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Intern Programs Home SURE UseIT Version 1.0 by Tim Babb, Version 2.0+ by Michael Steffeck (msteffec [at] ucsc.edu) Program purpose:
============================================================== 1) Running SlugView from the Command Line ==============================================================
./SlugView.sh [option] [filename...] or for Windows SlugView.bat [option] [filename...] [filename] is either the name of a .header, .svn, or any other filetype to be defined The only [option] is "-c".This option will convert the raw text file in to a smaller, faster .svn file, which is native to SlugView. More about file types in section 3: File Types. Return to Table of Contents 2) Running SlugView from MATLAB ============================================================== **Note: When specifying a bahavior with Matlab, clicking "Done" in SlugView will exit and return the specified data. Clicking "Cancel" will exit without returning the specified data.** - Start MATLAB from ~/slugview - Run one of the following commands: a. showpointcloud(matrix, behavior) ARGUMENTS matrix: An [m x n] or [n x m] matrix of points, where n is the number of points, and m >= 3. The first three coordinates of the M dimension are taken to be points in euclidean space. The optional, additional coordinates are mapped to color. behavior: A string value indicating what kind of object to return. See below. RETURNS Return value is dependent on the "behavior" string. Output for each possible value of "behavior" is given below: 'data' - Return the data itself in an [m x n] matrix. 'indexlist' - Return an [n X 1] list of indecies into the original data, representing the points that you did NOT clip away 'planefit' - Return the coefficients for the best-fit plane as a function of x and y, in the form Ax + By + Cz + D. Return to Table of Contents b. showfromfile(path, behavior) **Note: If you want to use showfromfile by specifying a behavior but not a filename then you must include empty single quotes. (i.e. showfromfile( '' , 'data') ) ** ARGUMENTS path: The fully-qualified path of a point cloud file to display. behavior: Selects whether to return data, a list of indecies, or a best-fit plane ('data', 'indexlist', and 'planefit' respectively). BEHAVIOR Opens SlugView and automatically accesses the file specified. Returns specified behavior to Matlab when done RETURNS See "showpointcloud()". Return to Table of Contents c. showfromfile(path) ARGUMENTS path: The fully-qualified path of a point cloud data file to display. BEHAVIOR Opens SlugView and automatically accesses the file specified RETURNS See "showpointcloud()". Return to Table of Contents ============================================================== 3) File Types ============================================================== SlugView is capable of handling any text file format that is 7 dimensions or less. Every file is required to have at least xyz dimensions. It can also include RGB data and intensity data. RGB can be in floating point(decimal 0.0-1.0) form or byte(integer 0-255) form. Intensity can be numbers or characters. SlugView also has a native filetype, .svn (slugview native). SVN's store the information in binary; therefore are faster and smaller than their text file counterpart. It is recommended all files are converted to .svn. .headers: .header/.data file pairs have been removed from SlugView and replaced with .svn. SlugView will still open .header/.data pairs, but will no longer save in that format. Return to Table of Contents ============================================================== 4) Using the Program ============================================================== a. Rotation Tool  Activate this tool by clicking the circular arrow button (illustrated above). Right click the button for more options. You cannot make selections when you are in rotation mode. - PAN: Middle-click and drag on the display window. Or if you have no middle click, on most systems, clicking both left and right substitute - ZOOM: Right-click and drag on the display window. - ROTATE: Left-click and drag on the display window. Or use Arrow keys on keyboard - RECENTER: Double-click on a point in the display window. Rotation will now happen around the new point. If you are having difficulty manipulating the data, try recentering it. - SHOW POINT COORDINATES: SHIFT + Left-Click will show the coordinates for the point being clicked. Whenever you re-center, a blue cone will appear and track over from the old center of rotation to the new one. You can bring the cone up at any time and see where your center of rotation is by holding the CONTROL key. Return to Table of Contents b. Selection Tool  Activate this tool by clicking the button with the polygon icon (Illustrated above). You cannot rotate while in selection mode. However, you can still pan and zoom. To make a selection, there are two options accessable by right clicking the button: 1.Freehand:This creates a free-hand tool which allows you to draw freely. When finished selecting an area, release the button and the ends will automatically be attached to complete the polygon 2.Rectangle: This creates a selection box. The initial click point is fixed, but as long as SHIFT and Click are held down, the box can be resized. Once the buttons are released, the box is set. When you've made your selection, you can do a number of things to it: - UNSELECT it: By clicking the window, the selection will erase. You can also click the "Cancel Selection" button. - WORK ON it: This will isolate the selection in your field of view. This is useful when there is a large amount of data in the dataset that you know you won't be making any immediate changes to. The program will run faster without these points on the screen. You'll also be able to see what you are working on in more detail, since the level-of-detail can be increased and the extraneous data won't get in your way. You can then merge this smaller "working set" with the larger dataset later on. You can work on as many successively smaller datasets as you like. - DELETE it: Click the "delete inside" button (a circle with an "X" in the middle and shading on the outside) to remove everything inside the selection from the working set. - DELETE everything OUTSIDE of it: Click the "delete outside" button (a circle with shading inside of it) to remove everything but what's inside of your selection. Return to Table of Contents c. Measure Tool  Activate the measure tool by clicking on the icon of a measuring tape. It will turn orange when it is active. You can click anywhere on the dataset to place a marker point. Each time you do, a line will be connected to your previous point, and the distance between the two will be added to your total measurement, which is displayed in the lower left of the window. You can also drag the mouse to create a movable line You can clear your measurement and start over by clicking the Clear Measurement button The units of the measure tool are the same as those used in the original data file. Return to Table of Contents d. Plane Fit Tool This tool is in development. Clicking it will perform a best-fit on the data currently being worked on. The result will be rendered in the viewer window. Right now, this tool is only for getting a preview of what the best-fit plane will look like. To obtain the actual parameters for the best-fit plane, you still need to use the 'planefit' tag when calling SlugView from Matlab. Return to Table of Contents e. Merging Data These tools are used in combination with the Work On function. If you've finished working on a small piece of your data and you want to work on a different part, you can merge what you've done with the rest of the dataset. There are two ways to do this: 1. Merge with Superset:  Click the "merge with superset" button (black square being inserted into a larger black square), and your changes will be merged everything you "left behind" the last time you clicked the "work on" button. 2. Subtract from Superset:  Click the "subtract from superset" button (grey square being removed from a black square), and everything in the working set will be removed from everything you "left behind" the last time you clicked the "work on" button **Note: The Merge and Subtract functions clear the Undo buffer.** Return to Table of Contents f. Point Size The program draws point clouds as a large number of small, translucent circles. When these circles overlap, they get brighter. The point size slider controls how big to draw a single point on the screen. What a reasonable value is depends on how many points you are viewing and how closely they are spaced. Generally, you will start zoomed out very far, and all the points will be overlapping each other and your point cloud will be very bright. This is because the computer can't draw points smaller than a fixed minimum size on the screen (some machines won't draw anything at all if the point size is below this threshold value). Usually, you will have to zoom in to make the points larger and more spaced apart on the screen before this slider will have any effect. If ever your point cloud appears to bright or too blurry, reducing the point size and/or zooming in will usually fix the problem. Return to Table of Contents g. Display Resolution SlugView allows you to control the level of detail at which to draw your dataset in order to maintain fast framerates. Choosing a higher number in the box in the lower right hand side of the window will increase the level of downsampling, i.e. the resolution will go down. You must click "Resample" before the change will take effect. The level of detail ONLY affects what is drawn on the screen. Selections always operate on the full-resolution dataset, even if you cannot see it. Return to Table of Contents h. Draw Line Tool  To use the Draw-Line Tool, there are two options: *Left-Click and drag: This enables you to draw a straight line. The first point will remain locked, but the second can be moved as long as the left mouse-button is held down *Left-Click: This will create individual points The purpose of the Draw-Line Tool is to enable you to draw lines and points on the screen, and to use them as reference for rotation. The lines and points made by this tool will rotate with the dataset *CLEAR LINES - To delete/clear the lines from the window, you must click the "Clear Selection" button. They will remain until you do. **Note: The lines and points drawn by you are only displayed and not actually added to the dataset, so there is no risk of altering the point clouds ** Return to Table of Contents i. Undo button  The Undo button undoes what you have just done. For the sake of conserving memory, the undo button has only 5 levels of undo. That means that only 5 previous changes are recorded. Also, important to note, there is no Redo button. Return to Table of Contents j. Cancel Selection / Clear Lines button  The Cancel Selection button has two functions. It will clear a Selection (which can also be done by clicking on the screen), or, more importantly, it is the only way to clear the lines and points drawn by the LineDrawer. Return to Table of Contents k. Clear Measurement button  The Clear Measurement button is the only way (besides using the Selection tool) to clear a measurement. Clicking this button will remove the current measurement and clear the screen of measurement arrows. Return to Table of Contents l. Work On button  The Work On button enables you to reduce a larger point-cloud in to a smaller one. The smaller point-cloud can later be merged back in to the larger. This is particularly useful if you have many edits to make on a smaller area. This will reduce the time needed to perform all operations. You can work on as many successively smaller datasets as you like. Return to Table of Contents m. Deleting data The deletion tools are used in combination with the Selection tool. The Selection tool draws a polygon on the screen and the two deletion tools operate on that polygon in different ways. Deletion functions 2-dimensionally in a 3-dimensional environment. This means it will delete everything in the x-y plane it creates. Up to five previous deletions can be undone with the Undo button. 1. Delete inside  The Delete inside button will delete all points that are encased by the polygon. 2. Delete outside  The Delete outside button will delete all points that are not encased by the polygon. Return to Table of Contents ============================================================== 5) Troubleshooting ============================================================== Q: I'm viewing a pointcloud, and it looks all white and/or blurry. Q: The "Selector" tool lags a lot when trying to draw. Q: My pointcloud looks like pinstripes. Q: It takes a long time to delete small bits of data. Q: The arrow keys don't always work when trying to rotate the data. Q: The Draw-Line tool wont draw a line or points, or sometimes stops responding while dragging. Q: I'm viewing a pointcloud, and it looks all white and/or blurry. A: Zoom in until points appear as tiny circles. Now reduce the point size until the data is sharp. If changing the point size does not seem to have any effect, you are probably still zoomed out too far.Changing the resolution will also reduce the whiteness by reducing the number of points on the screen, which will reduce the overlap-- hence the brightness. Q: The "Selector" tool lags a lot when trying to draw. A: Reducing the Resolution will help. The tool lags because your computer's video processor is having difficulty rendering all the points of the cloud. Every time you move the selector, the screen has to be re-displayed. Q: My pointcloud looks like pinstripes A: More than likely, this is a precision problem. If you are using a georeferenced coordinate system, the numbers are too large to be displayed with precision. The solution for this is to change your file type from .xyz to .utm, or .pts to .gpts if you are using real colors. You can change the filetype by right-clicking and selecting rename. Even if you are not using georeferencing, it is possible you are having a precision problem anyway. Try changing your file extension to .utm (or .gpts for .pts files) Q: It takes a long time to delete small bits of data. A: Use the "Work on" tool to work on smaller pieces of the data if you are going to make more than one change to a particular part.If you have a 30+ million point cloud, select maybe a 1 to 3 million point section of it and work on that, then merge with the larger set when you are done. Q: The arrow keys don't always work when trying to rotate the data. A: You have to click on the 3d window (the black area) in order for SlugView to recognize the signals coming from the keys. There doesn't seem to be any fix for this because it is about keyboard focus. Q: The Draw-Line tool wont draw a line or points, or sometimes stops responding while dragging. A: The Draw-Line tool will only draw a line or point when it is held over the point-cloud. If held over empty (black) space, it stops responding. This happens because it is dependent on the depth of the point-cloud. If there is no cloud, then it does not know how to draw the line. Return to Table of Contents ============================================================== 6) Appendix ============================================================== a. Key and Mouse Bindings
Return to Table of Contents Return to SlugView's Main Page For more information about SlugView contact Michael Steffeck msteffec@ucsc.edu Feedback is encouraged. (Please include "SlugView" in the title) |
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Last modified: April 14 2009 13:47 |
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