Builder App for FARO SCENE - StructionSite · 2015. 2. 20. · Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015 Installation 1. To install the FPP file, you must first make

Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015

Builder App for FARO SCENE

Contents Installation .....................................................................................................................................2

Before Running the App ..................................................................................................................2

Activating the App ..........................................................................................................................5

Creating Monitoring Points..............................................................................................................6

Calculate Steel Camber ...................................................................................................................8

Monitoring Steel Deflection........................................................................................................... 12

Method A ................................................................................................................................. 13

Method B.................................................................................................................................. 14

Using the Debris Filter ................................................................................................................... 15

Creating Colorized Topographic Maps ............................................................................................ 16

Create Topographic Contours ........................................................................................................ 18

Changing the viewing elevation of objects ...................................................................................... 19

Using the Layers ........................................................................................................................... 20

Exporting to the DXF format .......................................................................................................... 21

Changing Settings ......................................................................................................................... 21

Updating ...................................................................................................................................... 21

Frequently Asked Questions .......................................................................................................... 22

Feedback is always welcome! ........................................................................................................ 22


Installation

1. To install the FPP file, you must first make sure that you have the latest version of SCENE (5.3+).

If you do not have the latest version, you may download it here. To check which version you

have, go to Help>About SCENE and read the SCENE Version number.

2. Once you have verified that you have the latest version of SCENE, run

RithmSoftwareInstaller.exe, and choose the app(s) you’d like to download and install.

Before Running the App

Prior to running the app, make sure you’ve done the following to ensure a fast and more reliable performance:

1. Delete Scan Point Clouds – Although Scan Point clouds may be an important part of the registration

process, they will prevent the Rithm Apps from functioning properly (due to issues with the Scene

API; it’s out of our control at the moment). You will know that you have Scan Point Clouds if you see

clouds next to your individual scans

http://www.faro.com/en-us/products/faro-software/scene/downloads

https://www.rithm.io/Software/RithmSoftwareInstaller.exe


To remove them, right click on your scans folder>Operations>Point Cloud Tools>Delete Scan

Point Clouds

2. Create a PROJECT point cloud – Click on the Create Project Point cloud button icon near the top of

your screen in order to create a combined point cloud for the purpose of having a clean

data set. When you create a project point cloud, it would be wise to eliminate duplicate points, and

homogenize point density, to ensure fast and efficient performance, without harming the quality of

your data. This process may take a while, depending on the number of scans you have.

3. Unload All Scans – Make sure you’ve unloaded scans from memory, if they haven’t already been

automatically unloaded after the project point cloud creation process. To ensure they are all

unloaded, right click on your scans folder and click “Unload All Scans and Pictures”. If this is greyed

out, then you are good to go.


4. Create a Clipping Box – Most data sets have large amounts of data, such as trees, walls, ceilings, or

even adjacent buildings, which you might want to leave out for your analysis. Keeping this data in

the 3D view while using the apps will lead to very long processing times, as the apps will have to

search through the entire point cloud for information. To ensure efficiency and make sure you can

work efficiently without having to wait very long to produce deliverables, create a Clipping box that isolates the area of interest (the smaller, the better).

You will be clicking on points within the 3D view. Once you’ve created your clipping box and isolated

your area, be sure to make the clipping box not “visible” by right clicking on the clipping box on the left

side of your screen in the structure window, and un-check the “Visible” option. Otherwise, when you

click on objects within the 3D view, you will inadvertently be activating the clipping box properties window.


5. Hide Scan objects – You should have finished registering and rotating your scans to control at this

point, so you won’t need to see your targets or spheres or scan locations for the purpose of analysis.

Since you will be clicking on areas within the 3D view, having these objects visible will get in the way

of your clicking. To hide these objects, go to visibility settings near the top of your window, and

uncheck the objects and hit OK.

6. Activate 3D view – All interaction with the plugins will happen in 3D view (not quick-view, due to

limitations with the Scene API; it’s out of our control at the moment). After you’ve created your

project point cloud, click on the “3D” icon located near the top of your screen. Having a 3D mouse while using these apps will come in handy and increase your productivity.

Activating the App

When you install the app, a new button will appear embedded in the Scene toolbar area . Click

this icon to activate the pop-up window to access the app. The app will be functional in the 3D view

only.

You will see a lock icon the first time this app runs, and will be required to activate the plugin prior

to using any features. Click on the icon, and enter your license in the screen. If you do not have a license and you need to obtain one, you may either request a 7 day trial license, or purchase a license.

http://www.3dconnexion.com/products/spacemousewireless.html

http://www.3dconnexion.com/products/spacemousewireless.html

https://rithm.io/contact-us/

https://rithm.io/products/


Alternatively, you may request a 7 day trial license by entering your email and clicking “send”, which will automatically create a request email if you have Microsoft Outlook installed on your computer.

Creating Monitoring Points

You may create a series of points on a surface to monitor its movement using the point creation

button. For example, if you want to examine the change in elevation of a concrete surface, or an

excavation, to determine how much grinding or excavation has occurred, you will create points on key

areas of a surface and compare those points, in the same XY locations, to a scan of the same area taken at a different time.

First, give the points a common name, and the number you’d like it to start from

Then, start double clicking points in 3D view

If you would like to investigate the current Z elevation at points you choose, make sure that the checkbox for Show Z is selected.


You will notice that it may take a bit of processing time to find each point if you choose to show Z. This is

because the app is deriving a more accurate Z elevation by fitting a small plane to an average of points

within a 1” diameter circle of where you clicked, to ensure that the elevation is very accurate, and to

prevent “noisy” data from becoming a factor in this analysis. Ensuring accuracy is of utmost importance in projects, especially if you’re going to be liable for the work done.

You may notice that all objects drawn within the 3D view using the App will be placed at a specific height

above the point cloud. This is simply to allow viewing of the drawn objects without the point cloud

visually covering it up. Use to change this.

When you’ve completed the selection of areas you’d like to monitor, press SPACE on your keyboard to

end the command, or click on the button again. Note: You may end most commands by either

pressing SPACE or ENTER.

You will then export the points you created in order to create a deviation analysis in the next scan

project. To export the points for this analysis, click on the export button and select CSV-Monitoring in the drop-down menu. Now browse for a folder to save the file, and click Export.

Now, open the second scan project that depicts the same area, but a later time.

Note: Since you will be comparing two scan projects, which would be scans of the same area at different

times. For the analysis to work, you must first make sure that the two scan projects are rotated exactly to the same coordinate system, in order to locate the same locations.


In the second project, open the Builder toolbar, and go to the Analysis area . Select “Ground-

Monitoring” from the drop-down menu, and browse for the file you exported earlier. After finding that

file, click on Import.

The app will now search the same XY locations as in the previous scan, and determine the new Z

location. Then, the app will display how much the surface moved. You may now export these points out to the DXF format for input into AutoCAD, Revit, or other modeling software.

Calculate Steel Camber

In this analysis, we will be able to determine the camber of the structural steel beam, by examining the elevation at the bottom edges of the beam against the center elevation.


Before performing a Steel Camber Analysis, make sure you’ve isolated the structural beams using the

clipping box. Try your best to remove as much of the metal decking as possible, while also keeping a

little bit of the columns so you’ll be able to better gauge beams that begin and end at columns.

Don’t worry about clipping out the web of the beams; The app is intelligent enough to automatically

locate the bottom surfaces of the beams for obtaining the elevations.

Use the Steel Camber Analysis button to begin identifying which beams you’d like to analyze.

Double click on a point on the edge of the beam (about 1’-2’ offset from the edge to ensure you don’t

choose a column), then double click on the other edge, to create a line.


You may hold SHIFT and double click on another beam, in order to draw another similar line that is of

the same length and orientation as your previously drawn beam. This will speed up the identification

process.

Continue to draw lines until you’ve identified all of the beams in the scan.


When you are done, it the SPACE button. Alternatively, you may hit the button to make the button un-pressed.

Now that you’ve identified the beams, go to the analysis area and select . After

the analysis is complete, you will see beam edges and beam centers identified at each beam you’ve

identified, as well as an associated camber (positive for an up-wards bent beam, negative for a sagging beam).


From this point, you should check to see if any sagging beams are within design tolerance by comparing the results to your structural drawings.

If you see something strange, such as a beam that is sagging more than it truly is, this may be due to a

point falling on a hanger, or a pipe being underneath or a piece of debris in the way. To fix this problem,

you may move the center location of the beam at any time by using the selection button and hitting

the “Move” command, and double clicking to choose a new location. This will automatically re -calculate

the camber. In any analysis, you may encounter 2 or 3 anomalies, so it is always wise to double-check all beams prior to creating the deliverable.

Monitoring Steel Deflection

The Builder App allows you to monitor the movement of beams that were scanned at different times (i.e. once pre-loading, and again post-loading). The workflow is as follows:


Capture Pre-Loaded Beams

Capture Post-Loaded Beams

Register and Rotate/Transform to known coordinate system

Register and Rotate to same coordinate system

as Pre-Loaded Beams

Define points for Steel Analysis

Import Defined Steel Points for Comparison

Structural Steel Beams get Loaded

1. Defining points for steel analysis occurs in the previous section, titled “Calculate Steel Camber”.

When you run the analysis, 3 points are automatically identified: The 2 beam edges, and the beam

center. These locations on the beams can be re-used to check elevations and cambers of beams in a

different scan project, given that the second scan project has been registered to the same

coordinate system as the first.

2. After completing “Calculate Steel Camber”, you will export the beam locations by choosing the

export button and select CSV-Steel-Monitoring as the output. This file will contain the XYZ

elevations of each beam you found in your analysis.

3. On your second scan project, which contains the Post-Loaded beams, run the Builder App again and

go to Analysis . In the import section, you will have two choices for importing the beam locations: Method A, or Method B.

Method A

This allows you to see the change in relative CAMBER at the center of each beam. The calculation will be as follows:

1) Calculate the camber of the Pre-Loaded Beams

2) Based on the same beam locations of the Pre-Loaded Beams, obtain the new elevations of the Post-

Loaded Beams

3) Calculate the camber of the Post-Loaded Beams

4) Calculate the “Change in Camber” between the Pre-Loaded and Post-Loaded Beams 5) Find the final elevation of the Post-Loaded Beams


The results will be displayed as shown below:

Note: The example above is based on a Pre-Loaded camber of +.02’ (a positive camber, bending

upward). The result above suggests that the camber as moved by -.02’, and now the beam is flat (the

post-camber is now 0.00’). In simpler terms, the beam was bending upward prior to loading; then the

beam bent straight after loading (as designed). If you have beams that are sagging significantly after

loading, this may present a problem and you should report the results to the structural engineer for acceptability.

The main advantage Method A is that the comparison is RELATIVE; regardless of whether the columns at

the ends have sagged (and caused the entire beam to go down in elevation), or if you have some issues

registering the second post-loaded scans at the correct Z elevation, the comparison of the relative camber will still be accurate.

Method B

This allows you to see the change in ELEVATION of the beam at the edges and center of the beam.

If you are using Method B, you must ensure that you are using very tight survey-control, and can be sure

that the data collected for the Pre-Loaded beams are registered closely to the data collected for the Post-loaded beams.

Regardless of what method you choose, make sure to double check that the points have landed in the

right locations. There may be some instances where there is debris or hangers at the location of the

beam that is being inspected; this will give a false result. To fix this, move the analyzed location to a

more suitable location on the beam away from debris, by using the move command and selecting the

point . This will re-calculate the results on the beam.


Using the Debris Filter

Prior to using the point coloring or contouring tools, it would be wise to first filter out debris to prevent

false positives in your analysis. Debris would include any equipment or materials left on a surface during

your scan of a surface, or any vehicles or people who traveled through the scanner’s laser during the

duration of a scan. Filtering would be useful when creating contour maps or TIN files.

Example below:

To the left is what happens when you DO NOT filter out points. Notice that contour lines are created on the debris, which is a challenge to remove in AutoCAD.

To the right is what happens after you filter out the points. Notice that the contour lines move straight through the debris, as if you had manually removed the debris in Scene.


Warning: Before activating filter, please make sure to create a clipping box around the area of interest. The larger the clipping box, the longer the process may take.

First, you must activate the Filter and enter settings. In the settings window, the Topography-Based

filtering numbers will divide the area into a grid, with a Grid Size of what you specify (in the settings

window shown, that's a 2'x2' grid), and within that grid, it will find any debris that suddenly jumps a

certain height. In the settings window shown, anything .04' (1/2") or higher on the surface will be

detected.

The "Fine-Cleaning" distance number will take it a step further by removing points within a certain

distance from the debris already found, so that you're assured the debris is completely removed from the analysis.

Once you are happy with your settings, double click along the surface to enclose an area. Press ENTER to

close the area. All points detected as “debris” will be highlighted red. The points will be slightly raised by on the surface for the purpose of viewing; otherwise, the red points would be invisible.

Now, these points will be ignored for analysis purposes.

If you would like to change or re-run the filter, make sure to select the filter you created in Layers, and the Filter button will show up. Change the settings and click “apply” to re -run your filter.

Creating Colorized Topographic Maps

Warning: Before activating heatmap feature, please make sure to create a clipping box around the area of interest. The larger the clipping box, the longer the process may take.

You can use the button to colorize a floor based on the Z elevations (detect high and low).

1. DOUBLE CLICK on various points along a floor to create an area of the floor you’d like to create

the topographic map on.


2. Press ENTER to close the polygon.

3. You will then see the points colorized on the surface.

From here, you can do several things:

a. Press the again to finish drawing topos.

b. Change the settings for the topo you just created. Select the topo you just created in the

layers tab. Then, go to settings to open the settings window. Go to the Topo tab,

and you can create a new profile to change the settings to your preference, or choose a


different pre-set profile. Then hit “Re-Run” to re-create the topo using the same

boundaries you specified.

c.

Create Topographic Contours

Warning: Before activating topographic contouring, please make sure to create a clipping box around the area of interest. The larger the clipping box, the longer the process may take.

To create topographic contours, use the button and do the following:

1. DOUBLE CLICK on areas on the floor to create an enclosed polygon. Press ENTER to close the

polygon.


The method for changing the settings will be similar to the previous section.

Changing the viewing elevation of objects

You may notice that all objects drawn within the 3D view using the App will be placed at a specific height

above the point cloud. This is simply to allow viewing of the drawn objects without the point cloud visually covering it up.

Example:

You need not worry about the accuracy of the Z elevation of the points; things are just drawn above the

actual elevation for VISUAL purposes only; when you export out the data (as points or as XML), it will be at the actual, true elevation.

a. To toggle the visual placement of these objects, you may use the visual elevation icon to

move a given layer up or down in Z elevation visually. For example, you may want to elevate

contours above a colored heat map (example below) Note: all exported objects will be drawn at


the exact Z elevation originally drawn within SCENE, not the elevated location which is purely for

visualization purposes.

Using the Layers

Everything you draw using the Builder tool will be associated with a layer. You can only change layers when you are not currently executing a command.

1. Colors can be edited. This will change the colors of all objects within a

given layer.

2. The currently selected layer will be the “active Layer”. Everything drawn will be associated with

the Active Layer. You may switch to another layer by selecting the drop-down menu, and you

may add additional layers.

3. Layer Visibility – This window allows you to hide, unhide, or remove layers. You can select

multiple layers at a time by holding CTRL on your keyboard while selecting layers.


Exporting to the DXF format

The Builder tool allows you to easily export all lines, text, points, etc. in their respective colors and layers into the DXF format for use in your CAD applications.

1. Activate the export tool

2. Choose where you want to export the DWX file and hit “Export”

3. Open the file within your favorite CAD program (AutoCAD, Visual Statement, etc).

Changing Settings

You may change various settings that will affect the way your dimensions are shown, such as units and

precision.

Units supported: Feet-Inch-Fractions, US Survey Feet, Inches, Yards, Meters, Decimeters, Centimeters, and Millimeters.

Updating

If there is a new version available for the App, you will see a download arrow appear on the very right side of the toolbar. Follow the instructions in the updater to install the latest version of the app.


Frequently Asked Questions

1. Question: My toolbar disappeared. How do I get it back? Answer: Go to View>Toolbars> Builder to reactivate the toolbar if you accidentally closed it.

If that doesn’t work, go to Tools>apps and “de-activate” the app and “re-activate” it.

2. Why doesn’t the contouring function work?

Ensure that SCENE is running with full administrative privileges. To do this, right-click on your SCENE

shortcut (either in the start menu, or on your desktop), and go to properties. In the Compatibility

tab, make sure that “Run as Administrator” is checked. If you cannot check it, click on “Change Settings for All Users” and ensure that “Run as Administrator” is checked.

Feedback is always welcome! Feel free to contact us anytime at [email protected] for the following:

If you run into any problems with using this App

Would like some guidance/training on this App or other SCENE/Laser Scanning related questions

You would like to request additional features

mailto:[email protected]


Documents

Builder App for FARO SCENE - StructionSite · 2015. 2. 20. · Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015 Installation 1. To install the FPP file, you must first make