Stereo Viewer : Softcopy Viewer

The Softcopy Viewer is the main viewer in the Softcopy package.
The Softcopy package also contains the DEM viewer module.

The Softcopy viewer is an extension on the Stereo Explorer that enables the use of all the Orbit GIS interactive functions.

It's main purpose is to interpret the stereo model and capture selected entities with 3 dimensional coordinates.
These points, vectors, polylines and areas will be captured in the 3D vector dataset of your choice.

The Strabo Softcopy viewer is started in the same way as the other viewers by pressing the 'Show Softcopy' button in the popupmenu.

The menu functions 'View' and 'Options' are the same as described in the previous chapters on common features.

The 'Orientation' menu function executes a relative orientation on condition that there are minimum 5 tiepoint measurements.

See also 'Relative orientation'.

In the left bottom corner of the Softcopy window there are 2 main settings possible:

1. No sync Viewers: the movements (panning) in the Orbit GIS Interactive window are independent of the panning the Softcopy window.
2. Sync 2D from 3D: moving the floating mark causes a parallel move in the Orbit GIS window.
   Only when the floating mark XY coordinate comes close to a border of the Orbit GIS window, the Orbit GIS window will be redrawn with coordinate value of the the floating mark in the center.
3. Sync 3D from 2D: panning the Orbit GIS datasets will cause the floating mark to follow the movements made in Orbit GIS
4. Toggle 'Sync Scale'.
   When this toggle is set, the Orbit GIS viewer will automatically be zoomed in, each time the zoom is used in the Softcopy window.

When creating new objects stereoscopically (see further in this chapter), using the softcopy application, you can set some coordinate snap parameters:

1. Snap to XY:
   
   When registering a new point while data collecting is being done, this option will cause the software to look for another point in the vicinity of the floating mark.
   Only the XY coordinate is used in this search, the Z coordinate is ignored during the search.
   If there is a point found in one of the datasets openend in Orbit GIS, then only the XY coordinates of the point is used in the new object.
   The new point gets the floating mark's Z coordinate as height value.
2. Snap to XYZ:
   
   When registering a new point while data collecting, this option will look for the closest point in the vicinity of the floating mark in the 3 dimensions.
   X, Y and Z of the floating mark is used to look for point in the given datasets.
   With this option set you can snap to e.g. points on a roof.
3. Important remark:
   
   When you start data collecting in the Softcopy window, be sure to have also the 'Orbit GIS Interactive' window be zoomed in at approximately the same scale as the Stereo Viewer.
   This is because the snap distance is defined in the 'Orbit GIS Interactive' application and is expressed in pixel units. So the snap value expressed in terrain units changes in function of the scale.
   So when the 'Orbit GIS Interactive' datasets are viewed in full extent, the snap distance, which is equal to a few pixels, will be very large. When trying to collect points they will all be snapped together at the same location.
   Therefore you should always set the 'Sync Scale' toggle (see above) while data collecting.

Follow the next steps:

1. New objects can only be added to datasets that are available in the Orbit GIS application.
2. First select an existing dataset or create a new dataset to which you want to add new objects, using the standard Orbit GIS functions.
   See the Orbit GIS help files.
3. These datasets will become visible in the 'Orbit GIS Interactive' window at the left side.
   Here is an example with existing datasets, for use e.g. in an actualization process, or continuing data collection:
   
   
   
   The datasets will be read and drawn when you set the dataset visibility flag.
4. The Softcopy window will also show the datasets at the left side:
   
   
   
   You can set the dataset visibility flag differently in both applications.
   Be sure to have selected datasets containing spatial component with a 3D structure for data collection using the Softcopy tool.
5. The procedure to create new objects in the Softcopy application is exactly the same as in the Orbit GIS application.
   We will shortly describe this procedure here.
   Look for further details in the Orbit GIS help files.
   1. Select the 'Edit Tools' toolbar in the 'Edit' menu of the 'Orbit GIS' application.
      
      
   2. Press the 'Create New Object' button (left bottom) to preset the edit tools panel.
   3. Choose a object model.
      Selecting the combo box will show the object models available in the selected datasets.
      An object model can be an area, a line or a point object.
   4. Select the 'Create New Object' button (under the combo box), to start the creation of a new object.
   5. Put the floating mark on a desired detail in the Softcopy window.
   6. Press the 'left mouse button' or 'F1' on the keyboard to register the new point.
   7. Repeat points 5 and 6 to register more new points into the new object.
   8. End the registration of the object by pressing 'F2' on the keyboard when measuring the last point in the object.
6. See the Orbit GIS help files on the creation of new objects for a more detailed explanation and different possibilities using the 'Edit Tools' toolbar.
7. The new objects will be displayed in both the application windows if the dataset's visibility flag is set!
8. You can switch to the 'Orbit GIS Interactive' application and use it's functions, and switch back to the Softcopy application, at any time during restitution, making it a complete integration between a GIS tool and a softcopy tool.