Bentley Pointools vs Faro Scene

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Willes
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Bentley Pointools vs Faro Scene

Post by Willes »

Hello..

Can someone explain to me the main differences between Pointools and Scene? If I already have Faro Scene, what will Pointools add to my 'toolbox'? It seems to me that they have a lot of the same tools, but since I'm relatively new to the field of 3d scanning I am probably overlooking things..

Thank you!

Cheers
Wilco
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Re: Bentley Pointools vs Faro Scene

Post by NByrd »

I certainly am not a Pointools "pro", so I know that there will be others who jump in with much more information that I have, but as a Faro/Scene & Pointools user, I can tell you what we do. Also I don't think that a direct comparison of the two is necessarily appropriate, they perform fairly different functions.

#1 For us is the video creation/animation in pointools. While not always the most useful deliverable, creating clean, awesome flythrough videos of a pointcloud can be a real handy tool with a client. Yes, Scene DOES have a video creation plugin... but it's not nearly as intuitive as Pointools. I love Faro/Scene, and I've used the video plugin, but pointools makes it way easier, and has got more options. What I liked about it was how familiar the animation tools were. If you've ever done any 3D modeling/animation (outside of what we do here, like graphics animation) the layout and tools are very familiar. Having been a Cinema4D user, I was able to jump in without much looking around and make a nice looking video.

Here's an example of a video I did of one of our side "for fun" projects that was done VERY quickly.


youtu.be/

#2 It's becoming our new favorite tool for point cloud clean up / editing. The manual point selection tools and brushes make selective editing of unwanted features in your pointcloud pretty easy. We routinely scan large oil & gas facilities, where at any time there could be dozens of people walking around, all with different trucks driving all over... and we don't want to see that in our pointcloud.

See below where we have an operator standing on a catwalk scanning, can't leave the area or the scan view, but we don't want to see him, so using the brush tools we can select just his points pretty dang easily (the orange points are selected), and delete them.

Image

Again, using Scene, you CAN zoom in, create a clipping box, cut it down around your target, select the points, and delete them, but the process is much more cumbersome. After starting to use pointools for cleanup, I could never go back to setting a clipping box for EVERY thing I want to take out of a pointcloud haha, especially since for final deliverables we like to cut out all the targets too. :o Every sphere, every checkerboard, every tripod lol.

All this to say, I'm not a Bently rep, I know that there's a ton you can use Pointools for that I haven't even tapped into, but I can say that I use Faro/Scene, and Pointools is more and more becoming a part of our regular workflow. To the point that we're actively looking for more we can do with it because we like it so much.

Anyhow, sorry for the novel, hope some of this helps, and definitely wait to hear what everyone else says. :D

-Nick
Willes
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Re: Bentley Pointools vs Faro Scene

Post by Willes »

Hi Nick! Thank you for your novel ;) and the visual material, I appreciate it!
I realise it is probably not an appropriate comparison, I do need to dive into it deeper.
We will probably be using Pointools for the same purpose as you do, but mainly cleaning up point clouds and creating sections.

Thanks again!
Wilco
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Re: Bentley Pointools vs Faro Scene

Post by pointinator »

Hi all,

FYI, SCENE also offers a polygon- as well as a brush selection tool in order to delete unwanted points. These tools are applicable both on scan point clouds (will also update the scan itself when sharing changes) and on the project point cloud.

Best regards,
Joachim
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Re: Bentley Pointools vs Faro Scene

Post by Willes »

Thanks Joachim,

You are right, Scene can do that!

Best regards,

Wilco
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Re: Bentley Pointools vs Faro Scene

Post by adampspring »

This was animated in Pointools. Happy with the results:

https://youtu.be/dzkyrbh8Bvo
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Re: Bentley Pointools vs Faro Scene

Post by RyanA »

A little bit off topic but if anybody will be around SEA next week specifically the Philippines, we will be conducting a workshop using the FOCUS x330, Freestyle as well as some Bentley software suites.

I will be flying from Singapore to Philippines next week to give a short talk about FARO and our products as well as how we integrate nicely with different third party software like Pointools depending on user applications.

http://www.chaserobinengineering.com/3d ... -2015.html


Cheers!

Ryan
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Re: Bentley Pointools vs Faro Scene

Post by Dedken »

pointinator wrote:Hi all,

FYI, SCENE also offers a polygon- as well as a brush selection tool in order to delete unwanted points. These tools are applicable both on scan point clouds (will also update the scan itself when sharing changes) and on the project point cloud.

Best regards,
Joachim

I have never been able to get the brush selection tool to work - I have no idea how to use it. And the Scene manual, as usual tells me very little if any use.
All views are my own and are not representative of my employer, The King, God or anyone else for that matter.

"we need an instrument, to take a measurement" - I.MacKaye 1992
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Re: Bentley Pointools vs Faro Scene

Post by pointinator »

Dedken wrote: I have never been able to get the brush selection tool to work - I have no idea how to use it. And the Scene manual, as usual tells me very little if any use.
That's a pitty. Maybe you can give it another try and describe what exactly did not work? Remember that the brush selector only works for scan point clouds or for the project point cloud...

Best regards,
Joachim
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