Using volume tool
Last updated
Last updated
Once the volume tool is activated from the toolbar, it opens a separate window.
There are four pieces of information that is needed to fill in:
Point cloud
LAS / LAZ file
Terrain model
Created from the selected point cloud
Comparison surface
LandXML surface
Volume boundary
Three options to define the boundary for the calculation
Point cloud needs to be in LAS or LAZ format and it needs to be visible on the map.
Based on the current view on the map, volume tool assumes, which point cloud is to be used in this area. If the assumption is wrong, user can change it from the dropdown menu.
Choose a terrain model, which is created from the previously selected point cloud. The dropdown menu lists all the terrain models that have been created from the selected point cloud. There could be a DTM created with all the points in the point cloud or alternatively it could be a DTM which has been created with filtered point codes.
If this is the first time a volume calculation is done, terrain model needs to be defined by clicking "Add new".
Only two things have to be filled in; name of the model and the possible filtering by classification. Filtering by classification is predefined list, please contact local sales team, if it is missing something.
After the two information have been typed in, click OK to return to the previous window. First time processing the point cloud might take up to few minutes, but it is one-time action, so no need to do it again.
Next thing is to select the surface that point cloud is to be compared with. For example, if the point cloud represents current ground surface, the compared surface could be the bottom of the road structure or the cut surface.
The dropdown menu lists all of the LandXML files visible on the map, so go ahead and select the wanted surface.
Last thing to define as the calculation parameters is volume boundary. There are three options on defining the boundary:
Draw an area
Manually click a polygon to the map
Pick
Pick an existing LandXML element from the map
Station interval
Opens a new window where user selects an alignment, defines the start station, end station and offset value.
Offset value is calculated both to left and right side of the alignment (total of 50 meters in the image below.
The selection can be previewed on the map
After the definition is done, click OK to continue.
Once all the parameters have been filled in and the calculation can be done, proceed by clicking Calculate.
The calculation may take few minutes, depending on the area and point cloud density.
Once the calculation is successful, there is one last thing to do, defining the visualization.
There are two coloring modes:
Visualize elevations between the minimum and maximum values as a color gradient cut-zero-fill
Visualize elevations outside the minimum and maximum values as cut and fill, and everything in between as zero
The first mode creates a color gradient where the maximum and minimum -values are considered as limits. For example in the picture above, values higher than 4,46 will be displayed with fill color (Blue) and values lower than -0,146 will be displayed with cut color (Red).
Fill areas values between 4,46 and 0 the blue will turning whiter until it reaches 0 and the areas with 0 value are displayed white.
Same thing with cut areas, values between -0,146 and 0 the red will be turning whiter until it reaches 0 and the areas with 0 value are displayed white.
Coloring mode 1 is great for early phases of the project to highlight areas where there will be cut and fill.
The second mode is more straight-forward, where the maximum and minimum -values are also considered as limit. For example in the picture above, values higher than 4,46 will be displayed with fill color (Blue) and values lower than -0,146 will be displayed with cut color (Red).
The difference is the evertyhing between 4,46 and -0,146 is considered to be zero. There is no gradient coloring, but instead it is either blue, white or red area.
Coloring mode 2 is great way of following up the progress on the site. For example if there is drone data from the actual road bed, compare that to the designed road bed.
Set maximum and minimum values to 0,05 and -0,05 - meaning all the white colored areas are within the tolerance.
Red color means that area has been dug too deep.
Blue color means that area has not been dug deep enough.
There are three colors that need to be defined; cut, zero and fill.
Colors can be defined by hand using the different sliders, HEX -code, RGB -code or presets. The A-value on right defines the transparency. Where the value 100 means that the color cannot be seen through and value 0 means that it is fully seethrough.
There are two elevation values, maximum and minimum. These are automatically filled by the results of the calculation. Maximum is the highest and minimum is the lowest value that the calculation returns. These can be changed to highlight areas with certain values.
Once evertyhing is set up as wanted, click Finish to display the results.
After the first volume calculation, the volume tool stays active allowing to quickly do another volume calculation if needed.
