Trimble Business Center

 View Only

 Missing Scan Data - Viewable in Scan Registration

Jump to  Best Answer
Brian C's profile image
Brian C posted 02-11-2022 13:23
Greetings All,

I did a series of scans with an SX10.  The first scan was tied to building grid with a typical resection from two points in the street.  Two additional scan stations were performed.  Everything seemed to import well.  I colorized and went into scan registration - Pairwise registration.  The first scan, from the resection location, was the non-moving reference.  No problem.  I could see this scan and register the second scan to the first.  I could see both scans.  No problem.  I added the second scan to the reference, then pairwise registered the third scan.  In all cases I could see each scan.  I did an overall refinement.  No problems.

I closed the scan registration screen and dropped back out to my 3D view [My Filter].  With all scans turned on, I could only see scanned points from the second and third scan stations.  They were both registered to the (now invisible) first scan and aligned within 1/8" across the entire job - but I could not see any cloud points from the first scan location.  I tried viewing white/black.  I tried viewing Color by Elevation and other render settings.  I tried closing TBC and reopening.  I tried starting over and doing the full scan registration again.  I checked project settings and individual scan properties.  I tried "Restore All".  Nothing seems to be off.

It's so odd I can see the points from the first scan (all scans actually) in the Scan Registration screen, but as soon as I close that screen I can only see points from the second and third scans.  I need to perform measurements on data from all three scans.  I can't measure anything within the Scan Registration screen (which I understand), but why is the data from the first scan only visible when I'm registering scans??

I really need this data as this was an out-of-town scan.  I can't simply go back and get it again, plus the site will have changed by now.  Thoughts?  How can I see and use this data, which is clearly available and visible in registration, in my 3D and Plan views?  I've never experienced this before in past TBC operations.
Brian C's profile image
Brian C posted 02-12-2022 14:24  Best Answer
Solved my own problem.  Here's how...

This project involved several trips to the jobsite in various stages of construction.  So I had dozens of scans from at least 15 different locations.  All I was worried about for this latest trip was some bolts I had scanned for an as-built - needed to locate them exactly within the scan.  I didn't need all the earlier scans from weeks past in my way, so I went into the Project Explorer and rather than simply toggling their visibility off, I deleted them.  This was bad.  It seemed logical because I had already completed my work with those scans in weeks prior, but they were still in my data collector for this same job so they came in (again) with the JXL file, dragged-n-dropped into TBC into a new file.

Obviously simply deleting the older scans did more than just delete them.  It affected my Raw Data, points from resection, and some other things I probably still don't know about within the file and data structure.  I still think it was weird that I could see the "missing" data points during Scan Registration, but at no other time.

I started with a new, blank TBC file.  Then dragged-n-dropped my entire JXL file from the data collector into TBC.  Then, rather than deleting the older scans I didn't need, I went into the Project Explorer and toggled off their visibility.  I still had (visible) the (3) scans from the recent site visit that I needed to work with.  One from a resection location, and two more scan stations that needed to be registered.  I performed scan registration as I normally do and got a good result as expected.  Since the old scans were still technically in the file (yet not visible), I had to be careful not to attempt to register them.  Be sure of which scan you're registering if you don't need to register them all - aka unnecessary data.  As in the problematic times before I could still see my "missing" data during Scan Registration, so I didn't really know this had worked until I finished registration and dropped back out to Plan or 3D Model view.

Well it DID work.  Not only did I have my "missing" data... I also had my Raw Data back as well.  When I wrote the post above I was so frustrated, I never even noticed I was also missing my Raw Data - the green lines between scan locations, and resection points, etc.  I was just so focused on the missing data and getting it visible.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone.  If you don't want a scan in your TBC file, but it comes in with the rest of your data, don't delete it.  Just toggle off it's visibility in the Project Explorer.