Good morning TBC’ers! Have you ever been sent a TBC project or scan data folder with the extension.7z or .zip tagged onto the end? But when you go to open the VCE project file contained in the folder the graphic view appears blank with no point cloud data? Well today I will be showing you how to unzip compressed data folders to access all of the files contained in a zipped folder. A zipped file or folder simply indicates that files on a computer disk have been combined into a single file in a space-efficient manner to reduce total file size. A zipped folder package reduces upload or download times on your computer when sharing data.
You can download sample scan datasets in a zipped format from Trimble’s Geospatial website here: https://geospatial.trimble.com/resource-center/sample-datasets
To unzip a file folder, follow these steps:
1. After you download a zipped folder onto your computer, right click on the folder with the .7z or .zip extension in your File Explorer, navigate to 7-Zip in the context menu, and simply click Extract Here:
A window showing the progress of the data extraction appears on your screen:
2. When the extraction is complete, another folder appears in your File Explorer. The new folder will have NOT have a .7z or .zip extension:
3. Go into your unzipped folder to open the TBC project, and now the VCE project opens with point cloud data successfully displayed in the Plan View:
Alternatively, if you are looking to send a co-worker a large scan dataset or upload it to Google Drive, you can zip a folder yourself by following these steps to speed up uploading times:
1. Right click on your file or folder you want to share, navigate to 7-Zip in the context menu, and select Add to Demo Data.7z or Add to Demo Data.zip:
A window showing the progress of the data compression will then appear on your screen:
2. A new folder appears in your File Explorer with the .7z or .zip extension, and is ready to be shared:
I hope this tip comes in handy next time you are looking to share a TBC project or scan data!