Point Cloud - importing Point Cloud with e57 standard.

Forgot to say that several videos and info are available in the Descartes tech preview section.. if you subscribe and go there you will learn on:

- breaklines extraction with advanced snap and flashlight

- Classification editing

- Delivrable creation

- plane and cylinder extraction..

and more..

As part of MicroStation V8i SS3 we added the support of e57 standard.

You may wonder what is the interest of e57 since MicroStation already supports lots of Point Cloud formats.

Well there are several benefits which will grow with the adoption of this standard. 

Some key aspects are that it is a binary exchange format, it can includes oriented 3D images and it concerns a larger number of industries than LAS. 

As an example, Leica had not used any "open "  binary file format for point cloud until recently. So far, bringing Point Cloud from Cyclone to MicroStation POD required to export to ASCII files (PTS and PTX).

Leica announced the support of e57 in Cyclone. (http://blog.lidarnews.com/leica-geosystems-announces-astm-e57-support) which combined with MicroStation import capabilities of e57 enables faster conversion of data from Cyclone to MicroStation.

More info on this standard is available there : http://www.ri.cmu.edu/publication_view.html?pub_id=6767

Here a video showing it 

More point cloud capabilities will come in the next release of Descartes. A beta program is currently running and info are available here:

http://communities.bentley.com/products/betas/bentley_descartes_v8i_selectseries_3_technology_preview/default.aspx 

Ben