Guide

Correct classifications

Classify has two rules, Reclassify and Remove noise, and every edit takes the same four steps: Draw, Choose, Preview, Add. Apply then makes the next version.

The flow

An edit changes the class of the points inside an area you draw. Reclassify turns the classes you choose into another class. Remove noise marks stray points as Low noise or High noise, and never deletes them. The Classify panel shows the steps along its top, so you always see where you are, with a line under them saying what to do next.

Draw. Draw a shape on the cloud, or a band on a profile.
Choose. Choose the rule and its classes: for Reclassify, From and To; for Remove noise, how noise is found.
Preview. See exactly how many points the edit takes, how many change class, and where they go.
Add. Put the edit on the list. A list can hold several edits.

Drawing, previewing and adding do not change the run. Apply on the list then makes the dataset’s next version from your edits, with its deliverables: see Apply. Classify is offered only where the run takes class edits, and drawing precise edits needs a larger screen and a pointer. On a phone, review edits and deliverables instead.

One way edits are made durable

On a version of a dataset, Apply is the one way: the version is processed again from its input with your edits, which makes every deliverable again. Edits saved earlier as versions of a run’s classes stay readable under History. A run that is not a version of a dataset is corrected by saving and reprocessing.

Draw the area

Choose Classify. Choose Classify in the tool strip, or press C. The Classes panel opens beside the cloud and the Classify panel in the Inspector. If the run needs preparing first, see prepare a run for editing.
Draw the shape. Click the corners of a polygon and press Enter to close it, or drag a rectangle or a lasso; P, Q and L switch between them. Alt and click inserts a corner, Backspace drops the last corner and F frames the shape. Enter only closes a shape; it never adds an edit. Esc steps back one step at a time: the count, then the shape, then Classify.
Choose the rule and what it takes. Reclassify is the rule the panel opens on; press N for Remove noise. For Reclassify the panel asks for the following, and remembers From and To for the next edit.
- From: the classes the edit takes, or Any class. A locked class is never taken.
- To: the class they become; reset puts them back to unclassified instead. A number key chooses the class, and with a shape closed it also counts the edit. Tab swaps From and To when exactly one class is chosen.
- Elevation: Any, Above, Below or Between, with the heights. A shape takes points at every height inside it unless you limit this.
- Height above ground: where your processing service offers it, the same choice measured from the ground, for example between two heights above ground for low vegetation.
- Note: an optional note for the edit.

On a profile sheet you can instead select a band, or draw a level line and take the points above it, below it or between. The sheet’s keys are on the shortcuts page. An edit drawn on a sloped profile line, which needs Advanced tools, can only be applied by reprocessing.

Remove noise

Remove noise finds stray points inside the shape and marks those below the surface around them as Low noise and those above it as High noise. Nothing is deleted, and the edit can be undone like any other. Choose how noise is found:

Gap (the usual choice): a point with no other point within a gap above or below it, for birds, spikes and pits.
Radius: a point with fewer than a number of neighbours within a radius, for scattered returns.
Elevation: every point below or above an elevation.

A Remove noise edit is added after its preview, which fixes how noise is judged in that area; Apply counts everything again before it makes the next version. Where gap and radius are not offered yet, Remove noise marks the points below or above an elevation you give.

Preview

Choose Preview. The panel counts exactly which points the selection takes, and where the changed points go, before anything is added.

The rows points selected and change class (for Remove noise, marked as noise), and a line for each class the points leave and join.
The heights the selection takes and its plan extent.
Where it overlaps an earlier edit on the list: a point can be in more than one count, and the later edit wins where two meet.

A selection that takes nothing is usually the wrong place, the wrong heights or the wrong classes, and the panel says so. If you change the polygon or the form, preview again. Where edits are saved as versions of the run, Preview all counts the whole list in order; elsewhere Apply counts it before anything changes.

Add

Choose Add edit. The edit goes on the list under the steps. Add as many as you need, each from its own preview. You can remove an edit from the list, or discard the whole list; the console asks first and says how many would go.

Your draft edits are kept for you through a reload, a lost connection or another computer. They are only drafts until you apply or save them, and colleagues’ drafts stay theirs.

Apply

The Edits panel on the rail holds your draft edits and review decisions, the edits the version was already made with, and your colleagues’ drafts. Apply makes them the dataset’s next version.

Choose Apply. Choose Apply in the Edits panel, or in the status bar while Classify is in hand. The console counts everything the new version will be made with before it asks you anything.
Read the exact counts. For each edit, the points it selects and the points that change class. Under them, the points that change class and the points selected together, each counted once, beside the most one run takes. The edits the version was already made with are applied again first, so none is lost, and review decisions on objects apply with them.
Confirm. Apply and update deliverables starts the new version; the version you corrected stays as it is. Keep editing goes back instead. Review the new version’s deliverables when it finishes, then accept it.

Someone applied first. If a colleague made a newer version while you were editing, Apply says so rather than leave their edits out, and offers Move my edits to Version N. Your edits are copied onto the newer version, counted again there, and applied with its edits. Edits of yours left on an older version are listed in the Edits panel with Move here.
Too much in one run. If the edits, with the ones the version was made with, select more points than one run takes, Apply says so. Draw the new edits over less ground or as fewer areas.
Counts gone stale. If your edits change after the counts were shown, Apply asks you to count again.

Applying needs the version’s original file, which is not kept for ever; the dataset shows the date it closes.

Save

Save is for a run that is not a version of a dataset. On a version of a dataset, Apply makes the edits durable, and edits saved there before are kept to read under History.

Saving edits

The Editing chip in the status bar shows how many edits are unsaved, and its menu holds Save and Review history. The Edits panel on the rail lists the edits with the same Save.

Choose Save. The console counts the edits against your saved edits before it asks you anything.
Read the exact counts. For each edit the panel gives the points that match and the points that change class at that step. Under it, Together gives the distinct points selected and the points that get a different final class. Each edit sees the classes left by the edits before it, so a point can count in more than one line. The totals count each point once.
Confirm. Nothing is saved until you confirm with the Save button in that panel. Choose Keep editing to go back instead. If the counts no longer match the list, the panel says so and you save again to recount.

Saving by reprocessing

A run that is not a version of a dataset is corrected by reprocessing it. Preview all first; Save stays off until the list has been counted. Then Save and reprocess asks, and names these.

Source: this run and the input it was made from.
Changes: the edits, with the number of points the preview counts as changing.
Scope: a new run of the whole input. This run and its deliverables stay as they are.
Deliverables: the new run makes every deliverable again.

Confirm, and a new run starts, linked back to this one. Review its deliverables, then accept that run when it is the one you want. Reprocessing needs the original file, which is not kept for ever; the run shows the date it closes.

Prepare a run for editing

A run that has never been edited this way is prepared first. The Classify panel says This run needs preparing, and Prepare for editing states the extra storage and any point allowance before you confirm. Then choose Start editing before you draw.

Update deliverables

On a version of a dataset, Apply makes every deliverable again, so there is nothing to update. Where edits are saved instead, saving does not change the run’s deliverables. Open the History tab of the Classify panel and choose Update deliverables.

The confirmation says which deliverables will be rebuilt and the point allowance the update uses before it starts. An update makes a new set of deliverables. Saving edits does not use allowance.
You can also choose a saved section and a saved quantity to rebuild in the same update.
Each deliverable shows whether it is Up to date, Needs updating, Updating or Update failed, with links to open the updated one and the previous one.
View original classifications and View saved classifications switch the scene between the two.

Accept

When every required deliverable is up to date and can be opened for review, open them, then choose Accept this delivery. Accepting is explicit and never automatic. The panel says Delivery accepted once it is done.

A delivery accepted before stays accepted, and downloadable, for the edits it was made from while newer edits are updated. Download accepted corrected delivery takes the accepted edits and the deliverables made from them. Download original run files holds the run without them.

History

History, beside Edits in the Classify panel, lists your saved edits. Review history in the Editing chip’s menu opens it.

Undo saved edit, Redo saved edit and Restore this version each make a new save. Nothing earlier is changed.
Save or clear your draft edits first. Undoing, redoing and restoring are off while drafts are waiting.
Compare with previous save sets the edits of the last two saves side by side.
Earlier saves opens past saves a page at a time, and View edits shows what one held.

Undo in the tool strip steps back through what you drew and your draft edits, whichever tool made them. It does not undo a save. Reversing a save is a new save, so the record stays complete.

Another person editing

Only one session edits a run at a time, so two people cannot overwrite each other. Anyone in your organisation can still look.

If someone else is editing, the panel says so. Your draft edits are kept and your tab can look but not save. Choose Take over editing and confirm if you need to. The other session loses its right to save, and its unsaved drafts stay with it.
If your own session ended or could not be confirmed, choose Resume editing. Your drafts are kept.
If something stops partway, because the saved edits changed in another session or the connection dropped, the panel says so, keeps your drafts and offers the one way on: Refresh, Retry storage or Cancel recovery. Retry storage finishes the same work without starting new work or charging again.

What is not offered

No brush. You cannot paint over points.
No picking individual points. Select inspects features; it does not choose points. An edit takes every point that matches inside the area you draw, which is why the preview counts them first.
No edits on a phone. Review saved edits and deliverables there.

Objects are judged separately

If a run gets an object wrong, such as a tree that is not a tree, use Review in the More menu. It lists the objects the run detected. Judge one with a decision such as not a tree or reject, or walk through the ones nobody has judged yet with Next and Previous. Object decisions are applied by processing the version again, with the same Apply.