Guide
The workspace
Open a dataset in the workspace and the point cloud fills the window. Everything else is arranged around it, and nothing is laid over it.
What is on screen
- The title bar names the dataset and the version you are looking at.
- The tool strip under it holds the tools, the camera and the colouring.
- The rail on the left opens one panel at a time beside the cloud: Classes, Edits, Outputs, Review and Views.
- The cloud takes the rest. Panels resize it; they never cover it.
- The Inspector on the right appears only when a tool is in use or something is selected.
- The bottom dock under the cloud appears only when it has something to show: a section, a profile, or the cross-sections, volumes and comparisons you ordered.
- The status bar at the foot says what the tool expects next, where the pointer is, and whether your edits are saved.
Every panel has its own hide control, and you can drag its edge, or use the arrow keys on it, to resize it. Hiding a panel keeps your data, your selection and your drafts. It never cancels anything. On a narrower screen one side panel stands at a time: the Inspector takes the place of the rail’s panel while it has something to show, and gives it back after. The review queue is the exception on a laptop-sized screen: the queue and the details of what you picked from it stand side by side.
The title bar
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| The mark | Goes to Projects. |
| Back | The survey’s name with an arrow. It returns to the dataset page, where you accept a delivery, download files and read each version’s run details. See results. |
| Name and version | The dataset’s name, then the version on screen. Its menu lists every version, newest first: choose one to open it here. A version that is still processing, failed or was cancelled opens on the dataset page instead. |
| State | Processing, Ready, Editing, In review, Delivered or Failed. |
| Who is working | A ring round a colleague’s initials: orange while they hold the editing session, grey while they have edits not yet applied. |
| Report a problem | Opens a support ticket about the run behind this version. |
The tool strip
One tool is active at a time, and the status bar tells you what to do next. Press Esc to step back. Tools take letters; digits always choose a class.
| Tool | Key | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Select | V | The pointer. Click a feature to inspect it. Drag to orbit and right-drag to pan. It is also the way out of any other tool. |
| Measure | M | Starts the measure you used last, Distance at first. Its arrow lists Distance, Area, Height and Volume. See measuring. |
| Section | S | Draw a line on the cloud, look along it, and order cross-sections. |
| Classify | C | Draw around points and change their class. Choosing it opens the Classes panel. Offered only where the run takes class edits. See correcting classifications. |
| More | R | Review queue opens the Review panel, the objects the run detected for you to judge. Compare with another version opens its tab in the bottom dock. With Advanced tools on, the Clip box is here too. Pointing at More lists what it holds. |
| Undo | Ctrl Z | One stack for every tool and panel, with the name of the step it would take. Redo is Ctrl Y, and in the View menu. |
| Top, Side and Fit | T, F | Look straight down, look level across the site, or frame the whole site. |
| View | The views from each side, previous and next view, your saved views, Redo, Focus canvas (hide every panel; choose it again to bring them back), Reset layout, Keys and find a tool (?) and Advanced tools. | |
| Colour | At the far end: colour the cloud by class, elevation, source colour, intensity or return number. Only what the cloud supports is offered; swath and scan angle appear with Advanced tools on. The legend is in the Classes panel. |
Every menu item that has a key shows it at the item’s end, and pointing at a tool says what it is for. When the window is too narrow for the whole strip, Side, Fit, Top, Undo and More fold, in that order, into a ⋯ menu beside View; Select, Measure, Section, Classify, View and Colour always stay on screen, and nothing is cut off. See the keyboard shortcuts.
Find a tool by typing
Press ?, or choose View, then Keys and find a tool, and type what you want to do in your own words: reclassify, noise, profile, cross-section, clip, crop, volume, stockpile, compare. The list narrows to the tools, menus, colours and panels that match, each with its key, and Enter runs the one highlighted. Only what this screen offers is listed. Below the list, every key the workspace takes is shown, narrowed by the same words.
The rail and its panels
Choose a panel on the rail to open it beside the cloud; choose it again to put it away. None of the settings in these panels change the run or its files.
Classes
A row for each class in the cloud. The eye shows or hides a class. Show only on a row hides every other class, and pressing it again shows them all. Invert hides the classes that are shown and shows the ones that were hidden. Show all brings everything back. A chip tells you how many classes are hidden. A padlock on a row means the class is locked: Classify never takes points from it. The panel also holds the visible height range, the legend of the colouring chosen in the strip, and the display settings.
Visible height range
Two handles hide everything below and above them, with the heights written beside them. Show every point again resets it. The status line says when the range is narrowed, even with the dock hidden. This is the one height filter: sections and profiles follow it.
Edits
The class edits you have added and not yet saved, with their Save. A count on the rail says how many are waiting. See correcting classifications.
Outputs
The deliverables drawn over the cloud. The first row is the point cloud itself. Then there is a row for each deliverable the run wrote that can be drawn over the cloud, such as contours or outlines. Tick a row to draw it. A colour swatch changes its colour, a number beside it counts what it holds, and a slider sets how see-through it is. A layer that fails to load is marked on its own row.
Review
The queue of objects the run detected, offered where the run has one. Walk through them and judge each; the selected object’s own details stand in the Inspector.
Views
Save the camera and display as a named view, fly back to it later, rename it, move it up or down, or delete it. Home frames the whole site. A dataset keeps a limited number of views, and the button says so when the list is full.
Find
Go to a coordinate: type or paste an easting and a northing, and a height if you have one, in the cloud’s reference system. The camera flies there and a marker stands on the spot until you clear it. A point read in the status bar pastes back as it reads. A coordinate far from the cloud is refused with how far away it is.
Export
At the foot of the rail. Delivered files are downloaded from the dataset page, and the panel takes you there. It also names the tools that write files from the workspace: the clip box (with Advanced tools) for part of the cloud, and Section for cross-sections.
Display settings
Folded away until you open it. Render quality trades speed for detail. Point size sets the size in pixels, and adaptive or fixed chooses whether points shrink with distance or stay the same size on screen. Eye-dome lighting adds depth shading. These are display choices. They are kept for you in your browser and change nothing in the run.
The Inspector
The right panel holds the panel of the tool in use, or what you selected: the vertices of a measurement, the line and settings of a section, the area and counts of a class edit, a feature’s details. With nothing in hand it is not there at all, and the cloud has the width. Put it away with its own control; the next tool or selection brings it back, and so doView, then Inspector, and the key of the tool in use.
The bottom dock
The bottom dock appears under the cloud only when one of its tabs has something in it:
- Section: the quick look along a section line, while you draw one.
- Profile: a profile opened from a cross-section.
- Sections, Volumes and Compare: what you have ordered on this run, with its progress and files.
The arrow at its right folds it to its tabs, and dragging its top edge changes its height. The run’s own files, steps, log and report are on the dataset page; see the results guide.
The status bar
The tool and its next step, with that step’s choices as buttons beside it, each showing its key: in Classify, for example, Close shape (Enter) and Undo corner (Backspace); with nothing in hand, Find a tool (?). A button does exactly what its key does. Then the coordinates under the pointer with the reference system, where the camera looks, whether the view is clipped, and, where the run takes class edits, the editing state with its Save and Review history.
Read-only versions
An older version, a version in review or delivered, and an archived dataset open read-only: the same screen, with Classify, Undo and the Edits panel left out. You can still measure, cut sections and look around. The title bar says Read-only, and the status bar says why and offers the way to edit, such as opening the latest version.
Your view follows the dataset
The camera, your saved views, the clip box, hidden classes, the visible height range and the colouring belong to the dataset, not to one version. A new version opens where you left the last one, with your saved views.
On a phone
A phone views and measures. The strip holds Select, Measure (distance and height), Top, Fit and Colour. The tabs under the cloud open Classes (show or hide a class), the Inspector with a measurement or a picked point, and More: your saved views, and the dataset page’s outputs and versions. Classifying, sections and the docks need a larger screen.
The Advanced tools switch
The workspace starts simple. Choose View, then Advanced tools to show more. The switch is yours alone and is off at first. It is remembered in your browser.
Switched on, it shows:
- the Clip box tool, and its key, B;
- the Swath and Scan angle colour choices;
- the sloped line on the profile sheet;
- the vertex table in Classify;
- the Interswath layer row;
- Keep classifying in Classify.
Switching it off hides them again. It does not undo anything you did with them: a clip box you already placed keeps clipping the view, and the status line offers to clear it. A colour choice that is hidden falls back to the default.