We are evaluating Bentley Pointools V8i, Version 02.00.02.02, build 2.0130201
Workstation is an HP Pavillion HPE running an i7-2600 CPU @3.40 GHz/3.40 GHz, with 16GB RAM and an AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series Graphic Card.
Dataset is a 3.2 GB pointcloud (ca. 192 million points) in POD format generated in FARO Scene ersion 5.1.0.30630 64bit.
A 6-story building, roughly 30X10X22meters high was scanned from grade with about 12-15 stations.
The issue regards workflows involving simple cleaning up of the cloud, i.e. selecting/hiding the interior 'noise' in order to limit the scandata to the exterior facade.
When ONLY the interior surfaces captured by the scanner through the window have been selected and hidden, I used Invert within the Layers&Visibility tab.
This correctly presented the previously selected and hidden points.
I created a new Layer, selected the points so they were highlighted, and used the icon to (Ctrl-V) place the points on the new (highlighted) layer.
The result included the unforeseen inclusion of a jagged, orthogonal selection set of points OUTSIDE of the selection set which were not previously visible, (and not selected) being placed upon the new layer, resulting in a useless layer set.
See attatched PDF.
This is reproducable after restart, reinstall, a reduced data set of 340 MB etc.
A similar 'effect' is obtained when exporting selected or visible points to PTS files. (!)
Unwanted and unselected points are included in the dataset, AND/OR points are cropped out (i.e. missing) from the data set, leading to extremely unpredictable/useless resulting files.
Other issues:
Is there an undo function? Especially when encountering the above errors, work is lost when a selection set in corrupted due to inclusion of unwanted points as above.
Selecting points and hiding often leaves part of the selection set unhidden. Is there a limit to the number of points it can handle? I must deselect, and select smaller areas in order to hide the points 'left behind'
Mouse navigation is EXTREMELY user unfriendly and inconsistent with your other software offerings. It should be possible to navigate as in any other drafting program, ie, mouse button to pan, Shift-Click to rotate etc.
Please Advise.
Hi, sorry to hear you are having some problems.
The main issue - I can't quite see what you are doing at each step, we may need to look into this further but here's some hints that might help:
Instead of using the Hide button, create a layer for points you do not want and move unwanted points to this layer. this is more robust than hiding points.
When you see points that should not be there, press the orange refresh button in the Stack tab (hidden behind the Layer tab). This refreshes the view and in some instances clears up these display inaccuracies.
It's not possible to use Export Selected or Export Visible directly to PTS, the PTS exporter will always write out every point currently loaded into Pointools. I would advise that you use Export Layers as Files, which will create a POD for each layer, and then you can convert these to PTS as you wish.
There is an Undo button just for animation, but for editing operations there is the Stack. The Stack allows you to remove any edit you have made in any order (not just the last one), it is similar to the History tool in Photoshop.
There is no limit to number of points you can select, this is a symptom of a few possible problems. first, check that your graphics card drivers are up to date, second, use the refresh button in the stack, this can clear unwanted points from view. if these steps don't work we will need to look into the problem further.
Navigation is different from MicroStation, as it was designed before Pointools was a Bentley product. The status bar (bottom left of screen) always tells you what to do, in free navigation mode it says LMB (Left Mouse Button) to rotate, MMB (Middle Mouse Button) to pan, LMB+RMB (Left & Right Mouse Buttons) to zoom - this takes a little getting used to but once mastered provides a very efficient way of navigating.
The key to remember is X, hover the cursor over a point on screen and hit X on your keyboard, this will make the point under the cursor the new centre of rotation. This helps enormously. Also, be aware that there are 2 navigation modes, Explore and Examine. more on navigation here:
Let me know how you get on,
Dan
Hi Dan,
Thanks very much for your quick and detailed response!
I will get on it now and get back to you on how it goes using layers directly instead of introducing the 'Hiding' step.
I will also check out the Stack, apologies, i am sure it in the help somewhere.
nb
I disagree about the navigation, however, as I feel it should be 'transparent' i.e. not interfere with the action/active tool, and should absolutely not require me to reselect the tool I was working with (and I have used dozens of 3D drafting programmes since about 1990 so its not about it being different. its a usability thing. :) -plus, you get to call the shots now, its your program!).
I have found that if i lock the navigation to pan, i can get an acceptable workaround where i use Alt-Click to pan, and the wheel to zoom as I use a tool.
Thanks again, more later i am sure,
Jamie
Closing Pointools and reopening the ptl file resolved the above Error -103.
Hi Jamie, if you want to navigate while in a tool you can hold the Alt key, this overrides the current tool temporarily.
Yes, thankyou, I noticed that. (see above).
Hi,
I've got problems with importing cloud in *.bin format to pointools.
There's an 103 error - no points to import.
The file has 97mb, comes from Leica C10 scanner and i'm sure that there are some data.
Please help
first, make sure the file is valid. is it possible to recreate the BIN file (or use a different one)? if so, then please do and test again. if it gives the same error then please upload the file here: bentley.sharefile.com/r-r9b4c2b4609a4edc8
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