Leica Geosystems has
made a major update to its Cyclone II TOPO, version 2.0 survey system.
The new version
automates the previously time-consuming process of creating accurate ground
surfaces (TINs or meshes) from rich high-definition survey (HDS) point
clouds.
Now, users can
create these surfaces in minutes instead of hours or even days.
Three dimensional laser scanners can rapidly survey
sites with extraordinary detail. However, extracting accurate, file-efficient
ground surface representations from laser scan data has long been challenging
and time-consuming. Cyclone II TOPO v2.0 revolutionizes this important task by
automating the removal of all scan data except ground points and by enabling
users to easily create accurate surfaces of minimal file size from these ground
points.
The Cyclone II TOPO v2.0 will automatically remove
scan points not on the ground surface, such as scan points from vegetation, buildings,
vehicles, people, etc and has adjustable parameters to account for steep hilly
areas with vertical drops, walls, and the like.
Able to work with billions of scan points at once, it
has one-button operation for scan point removal and extraneous scan points can
be removed within seconds to minutes.
The Cyclone II TOPO v2.0 will retain high density in
areas of rapid change, such as curbs. It also has the option to describe
break-lines with infinitely sharp edges and the option to create regularly
spaced, gridded points for traditional deliverables.
It will minimize the number of mesh points used in
flat areas or areas of less interest and give a preview of mesh boundaries that
are intelligent; that is, don’t span exterior “bays” (common in many CAD
meshing systems). It will also heal mesh holes with a simple pick or button
push.
Cyclone II TOPO v2.0 is
plug-and-play into standard survey deliverable workflows. With the addition of
DXF and fully described LandXML export, the new TIN mesh capabilities support
the most common exchange formats, thus allowing easy integration with the most
common mapping software applications such as Autodesk Civil 3D, Carlson, MX,
Covadis, etc.
Cyclone II TOPO’s
popular vertical cross-section capability has been enhanced. In v1.0 users
could view a cross-section slice of the ground and apply vertical exaggeration
to the point cloud. In v2.0, the cross-section feature can be configured to
follow polylines on the ground. This enables alignment-style control of cross-section
positioning, letting users advance the cross-section down an alignment of a
roadway while feature coding the curbs, crown, flow-line, etc.
