Point Cloud Editing in Surpac 6.8.1

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With the release of GEOVIA Surpac 6.8, users with a maintained license of Surpac can enjoy the benefits of point cloud technology. Surpac 6.8 supports the following file formats:

  • .las
  • .las
  • .obj
  • .asc
  • .txt

Clients could quickly and easily display point clouds which could be snapped to for digitising of structures or triangulated for rapid volume calculations.Clients could quickly and easily display point clouds which could be snapped to for digitising of structures or triangulated for rapid volume calculations. Building on from the initial release of Point Clouds in Surpac, we have now added some new features that will be available in Surpac 6.8.1 (released November 2017):

  • File based cleaning of noise and outliers
  • Reduction of point cloud density when meshing (Triangulating)
  • Edit a point cloud using screen extents, selection window or a polygon
  • Mesh a subset of points inside a chosen polygon
  • Create a point cloud from a solid or surface dtm
  • Export a point cloud that was created from a solid or surface to a .asc file (colour) or .txt file (no color)
  • Import a .laz point cloud file

Before we jump into a couple of the new features, let’s just recap a couple of point cloud basics to get started:

  1. Opening the point cloud in Surpac for the first time may take a few moments while Surpac creates an index of the point cloud. Once this is done, a file with the same name as the original point cloud will be created but will have an extension of .dspc (Dassault Systemes Point Cloud)  If you want to view the point cloud again, the .dspc file is the one to use as it is indexed and will display very quickly.
  2. By default, Surpac is set to display only 1 million points at any time. This can leave a dense point cloud looking a bit sparse in some instances.  If you have a decent graphics card, you may want to increase the point cloud resolution. This can be done by modifying the defaults using Customize > Default preferences > Graphics > Point cloud resolution.  Try 10,000,000 for the best viewing experience.

Now we know the basics of viewing the point cloud, let’s have a look at some of the improvements in 6.8.1, starting with Editing.

Point Cloud Editing

A range of new features have been added to assist with editing large point clouds. Using the menu Surfaces > Mesh tools > Point cloud edit, we now have access to some new tools.

This function allows the user to save out a subset of the original point cloud so that other functions such as Net volumes can be performed significantly faster on a smaller data set.

There are several options to saving a subset of the point cloud. If you have a stockpile boundary string, the option to edit by “Selecting an existing segment” would be the one to use.

Alternatively, try the “Digitise a polygon” feature to create a clipping boundary on the fly. If you just need a small rectangular polygon saved then “Selection window” is the best option. Try experimenting with all the options to see the final results.

In this example, I will use “Select an existing segment” to edit my point cloud. The boundary segment is shown in white below.

Filling in the form as follows, the result will be a new file called stockpile.asc. 

I have chosen .asc instead of .txt to retain the colour of the point cloud.

Using an existing segment is extremely quick so within one second, I have a new file ready to mesh and calculate volumes with. (Using a point cloud of 7.3 million points)

The next post will focus on Point Cloud Meshing and Cleaning, but you may also be interested in:

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Ash Colton

Ash Colton

Mining Knowledge Consultant, GEOVIA at Dassault Systèmes
Ash Colton is a qualified Mining and Engineering Surveyor with over 14 years' experience. Ash has worked on a number of mine sites (open cut and underground) and specializes in GEOVIA Surpac, MineSched and Macros. Ash is based in Perth, Australia.
Ash Colton

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