Total newbie needs some help, floor flatness heat map?

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sshemro
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Total newbie needs some help, floor flatness heat map?

Post by sshemro »

Hey all,

New guy here. I recently went to training for the FARO Focus X330 scanner, and now am back and have done a couple scan jobs, and have some point clouds to work with. One of the most common things my company (a General Contractor specializing in interior build-outs) uses the scans for is a floor elevation heat map, so we can know exactly how much leveling will need to be applied, and where. This is an example that my predecessor created: Image

I need to figure out ASAP how exactly to make a heatmap like this. I have perused this site pretty exhaustively, and have come upon some great information, but everything is too advanced for me! I have seen comments like, "we all know how to create a heat map, that's easy. But how about, 'x'", which tells me I am missing something very basic. Is there somewhere I can go to learn this very basic task? I feel like everyone is discussing their marketing approaches to their lemonade stands, and I'm over here wondering how to make lemonade!

I have access to Autodesk Building Design Suite Premium (CAD, Revit, 3ds Max, Inventor, ReCap Pro, Navis, etc.), and I'm pretty sure that the guy before used 3DS MAX for these, but I can't be sure. He left on bad terms, and no one here really knew exactly how he did what he did. So I am tasked with learning it all! It's very fun and challenging, but I am really stuck here. If anyone could help me, it would be very greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
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Re: Total newbie needs some help, floor flatness heat map?

Post by sreed »

I feel your pain with finding answers to the most basic of questions. One of my first posts on the forum remains unanswered to this day: "What's the difference between a Checkerboard and CheckerboardTarget listed in the Target Tensions dialog of the Scan Manager?".

To your question - The easiest way to generate a quick heat map for horizontal surfaces is to use the "color by elevation" in Recap. AutoCad has the same feature. How's that for a quick and dirty recipe for lemonade :)
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Re: Total newbie needs some help, floor flatness heat map?

Post by sshemro »

sreed wrote:I feel your pain with finding answers to the most basic of questions. One of my first posts on the forum remains unanswered to this day: "What's the difference between a Checkerboard and CheckerboardTarget listed in the Target Tensions dialog of the Scan Manager?".

To your question - The easiest way to generate a quick heat map for horizontal surfaces is to use the "color by elevation" in Recap. AutoCad has the same feature. How's that for a quick and dirty recipe for lemonade :)
Yeah I found that feature, what I can't figure out is how to decide on and/or designate a "high point" (point where the slab is likely the least deflected, i.e. at elevator doors, etc.), and then apply the ramp/scale down from there, and how to decide what extent to grade it (what increments, etc.). And also how to create the little legend as shown in my post above.

To your question, I don't know but my guess would be that a CheckerboardTarget is either one that the automatic process of "find checkerboards" found, or that the software recognizes as an actual target rather than a user-forced checkerboard. Just a guess, although it's a good question!

Thanks for your reply :)
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Re: Total newbie needs some help, floor flatness heat map?

Post by berdindc »

I find that these are a little trickier than they appear. We do a few a year and last time I finally wrote down some detailed steps as each time the workflow seems to go a bit different with different looking deliverable.

1. Prefer to use the Leica over the FARO, if possible (personal choice, survey-grade with dual axis comp, cleaner data, not as dense/noisy)
2. Use Cyclone to clean up and decimate data
3. Mesh and sub-sample a gridded point cloud @ 0.5'
4. Mesh the grid
5. COE out
6. COE in to AutoCAD with Carlson
7. TIN mesh and contour, choose intervals, colors, pen styles, etc.

Something along those lines. Like I said, I find it more tedious than I anticipate going in. I like to choose a reference point as FF=100 or shoot in with total station/level.
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Re: Total newbie needs some help, floor flatness heat map?

Post by berdindc »

I'm curious as to what accuracy people are stating as far as the contour intervals. I have used 0.02' in the past. Anything less seems hard to achieve.
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Re: Total newbie needs some help, floor flatness heat map?

Post by sshemro »

berdindc wrote:I find that these are a little trickier than they appear. We do a few a year and last time I finally wrote down some detailed steps as each time the workflow seems to go a bit different with different looking deliverable.

1. Prefer to use the Leica over the FARO, if possible (personal choice, survey-grade with dual axis comp, cleaner data, not as dense/noisy)
2. Use Cyclone to clean up and decimate data
3. Mesh and sub-sample a gridded point cloud @ 0.5'
4. Mesh the grid
5. COE out
6. COE in to AutoCAD with Carlson
7. TIN mesh and contour, choose intervals, colors, pen styles, etc.

Something along those lines. Like I said, I find it more tedious than I anticipate going in. I like to choose a reference point as FF=100 or shoot in with total station/level.
Yeah I have FARO and SCENE, so unfortunately Cyclone isn't available to me :(

I assume the process could be roughly the same though, just with the softwares interchanged. One thing I don't understand yet though, is meshing. How do you create a gridded point cloud? (I've never heard of that) WHat is the difference between meshing that, and meshing the grid?

Also, what is COE and TIN? What is Carlson?

Sorry haha, this is way over my head!
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Re: Total newbie needs some help, floor flatness heat map?

Post by tbwester »

just color the point cloud by elevation (you can do this in Scene / cyclone / recap). We usually show color changes in .04 feet increments.

If you want it overlaid on CAD/Revit, just match up the images in another program (photoshop or similar).

I don't think most people use these scientifically, they just want a guideline for what the floor is doing or where it may cause issues in construction (in my experience). We do about 300 of these a year.

Thad
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Re: Total newbie needs some help, floor flatness heat map?

Post by BeateM »

They should have also trained you FARO software PointSense building to analyze your scan data ;-)

So, use AutoCAD feature "color by elevation" as mentioned before. Create an UCS (user coordinate system) where your "reference point" lays in this X-Y-plane and set this current. Use the feature and the option "color mapping" to define an interval.
Or, request a PointSense Building trial license to test plane deviation analyzis and create a legend.
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Re: Total newbie needs some help, floor flatness heat map?

Post by sshemro »

BeateM wrote:They should have also trained you FARO software PointSense building to analyze your scan data ;-)

So, use AutoCAD feature "color by elevation" as mentioned before. Create an UCS (user coordinate system) where your "reference point" lays in this X-Y-plane and set this current. Use the feature and the option "color mapping" to define an interval.
Or, request a PointSense Building trial license to test plane deviation analyzis and create a legend.
This is what I needed! Thank you!!!

And yeah PointSense training would be nice, but I don't think my company is going to pay for the software any time soon anyway.
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Re: Total newbie needs some help, floor flatness heat map?

Post by BeateM »

Cool :-)
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