Profiles and Cross Sections

This page describes how to use the extension “Profiles and Cross Sections”

Feature Extraction Basic - Standard - Pro, Publisher Client
Main Toolbar > Extensions > Profiles & Cross Sections

The “Profiles and Cross Sections” extension makes it possible to create profiles and cross sections along a path on a point cloud dataset.

Profiles
A path represents a line through the point cloud between two or more points, which gives as result the 3D representation of the point cloud along that line.
A profile represents a straight line through the point cloud between two points, which gives as result the 3D representation of the point cloud along that line.

Cross Sections
A cross section represents a perpendicular line on a path, which gives as result the 3D representation of the point cloud along that section.
A path can have along it multiple cross sections.

Files & folders
All created files and folders are saved in a new folder <name-of-opc-file>.profiles next to the opc file.

Select pointcloud dataset
Displays the available Orbit Point Cloud files in the Dataset List, from which to choose the one on which the Profiles and Cross Sections will be calculated. The pointcloud of a Mapping Run or a standalone opc file can be used, not the pointcloud of a Mapping Project.

File menu drop-down
A project represents an automatically created destination folder for a profile and it's cross sections inside the run pointcloud folder.
For each profile a new project will be created. Writing a new profile in an existing project will overwrite existing data in that folder.
Options to create a new project, open a recent project, close or delete a project are available.

Random profile

• Draw: Draw a new profile by clicking 2 positions (the beginning and the end of the path) on the Map Canvas. The profile will be calculated immediately after the second click. It is advised to draw the profile on Map 3D, due to the impossibility of controlling the Z value if drawn on Map 2D.
• Select: Select a polyline object from the active dataset in the dataset list. The first segment of the selected object will be used to calculate the profile immediately. The polyline must be selected on Map2D.

Cross sections along path

• Draw: Draw a new path by clicking the defining two or more positions.It is advised to draw the path on Map 3D, due to the impossibility of controlling the Z value drawn on Map 2D.
• Select: Select a polyline object from the active dataset in the dataset list. The enitre selected opbject will be used to calculate the cross sections path.
• Trajectory: To use the trajectory, the vector file must be present in the dataset list.Only available for Mobile Mapping runs.

Length
Displays the length of the profile path.

The drawn profile and it's eventual cross sections based on the Sections parameters will appear on the Map Canvas.

Parameters for the cross sections:

Offset
Distance from the beginning of the path where the first cross section will be created, in meters.

Interval
The interval between cross sections, in meters.

Amount
Based on the interval and offset the amount of cross sections is automatically calculated.

Width
Set the width for all cross sections.

Thickness
Set the thickness for all cross sections.
To adjust the thickness for a random profile, fill in a value and press enter.

Prepare all sections
All new sections will be calculated. This will require some calculation time.
All sections will be available afterwords for fast displaying.

Draw
Draw and extract vertices on a random profile or on a cross section on the Profile Viewer Tab.

Clear
Delete the drawn profile.

Following files are exported: path, sections and profiles as shapefiles, jpg snapshots for each section and coordinates txt files for each profile. Also pointcloud, if enabled, see below.

Export Pointcloud
Export the point cloud for the selected section or for all the sections, depending on the chosen option below.
The results will be stored in las and opc format.

Current
Only the opened section will be exported.

All Sections
All sections will be exported.One pointcloud will be exported for all sections, if option enabled.

Export
Press export to start.

Report
Created a pdf report regarding the profiles and cross-sections project.

Allows the user to control the information that will be shown in the Profile Viewer Tab:

• Show/hide point cloud selection on the Profile Viewer
• Show/hide the profile bounding box on the map
• Show/hide the drawn profile
• Show/hide distances and slopes on the Profile Viewer
• Display the next and previous sections in the Profile Viewer

The Profile Viewer Tab allows the user to view the created cross sections and their corresponding profiles.
By default, when creating a random profile, it will be displayed in the Viewer.

Open section
Navigation between cross sections is done using Open Section tool and by using the Next and Previous.
Information about the length of the path, the height difference, minimum and maximum height are shown.
The information about the drawn profile is also listed.

Pay attention
If the random profile or the sections are not displayed in the Profile Viewer Tab (blank screen), it's due to the outdated pointcloud legend file in the template used to create the run.This issue can be solved by deleting “point_cloud.olg” file, from the run's pointcloud folder. Step two, by right-clicking the pointclod dataset in the dataset list, and choosing the Legend Editor, a new legend will be automatically created. Reopening the run will be display the profiles. This new legend file can be copied to all old runs in order to avoid the same issue.