Projection mode :
In the viewer you will find two projection modes, the Perspective (default) and the Orthographic, the first one renders the 3D point of view, the second one transforms the point cloud to give a render of what it would look like in 2D.
You can switch between these two modes by clicking the binoculars icon in the top menu.
Here in the example the picture was taken from the same place with a different projection mode, Perspective and Orthographic.
Perspective :
Orthographic :
Appearance options :
By clicking on the brush, you will find some options.
RGBA (color) mode :
Intensity mode :
Elevation mode :
X-Ray mode :
Adaptative mode :
General opacity :
You can change the opacity of all elements at once, move the cursor along the slider to show/hide an element type. Leave the cursor in the center to see 100% of all the elements. This option is not saved in the version, it is only a visualization tool that resets each time the project is opened.
Clouds and Visible Objects:
Hidden Clouds and Visible Objects:
Visible Clouds and Hidden Objects:
Point Budget :
This is what defines the point density within your project, the higher the budget, the higher the density, greater density means that your project will be closer to a picture, less point will give a render where you can really see each point. Bear in mind that fewer points means lighter point cloud and better overall performances, you will always want to try to find the right balance between a clean point cloud and good performances, play with the different options to find that balance depending on your needs.
Low point budget :
High point budget :
Field of view :
The field of view is nothing more than the angle at which you can see, it also acts like a zoom in some sort, except this will deform the point cloud a little bit, this is comparable to a camera angle that you can change (big angle or small angle). If you wish to zoom without changing the actual perspective, use the mouse's scroll wheel. (Note that in the example below the picture was taken from the same place, the only difference is the field of view)
Low field of view :
High field of view :
Min node size :
This will allow you, just like the point budget, to change the number of points displayed in the viewer, except this one works differently, it is not about the overall density, this is about the different boxes (nodes) react to the zoom changes, where the point budget change the amount of points in the viewer globally this one will dynamically affect the amount of points when you zoom in / zoom out for each portion of the point cloud. The points contained in the boxes the closer to the camera will keep a good density when the one further will get a lower density, allowing you to keep a nice and clean image close to you while keeping good performances. It can be a bit tricky playing with this tool, so proceed with care !!
Low node size :
High node size :
Note that we did put a node size of 422 for the example, we do not recommend going as high for real case scenarios.
High Quality :
This is the fastest way to make your point cloud look better, just click the HQ button situated in the Features category, clicking this button will force your viewer to give you the best image possible without changing the amount of points currently displayed. You will see on the two images below that the differences are very small, but keep in mind that while in the viewer, trying to get a great result, this little difference will be a game changer.
Normal quality :
High quality :
Background :
You can switch between 4 backgrounds in the viewer, the dark blue one (default), the black one, the cloudy sky one (useful when trying to preview an outdoor site) and a white one.
To navigate through the different backgrounds, just click the background button situated in the Features category.
Dark blue (default) :
Black :
Cloudy sky :
White :
Lighting :
Lighting is a special feature, when activating the lighting you will be getting the default settings, you can change theses in the Lighting category that will appear when the button is activated, the new settings you set will be kept as is even if you turn off the lighting and turn it back on.
To activate / deactivate the lighting, just click the light icon in the Features menu.
The Lighting category has now appeared, you can see it has two options, the first one, Radius, plays with the width of the zone around each point where the light will get darker, the second one, Strength, is used to actually set the shadows' strength.
Lighting is incompatible with HQ mode, so you will have to deactivate either one to use the other.
Lighting deactivated :
Lighting activated :
Here, we have all of our appearance settings covered, now all you have to do is open your project and play with all the settings to get the result you want, as we discussed before it can be a bit tricky finding the right settings for each option, but we are sure that you will find what suits you the best in the viewer, all you have to do is try, all the options are yours.
In case of any problem or difficulty, please do not hesitate to contact the platform's team.