Guide

Upload and process

Files go into a project: drop them, read what the console found in each, and each one is processed on its own into a dataset.

Start a project and add files

A project holds the LAS and LAZ files of one job: tiles, flights or handheld scans, overlapping or not. Each file goes from your browser to your organisation’s storage, is kept exactly as uploaded, and is processed on its own into a dataset of the project.

1. Start a project

   Choose New project in the navigation, name it, and the empty project opens with a large drop area. Or drop files anywhere on Projects: a new project is made, named after them. Dropped on a project’s row, files go into that project.

2. Drop the files, or choose them

   Drop as many LAS or LAZ files as you like anywhere on the project’s page, or choose Add files. Only .las and .laz are offered; any other file is refused, with one sentence saying why, and nothing of it is sent. A file the project already has, with the same name and size, is not added twice.

3. Watch each file

   Each file has its own row, which moves from Uploading to Checking, Queued and Processing. Two files upload at a time; the rest wait in your browser and cost nothing. Cancel drops a file that is not in yet, and Stop the rest drops every file still to upload and holds every file not started. Keep the tab open until every file has started: an upload carries on if you move to another screen, and the browser asks before the tab closes. A file whose upload finished is added the next time you open the project; a file still waiting in the tab is not.

4. Read the file check

   When a file is in, its header is read: the format, the coordinate system, the points and the extent. A file that names no horizontal coordinate system asks for its EPSG code before it is processed; the code most of the project’s files carry is offered first. The code declares the file’s coordinate system; it does not change its coordinates.

5. Processing starts on its own

   Once its check passes, each file starts its own run into its own dataset. Processing above the files chooses the preset or template the runs use. Switch on Hold processing to check the files first: nothing of the project starts, files already queued included, until you choose Start processing. The switch is kept in your browser. If your organisation is already running as many runs as it may at once, a file says it is waiting for a slot and starts as soon as one opens. Under the files, an estimate adds up their points against what is left this period.

Size limits

Your allowances set the size of the largest single file and how much you can upload in a period. A file over the limit is refused before it is sent, with its size and the limit. Split a large survey into several files: a project grows by adding files. Your allowances are on the Usage page.

The project page

Map draws the outline of every checked file from its header, coloured by the state of its dataset, with a scale bar and no base map. Files are drawn together when they name the same coordinate system; any other file is listed under the map with the reason. Where two files’ outlines overlap, the overlap is hatched and listed: overlaps are flagged, never dropped. Outlines are boxes, so a diagonal strip can look as if it overlaps a neighbour where no point does.

Files lists each file with its check, the files its outline overlaps and by how much, and the dataset made from it. A file that could not be compared, because its coordinate system is unknown or differs, says so rather than showing no overlap. A file that was never processed shows Process. Files are kept as uploaded and cannot be removed from a project. Datasets lists the project’s datasets with their state and one main action each, and Activity what happened in the project.

Process several files together

Each file is processed on its own by default. Flight lines of one block that must be levelled together can instead be one run, as an explicit choice.

1. Select the files

   On the project’s Files tab, tick two or more checked files.

2. Choose Process together…

   Name the new dataset and start the run. The files are merged in the order shown into one new dataset; each file’s own dataset stays as it is. The files must be checked and name the same coordinate system; if they do not, the action is not offered and one sentence says why. Up to five files can be processed together.

The overlap between files is dropped when they are merged. The option Level the flights against each other first solves one vertical offset for each flight from where they overlap; leave it off unless the flights visibly disagree in height. A large area as one dataset is many files processed one by one, not one run.

Choose a preset

Below the file and its checks, what to run lists the presets. A preset is a set of processing switches with a name. Pick the one that matches the job. Each card carries a short description of what that preset delivers.

• surfaces produces elevation models.
• terrain adds contours, slope and shape, plus roads, bridges and water.
• powerline adds conductors, clearance, trees and vegetation-risk findings.
• survey adds building footprints and a colour version of the cloud.
• full produces everything.

Whichever you choose, a run also delivers the classified point cloud, its coordinate details and a report. Anything a run could not produce, such as an elevation model from a file with no ground, is listed on the run with the reason. The list on the screen can also include a preset marked experimental; its card says so.

Where it is offered, Keep my classes uses the classes already in a file instead of classifying it again. A project remembers the choice, and so does Process again. If the console cannot yet tell whether it is available, the run waits for the answer rather than classify the file by mistake, and you can choose Process without keeping classes instead. If it is not available, the screen says so and the file is classified as usual.

Your organisation’s templates

If you run the same stages on survey after survey, save them once as a template. Templates in the navigation lists your organisation’s own standards and opens the editor. They appear beside the presets wherever you choose how files are processed, with the stages they run. A run remembers which template, at which version, it was made with. Editing a template saves a new version, and earlier runs keep the one they used.

To keep a variation of a finished run’s settings, open the run and choose Save as template in its … menu.

Interswath consistency check

Under Quality control, this option compares overlapping swaths (also called strips or flight lines) and maps the height difference of the worst pair. It is off by default. It is not available with a template of your own, which runs only the stages it saved, and a preset that already includes it says so.

Process the same file again

Open a finished run and choose Process with another template in its … menu. The run screen opens with the file already chosen and the run’s own preset or template marked. Pick the new one and start it, with no second upload. This works while the platform still holds your file. After that, the menu item explains that the input has expired.

Submit a run from the run screen

Processing a dataset again opens the run screen, whose last step, submit, has a few fields.

Label

A name for the run, so you can find it in the list.

Horizontal EPSG

If the file carries a coordinate system, the console uses it and says where it came from. If it does not, enter the EPSG code of the horizontal coordinate system before you submit. A run made with no coordinate system comes back in an arbitrary local frame rather than a real-world position, and the viewer shows a “no CRS” badge.

Vertical CRS

The EPSG code of the vertical datum. It declares the datum the heights are already in; it does not change the heights. Leave it blank only when it cannot be established.

Choose the Run button, which carries the name of the preset or template you picked. If the run cannot start, the screen says why and nothing is lost. The usual reasons are that your organisation is already running as many runs as it may at once, that the queue is full, or that this period’s points are used up. The first two clear by themselves; the screen tells you how long to wait. For the third, see allowances.

Follow a run

Submitting opens the run. The viewer opens as soon as the first tiles land, so you can look around while the rest of the work continues.

Find a project or a dataset

Projects is where the console opens. Every run belongs to a dataset, and every dataset to a project. A run joins an existing dataset as its next version when you start it with Process again… from that dataset or its workspace, with Run again on a failed run, or by reprocessing with class edits; applying class edits in the workspace adds a version too. A file processed in a project begins a new dataset in that project, which you can rename or move. The list shows each project with its datasets’ states, whom they are waiting on, who is working on them and when it last changed.

Filter by state, or choose Waiting on me for the datasets that need you. Search by the project’s or a dataset’s name. An address saved under the old name, surveys, opens the project. To find one run by its identifier, choose All runs under the list. A link to a run you saved before opens its dataset, on that version.

A dataset’s page shows its state and whom it is waiting on, the one main action, and the rest under …: Process again, Accept without review, Withdraw review, Report a problem, Rename or move, and Archive. Send or share… gives you the dataset’s address to send a colleague; it opens only for people who sign in to your organisation. Its tabs are Overview, Versions, Outputs, Quality, Access and Activity.

What the states mean

On a dataset’s Versions tab, a version’s run details list each step in the order it ran, with how long it took and how many points passed through it, so you can see where the time went. A large corridor, or a run asked to produce more, takes longer than a small survey.

Cancel a run

Choose Cancel run in the header. The console asks first. The run stops at its next step boundary and what it has produced so far stays. Choose Let it finish if you change your mind.

After a failure

The banner offers Run again, which uses the same files and settings with no upload, as long as the files are still held. It also offers Start a new run. If the failure looks like ours to fix, report it with the support reference below.

Get help with a run

Every run has a support reference. It is how we find everything that happened on that run, so quote it in an email or a call. You will find it in two places: in the header’s … menu, and at the top of the Steps list under Run details. Each has a Copy button.

Report a problem in the same menu opens the Help screen with the run already named on the ticket. You can also open Help from the navigation at any time. Tickets go to Alonstech directly, and you can follow the replies there.

Next: read and accept the results, or open the console and start a run.