Blogs

Tip of the Week #63 - Point Cloud by Boundary

By Matt McLean posted 12-10-2018 18:11

  

Hello and welcome to another TBC Tip of the Week! How do you like TBC v5.0 so far? Let us know!

 

In this tip we highlight one of the sample TML’s (Trimble Macro Language) available with any license of TBC advanced or higher. This macro is PointCloud by Boundary. This allows for repeatable selections of points using complex (or simple!) polygons.

 

Here we have a dataset collected by an SX10 of a road overpass in Germany. By using the PointCloud by Boundary macro we can repeatedly trim only the focus of the scan from point clouds throughout the life of a project. A surface boundary or any polyline/linestring can be used.

 

Here I have a surface boundary from a previous job.

 

On the Macros ribbon, select the macro (or what is usually a command) PointCloud by Boundary.

 

For this macro to work, the Polygon Select option must be used.

 

Select the Boundary: box to put the mouse focus there.

 

And select your polyline/linestring to get the point cloud selection.

 

And there you have it! This selected area can then be made into a new region using the Create Region command on the Point Clouds ribbon, added to an existing region, sampled to create a surface or many other things. Here that selection is with the ground extracted, spatially sampled, and a surface created.

 

Hope you enjoyed this week’s tip! If you have any suggestions for future tips, or have any questions leave us a comment!

 

TBC - From Field to Finish with Confidence

2 comments
20 views

Comments

03-23-2020 15:32

This Macro did not work for me. Do I need anything else except for the base Trimble Business Center install in order to use the command? The command started when I clicked on it, but then when asked to select the object, I select my linestring, and the red arrow flashes in the selection box, like the linestring wasn't a valid object selection to carry out the command.

 

Please help with this, because this command would have saved me a lot of time today making an existing surface using point clouds.

12-22-2018 05:54

Loved it!! I have been trying that for a looooooong time (select by polygon) but never understood why it wont work. <now i do, i have to activate pologon select tool first.

 

Merry chtistmas!