Desktop v Cloud Registration

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Which point cloud registration would you prefer, desktop or cloud?

Desktop
60
83%
Cloud
12
17%
 
Total votes: 72

davegrrr
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Re: Desktop v Cloud Registration

Post by davegrrr »

Thanks to all for sharing comments, there's some excellent feedback here and a pretty clear voting trend. I do wonder whether 5G will present enough pull to enable a workaround for data handling / privacy...
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davegrrr
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Re: Desktop v Cloud Registration

Post by davegrrr »

Thanks all. In summary, it seems that the following is driving preference for a conventional desktop solution:
  • Unreliable connection
  • Low data transfer speed v large file size
  • Risk of accidental billing

I'd be interested to know who voted for the cloud option and why...
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Re: Desktop v Cloud Registration

Post by MarkJLane »

We're interested in cloud since we only have a couple high-spec workstations, so when the RTC is out scanning full time it creates a bottleneck at the processing end. The idea behind using a VM is that we can use the lower-spec machines to register small-medium jobs on the VMs while the local scanning workstations are busy on the large jobs.

I've been searching for a good VM cloud solution. So far I've tried to get Register360 running on GCP Compute, AWS, & Paperspace, yet it won't accept raw data import. Got a VM licence and recommended specs but the data just won't import.

Does anyone know a good VM cloud that will run Cyclone/REG360? Data transfer speed isn't an issue for us, but high specs are required.
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Re: Desktop v Cloud Registration

Post by jamesworrell »

Last I checked R360 release notes say expressly it won't work on VM's .. haven't tried myself. Cyclone does.

Private cloud is the way forward.

Parallel processing of queues .. so your office machines turn into processing engines to do work when idle, or at least give say 30% of CPU (say) to point cloud processing engine.

You can have 20 or 30 low cost machines doing the work easily - leaving them run over night as necessary.

So in the RTC360 example - good parallel tasks would include initial ingest - so filtering, double scan processing, colouring, conversion - these are all done per-scan (sequentially - ouch) and could easily be shelled out to a queue.

So instead of processing a 200 scans one one computer .. you are doing 10 scans (each) on 20 computers. Processing is over and done with in "minutes" and not days.

Similar queue processing would be desirable for:
- meshing (look at ContextCapture Centre Edition or Thinkbox Sequoia for inspiration)
- machine learning processing - coming soon no doubt - for object detection and auto-modelling
- cloud-to-cloud constraint calcs - got 2000 constraints to calc at 30 seconds each?
- points on grid
- export / conversion

The point clouds can be queued/distributed by scan or tiles of data or both as necessary.

Networking and storage write speeds (SSD) will keep up.

So private cloud for the win.
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Re: Desktop v Cloud Registration

Post by smacl »

jamesworrell wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 1:57 am So private cloud for the win.
Sounds like the best technical solution, but do you find there are license cost implications for performing a compute intensive operation across a relatively large number of low spec computers?
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Re: Desktop v Cloud Registration

Post by jamesworrell »

That will be up to the vendors ..

Ideally no .. it isn't offering additional functionality - just making the scanners more useful / efficient.

But if they price themselves out of the ball park we will simply wait for the single instances ..

Which "ecosystem" would you invest in? The one that is "single threaded" or the one that offers "parallel processing".

Which scanners would you buy? It isn't a stand-alone software pricing question .. but a whole of ecosystem decision - assuming a single vendor does this.

I imagine though all vendors will be "forced" to come up with multi-node queue-processing systems in the not-too-distant future or be left behind.

Indeed - with the various SDK's .. could even be a vendor coming in out of left field that surprises us all ..
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Re: Desktop v Cloud Registration

Post by ericguizzetti »

davegrrr wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:42 am If you had access to registration software both in the cloud or offline on your desktop, what would be your preference?

Please indicate your preference by voting in the poll. I encourage you to give reasons why you have preferences for one over another.

Thanks in advance,
David
Cloud? OUCH!
davegrrr
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Re: Desktop v Cloud Registration

Post by davegrrr »

I appreciate it might be stating the obvious Eric, but it would be good to know your primary concerns about cloud processing. If you could give me some detail, it would help us tackle those issues as part of our development.

TIA,
David
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Re: Desktop v Cloud Registration

Post by pburrows145 »

jamesworrell wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 9:49 am That will be up to the vendors ..

Ideally no .. it isn't offering additional functionality - just making the scanners more useful / efficient.

But if they price themselves out of the ball park we will simply wait for the single instances ..

Which "ecosystem" would you invest in? The one that is "single threaded" or the one that offers "parallel processing".

Which scanners would you buy? It isn't a stand-alone software pricing question .. but a whole of ecosystem decision - assuming a single vendor does this.

I imagine though all vendors will be "forced" to come up with multi-node queue-processing systems in the not-too-distant future or be left behind.

Indeed - with the various SDK's .. could even be a vendor coming in out of left field that surprises us all ..
I'd like to think we've made a start with batch processing and exports - but ability to parallellise the offering using distributed computing would be amazing. I used to use this a lot with rendering from Maya (a LONG time ago) using a university provided cluster and it was AMAZING!

What about "Hybrid Cloud"?
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Re: Desktop v Cloud Registration

Post by Matt Young »

I think we should train robots to do the processing for us. then we can all go down the restaurant (I would say pub, but where do you find those anymore...).
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