Trimble Business Center

Hey TBC’ers! Have you ever wanted to extract multiple power lines at the same time to speed up extraction workflow in your project? For instance, you’ve scanned several overhead power lines and you want to extract them all at once to make the process faster.

Follow the steps below to learn how to utilize the Extract Line Feature command and the Search Box within the Overhead Lines extraction command to automatically detect and extract lines within a selected search area.  

• Drag and drop your VCE file from File Explorer into the Plan View or open it by selecting File > Open. 

• Select 3D View to display the point cloud in 3D.

• In the View Filter Manager pane, you can uncheck any Point Cloud Region layers that are not needed for the line extraction workflow (e.g., Default, Building, Ground, High Vegetation). 

• In the Point Clouds tab, select Extract Line Feature to display the Extract Line Feature command pane.

• Select Overhead Lines from the dropdown list if it is not already selected. With your cursor in the Start point field, select the first power pole where you want to begin the extraction. Click the End point field and select the second power pole where you want the extraction to end.  

• Check the box next to Adjacent search. With your cursor in the Lines box, select a point on any one of the wires between your start and end points. A green box will appear inside a larger orange search box. 

• Move the Search length dial to adjust both the green and orange box lengths. Move the Search width dial to adjust the green box width. Move the Search size dial to adjust the orange box width. 

• Once all lines desired for extraction are encompassed by the orange box, hit Find. Green crosshairs will appear on the detected wires. Rotate around your 3D View to ensure all lines have been automatically detected.

• If a wire is missed, place your cursor in the Lines field and select the missed wire.

• Hit Extract to extract the line features. 

• Hit Add to add the extracted lines to your TBC project.