Top 5 features for pointclouds

Euclideon GEOVERSE, SOLIBRI Model Checker, BCF, ScanManager, GreenSpider, GeomaticsCUBE.
scankukai
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 543
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:14 am
12
Full Name: Scan ku kaï
Company Details: Scankukai
Company Position Title: CEO
Country: France
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Has thanked: 58 times
Been thanked: 207 times

Top 5 features for pointclouds

Post by scankukai »

Hi Laser Scanning community,

In order to gather new ideas for further development (we already coded plugins for Scene), I'd like to start a small survey.

What would be the top 5 features you'd like to have once your scans are registered?

Any kind, even very creative!
User avatar
steves01x
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 544
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2015 3:58 pm
8
Full Name: Steve Smith
Company Details: Scanning
Company Position Title: Surveyor
Country: Scotland
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Has thanked: 31 times
Been thanked: 57 times

Re: Top 5 features for pointclouds

Post by steves01x »

Cyclone - batch export of individual scans with each one saved as the original ScanWorld name. :)

**as i have zero knowledge of Python i am not sure if this can be done via a script! **
User avatar
Matt Young
Honorary Member
Honorary Member
Posts: 3929
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2007 3:03 pm
16
Full Name: Matt Young
Company Details: Baker Hicks
Company Position Title: CAD-BIM Lead
Country: UK
Linkedin Profile: No
Has thanked: 45 times
Been thanked: 40 times

Re: Top 5 features for pointclouds

Post by Matt Young »

Ideal would be:

1. Fast loading of scans into an easy to use viewer.
2. Smallest file size format possible for the data.
3. Something with easy modelling capabilities / that translates easily to all major BIM formats.
4. Auto 3D modelling features.
5. Auto Topographical line work extraction in 3D with levels and layering functionality / scan data classification.

This must all come at a reasonable cost with no silly pricing models.
If you don't see that there is nothing, then you are kidding yourself.
scankukai
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 543
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:14 am
12
Full Name: Scan ku kaï
Company Details: Scankukai
Company Position Title: CEO
Country: France
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Has thanked: 58 times
Been thanked: 207 times

Re: Top 5 features for pointclouds

Post by scankukai »

@Steve: well, building plugins for Cyclone is for now out of our scope, but I keep the idea.

@Matt: we also pointed out most of your points.

One keypoint is the pricing. The world of terrestrial laser scanner is still quite small. Autodesk has thousands of customers and sells Revit for 2950€ / year. Building features dedicated to 3D pointclouds requires a lot of work for something sold to less than 500 customers all over the world.

We already sell plugins for Scene, but they absolutely don't cover our investment for now...
Last edited by scankukai on Sun Sep 30, 2018 12:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
neeravbm
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 136
Joined: Thu Mar 16, 2017 3:29 pm
7
Full Name: Neerav Mehta
Company Details: Indoor Intelligence
Company Position Title: CTO
Country: USA
Linkedin Profile: No
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 6 times

Re: Top 5 features for pointclouds

Post by neeravbm »

@Matt: Can you elaborate on which items would you want to model using 3D auto-modeling features?

For context, we are developers of Scan To BIM Revit add-in (https://scantobim.xyz). It extracts pipes, round ducts and conduits from point cloud. Your answer will help us prioritize features to develop in future.
Neerav Mehta
CTO, Indoor Intelligence
Creators of http://scantobim.xyz and http://rep3d.com
User avatar
Phil Marsh
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 2490
Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 2:28 pm
16
Full Name: Phil Marsh
Company Details: Laser Scanning Forum Ltd
Company Position Title: Director
Country: UK
Skype Name: phil.h.marsh
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: Barnsley, UK
Has thanked: 119 times
Been thanked: 36 times
Contact:

Re: Top 5 features for pointclouds

Post by Phil Marsh »

Tgl_Nan wrote: Thu Sep 27, 2018 2:32 pm What would be the top 5 features you'd like to have once your scans are registered?
Maybe you could start a poll on here to see what the top5 would be?
LASER SCANNING FORUM
[email protected]
scankukai
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 543
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:14 am
12
Full Name: Scan ku kaï
Company Details: Scankukai
Company Position Title: CEO
Country: France
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Has thanked: 58 times
Been thanked: 207 times

Re: Top 5 features for pointclouds

Post by scankukai »

Hello Phil,

Good idea. I'll try to build a poll for this topic.
jedfrechette
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 1237
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2010 7:51 pm
14
Full Name: Jed Frechette
Company Details: Lidar Guys
Company Position Title: CEO and Lidar Supervisor
Country: USA
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Has thanked: 62 times
Been thanked: 220 times
Contact:

Re: Top 5 features for pointclouds

Post by jedfrechette »

Tgl_Nan wrote: Fri Sep 28, 2018 3:19 pmBuilding features dedicated to 3D pointclouds requires a lot of work for something sold to less than 500 customers all over the world.
And those 500 hundred customers are going to ask for 5,000 different things.

I think one of the weaknesses of the software ecosystem in our industry is that developers have focused to much on trying to build solutions to specific problems rather than creating tools that make it easier for users to build their own solutions. As crude as it can sometimes be, one of the main reasons we use PolyWorks for so many things is that it let's us build those solutions. The big vendors would like to think that everyone is doing the same types of scanning and producing the same deliverables. The astonishing variety of posts you see on this forum, however, clearly shows that simply is not true.

Today, if I were turning Lidar Guys in to a software company, like I keep threatening to do, this is what I would do:

Build a GUI for PDAL. A minimum viable product would need to include a node based workspace for building filter pipelines and a 3D viewport to visualize the results. As a user that's something I would buy right now as it provides good out of the box functionality and, more importantly, a framework to build my own tools on top of. Tools that will work with any point cloud data I end up with regardless of source; airborne or mobile lidar, tripod scanner, hand-held scanner, photogrammetry, sonar...

Once that minimum product shipped my next priorities for a PDAL GUI would be things like interactive tools and adding native support for structured scan data to PDAL.

Long-term better classification tools are definitely needed, but that's a tougher nut to crack and the fundamentals need to be in place first.
Jed
neeravbm
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 136
Joined: Thu Mar 16, 2017 3:29 pm
7
Full Name: Neerav Mehta
Company Details: Indoor Intelligence
Company Position Title: CTO
Country: USA
Linkedin Profile: No
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 6 times

Re: Top 5 features for pointclouds

Post by neeravbm »

Jed, are you suggesting something like dynamo but for point cloud processing?

Another question is: according to Yan Koch, there are may be 500 customers for point cloud processing solutions. I am assuming that the number of potential customers will reduce further for the dynamo-like solution for point cloud processing because now the user needs to know what steps to follow to even filter the point clouds, instead of just clicking one button. So is it worth the effort?
Neerav Mehta
CTO, Indoor Intelligence
Creators of http://scantobim.xyz and http://rep3d.com
jedfrechette
V.I.P Member
V.I.P Member
Posts: 1237
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2010 7:51 pm
14
Full Name: Jed Frechette
Company Details: Lidar Guys
Company Position Title: CEO and Lidar Supervisor
Country: USA
Linkedin Profile: Yes
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Has thanked: 62 times
Been thanked: 220 times
Contact:

Re: Top 5 features for pointclouds

Post by jedfrechette »

The problem with the one button approach is that it doesn't work. At least, not in my experience for any reasonably complex real world use case. Even when it does work there are a million problems to solve and one button per problem doesn't scale very well.

I'm not familiar with Dynamo, but I'm assuming you mean:

http://dynamobim.org/

From a quick glance that looks similar to what I'd like to see. Fundamentally it's just procedural data processing. If I had to pick a software for inspiration though it would be Sidefx's Houdini. They've been building it for 30 years and solve the one button problem by doing both. For example, there is a low level node that deletes a specific part of an object, but there is also a group of nodes that analyze an object and do a smart delete based on some criteria. The smart delete has its own UI and the only reason a user would need to dig in to its implementation is if it wasn't working quite the way they wanted.
Jed
Post Reply

Return to “Third Party Software & Plugins”