose to display or hide them as needed.
The second approach is by clicking on 
To generate a Mesh here are the parameters that needs to be set:
Sampling level: Simplification level based on the Octree structure. Lower levels preserve more detail but increase processing time and memory usage. No simplification is applied when set to 0.
Maximum edge length (m): Maximum allowed length (in meters) of any triangle edge in the generated mesh. Smaller values produce finer, more detailed meshes. Larger values are faster but may oversimplify small features. Too small a value may cause holes or fragmented geometry. Use 2–3× the average point spacing in your dataset. Increase the value when you increase the sampling level.
Fill holes: Enable to automatically fill small holes in the generated mesh. Disable to leave all holes open.
Hole fill diameter (m): Maximum diameter (in meters) of holes that will be automatically filled in the mesh. Helps patch small gaps from scanning occlusions or missing data. Larger values may fill intentional openings (e.g., windows, tunnels). Use 0.3–0.5 m for most cases. Increase only if you expect and want to fill larger holes.
The Surfaces Toolbar provides several management tools:
Icon | Description |
|---|---|
| Deletes all selected surfaces |
| Creates a Digital Terrain Model (DTM), generates a mesh, or imports a surface from a file. |
| Allows the user to click on a surface to identify it on-screen; the corresponding surface will be highlighted in the list. |
Imports a surface from VisionCivil, provided an existing surface is available in VisionCivil. | |
Exports the selected surfaces to DXF, Shapefile, MapInfo, GeoJSON, or KML formats. | |
Transfers the current surface to the VisionCivil module. A Vision database must be attached. |
Additional Features (Context Menu)
Right-clicking on a surface opens a contextual menu with additional tools:
Colorize Points by Distance
This tool colors surface points based on their distance from the selected surface. When selected, a “Color by Surface” window appears, displaying a colorized point cloud in a secondary window. Users can also generate a PDF report. (See Analyzing Surfaces for more details.)
Select Points
This tool selects points within a specified distance interval from the surface. The user enters the interval in the text field next to the option:
Single Value (e.g.,
0.5) → Selects points within a symmetric range (-0.5 to 0.5).Two Values (e.g.,
-0.2 : 0.4) → Selects points within an asymmetric range (-0.2 to 0.4).
When activated, this tool opens the Selection Window, providing additional options for refining point selection. (See Selection Tools for more details.)