This page describes the mobile mapping measure window, measure functions and how to measure in the Orbit desktop client.
If you are using the Orbit Publisher's webclient panorama component, review : Panorama Component.

Using the mobile mapping measure window point cloud measurements and measurements based on triangulation are supported.

Point X,Y,Z coordinates are expressed in the Map 2D coordinate system. If no vertical CRS is set the Z of your mobile mapping data will be retained.

Distance, Length, Area or Volume are expressed in the metric projected coordinate reference system of the mobile mapping data.
If the mobile mapping content is using a geographical or geocentric crs(e.g. WGS84 geographical degrees), the measurements will be calculated in a local metric projection centered on the current view position. This intelligent technique gives the most accurate metric measure result at all time.

Version 11.0 introduces some new measure functions and results.
The equivalent documentation on version 10.5 is available here.

The behavior and sequence of clicking depends the used measure mode and function.

Measurement of a single position.

Point
A new click is a new measurement.

• X, Y and Z positions
• Error (only for triangulation measurements) : Estimated Mean Squared Error (MSE).

Point drop

• X, Y and Z positions
• Height (point drop) : Height above the ground. The ground height is calculated by the Z from the photo position minus the Heigt from the camera above the ground.
• Error (only for triangulation measurements) : Estimated Mean Squared Error (MSE).

Measurement of a straight line between 2 points.
Click 2 positions within the same view. After the 1st click a connecting line will guide you to click a 2nd point. The measurement will be finished automatically by the 2nd click.

Distance XYZ

• Distance XYZ (Yellow) : 3D length between start and endpoint

Distance XYZ, XY and Z

• Distance XYZ (Yellow) : 3D length between start and endpoint
• Distance XYZ (Yellow) : 3D length between start and endpoint
• Distance XY (blue) : 2D length between start and endpoint, length of the projected 3D object with Z = 0
• Distance Z (red) : The difference in height between start and endpoint.
• Slope : The inclination with the horizontal reference plane expressed in % (100% = 45deg), also called grade.
• Slant : The inclination with the vertical reference plane expressed in degrees.
• Error (only for triangulation measurements) : Estimated MSQR error for each measurement.

Perpendicular distance
Perpendicular distance measurement between a reference line and a point. After a 1st click a construction line will guide you to click a 2nd point. The measurement will be finished automatically by the 3rd click.

Distance to reference plane
Perpendicular distance measuerment between a reference plane and a point. Only available when using point cloud. Click a 1st point to define a reference plane by the point cloud hover. Click a 2nd point to measure XYZ and the perpendicular distance to the defined reference plane.

Measurement of a line, between 2 or more points.
Left click to add measure points, right click to stop the line measurement. The right click position is also added to the measurement.

Free Polyline
Free polyline measurement. Measure as a Distance, but keep repeating to click more points. Click 2 or more positions within the same view. After clicking the 1st point a connecting line will guide you to click the following point.

• Length XYZ : Accumulated 3D length for each line segment. See Distance XYZ
• Length XY : Accumulated 2D length for each line segment, length of the projected 3D object with Z = 0.
• Length Z : Accumulated difference in height for each line segment.

Catenary Curve
Catenary curve measurement. Measure as Distance, but click the lowest point as 3th point to define the catenary curve.

• Distance over Curve : 3D length over curve
• Clearance : Minimum height above the ground. The Ground height is calculated by the Z from the photo position minus the Heigt from the camera above the ground.
• Span : XY distance / 2D length between start and endpoint.

Measurement of an area, defined by 3 or more points.
Left click to add measure points, right click to stop the area measurement. The right click position is also added to the measurement.

Free area
Free area measurement. Click 3 or more positions within the same view. After clicking the 1st point a connecting line will guide you to click the following point. It is not necessary to “close” the polygon. Orbit will automatically connect start and end point.

• Area XYZ : 3D area on a best fit 3D plane through all measured points. To calculate the XYZ area all measured points are projected on a best fit 3D plane. The result of the XYZ Area is consequently only relevant when all points are located in approximately the same plane.
• Area XY : 2D area, area of the projected 3D object with Z = 0.
• Length XYZ, XY and Z : See Free Polyline.

Rectangular area with 2 points
Rectangular area measurement defined by 2 points. The measurement will be finished automatically by the 2nd click. This measure function is useful for more or less vertical rectangular areas.

Rectangular horizontal area with 3 points
Horizontal rectangular area measurement defined by 3 points. The measurement will be finished automatically by the 3th click.

Rectangular vertical area with 3 points
Vertical rectangular area measurement defined by 3 points. The measurement will be finished automatically by the 3th click.

Measurement of a squared Volume defined by 3 points.

Squared volume
Squared volume measurement defined by 3 points. 1st and 2nd point define the first base line, 3th point defines height and the 2nd baseline.

Get object in view
Pan and navigate in the mobile mapping view to get the desired object in picture and open the measure window :

• Navigate on Image view
• Navigate in 3D View

Specify measure mode
Specify the method of measuring (a) using point cloud or (b) by triangulation in 2 views by flagging “Use Point Cloud”.

Activate measure function
Start the desired mobile mapping measure function with a single click on the corresponding icon.

• If a measure function is activated the appearance of the cursor changes in a rectangular cross when hovering the mouse pointer above a mobile mapping view.
• If a measure function is activated the zoom, pan and navigate functions are still available.
• If the mobile mapping tab is hidden, the tab will be displayed and the selected measure function will be activated. One can start drawing the object now.
• If no view is opened in the mobile mapping tab, all measure icons will be grayed out. One will need to open at least one view first.
• When using the “Add Inventory Item” or “Extract Object” procedures, the mobile mapping measure window¹⁾ cannot be used for object measurements. The desired object measure function must be activated from the left side procedure wizard.

Measure
Measure the object conform the used measure technique.
The behavior and sequence of clicking depends the used measure mode and function. Consult the table “Measure Overlay Window” above.

• A single click within a mobile mapping view will start the measurement. Continue clicking to add points to line or area measurements.
• While measuring, it is possible to move measured vertices. It is not possible to insert nor to remove vertices.
• While measuring, it is still possible to navigate, pan, zoom or to use the right-click context menu²⁾.
• While measuring, when activating the mobile mapping pan (hand) function, the measure function will be deactivated.
  The desired measure function can be restarted anytime.
• While measuring on panoramas using point cloud, a <Shift> + Click will open the panorama image closest to clicked location with the view angle settings of the current panorama image. This technique can be very useful when measuring line or area objects.

Stop measurement

• Stop via Right-click context menu > Stop measurement :
  The object measure function can be finished via a right click in the mobile mapping view.
  Choose “Stop measurement” from the context menu to finish the object. The right-click location will be added as object vertex as well.
  Advantage here is the possibility to move measured object vertices. It is not possible to insert nor to remove object vertices.
• Stop via “Finish drawing” button, only available when using the “Add Inventory Item” procedure :
  The object measure functions have been replaced by the “Finish drawing” button when activating the object measure function.
  Click “Finish drawing” to end the measurement as it is. The measurement will be closed.

Use or copy results

• Copy Results : the button “Copy results” will copy all results to clipboard, semicolon separated
• Click result : click on a result value to copy that value to the clipboard, paste via keystrokes Ctrl + v
• Copy to Feature³⁾ :
  The measurement will be copied to the recorded dataset.
  • A measurment can only be copied to a dataset model of the same spatial component (points, polylines, areas).
    In version 10.5 it is not yet possible to copy a 2 clicks distance measurement to a polyline dataset.
  • The CRS of the recorded datasets needs to be defined to perform the reprojection of the measurement to the dataset :
    Coordinate Reference Systems in Orbit > Dataset CRS
  • Depending the dataset structure of the recorded dataset 2D or 3D objects will be created :
    Dataset Structure Contents > Structure > Manage Models in Dataset > Coordinate
• Add to inventory⁴⁾ :
  This button is available from the Mobile Mapping tab.
  The measurement will be used to start the add inventory item procedure.
  Only the available inventory themes with the corresponding spatial type (point, line, area) will be listed.