EvalViewer cloud Workflow example 2

View meshes are not dependent on the ordering of cloud points, but they do depend on the view and on your ability to select views and partition the data. The cloud sections that result from Clouds > Section Cuts-MultipleClouds (which are based on the cloud Quick Render algorithm) do depend on the ordering of points in the cloud, but do not depend on the view; you must spend time cleaning up the sections.

When you are finished with the view meshing process, you typically have a reasonable polygonal model and sections as opposed to sections only.

A basic View mesh Workflow for converting clouds to polygonal meshes and then to XYZ sections:

1 Double-click the EvalViewer icon.

2 Choose File > Open to select all the relevant files for the job and click OK.

3 Use the Look At button to autoscale your display to the graphics window. Holding the left mouse button down, rotate the Cloud Data to see how it looks.

4 Choose the menu Clouds > Quick-Render Cloud. View the cloud from various angles to check its integrity. If you need to edit out portions of the data set, do the cloud cropping procedure as explained previously in EvalViewer cloud Workflow example 1.

Converting clouds to View meshes

If you personally scan the data that you are processing, we recommend creating one view mesh for each orientation of the optical scanner. This is a fairly natural process, as you will be creating a raw-data surface representation for each cloud set you scanned. If you did not scan the part yourself and the data is no longer partitioned into the acquisition views, the view mesh method will require some work. In particular, if your data came from a computed tomography scanner, the amount of work may be significant, but the process can still work.

1 Crop your cloud data into regions that can be surfaced from a given view without having the surface fold back on you.

2 Choose the tab Mesh > Make to mesh each surface.

3 Choose the tab Mesh > Smooth to smooth each mesh.

4 Choose the tab Mesh > Boundary to compute the boundary of the visible surface, if useful.

5 Choose the tab Mesh > CurvMap to compute the curvature map of the raw-data surface. If it is too noisy, reapply Smooth. Repeat as needed. Mark curvature transitions using the tab Subset > Create Line. Choose the tab Surf > None to resume normal shading.

6 Choose the tab Mesh > Reduce to reduce the mesh. Choose the tab Disp > Outlines to view the reduction results. If you are not getting good reduction, choose the tab Mesh > Reset and then do additional smoothing.

7 When you are satisfied with the amount of smoothing and reduction, choose tab Mesh > Compress. Now you have a simple polygonal object.

8 Repeat the previous steps for each cloud data subset.

9 Choose the tab Color > Ran to display your polygonal objects together using random colors.

10 You may use the Subset tab cropping tools on the polygonal mesh to further refine the meshes from each view.

Converting clouds to XYZ sections

1 Choose the menus Surface > XYZ Section Cuts or Surface > Radial Section Cuts or the tab Surf > Line Cut.

2 Choose the menu Sections > Reduce > Reduce Points on Lines. Point reduction uses 3D chordal deviation tests when deciding which points to keep.

Note: You should always apply point reduction to any Line Section data prior to exporting that data to Studio or any other system. The tolerance used for the chordal deviation test is found under Misc > Preferences > Line Tolerances > Chordal Deviation in mm.

3 Choose File > Save As > Save Lines As > Alias Wire. Give your output file a name. Click OK.

4 Use File > Exit to quit.

5 Start AutoStudio or SurfaceStudio and use File > Open.