Point cloud georreferencing in Revit

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AndreFernandes
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Point cloud georreferencing in Revit

Post by AndreFernandes »

Hello,
I have georreferenced point cloud data in Leica Cyclone and need to work with that data in Revit. The problem is I can´t seem to georreference the point cloud in a new Revit project.
Can anyone help me, please?
MarcinL
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Re: Point cloud georreferencing in Revit

Post by MarcinL »

You should insert point cloud by Shared Coordinates method.
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Re: Point cloud georreferencing in Revit

Post by AndreFernandes »

I inserted the point cloud with Auto-Shared Coordinates opcion. But, as the coordinates are too far (> 30000) from the survey and base points, the point cloud "disappears" from views. And if I am able to find it in the 3D view, how do I know that it has the right coordinates? The opcion "spot coordinate" in the annotate tab does not work.
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Re: Point cloud georreferencing in Revit

Post by MarcinL »

Point cloud disappear because revit couldn't deal with big coordinates (far distance from project base point). To deal with it, before you insert point cloud, you need to move project base point near to your Point Cloud coordinates (Survey Point is still in origin). After that when you insert point cloud by shared coordinates, everything should work properly. You will have short distance to PBP są cloud will be displaying properly, but all coordinates will be counting from Survey Point.

EDIT,
Also issue can be that you zoom out so far, so any of object are not visibile (are to small). So you need to hide Survey and Project Base Points (and others elements which are near to origin) and then zoom to all, so just point cloud will be displaying.
Anyway, For such big coordinates, I recomend move PBP.
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Re: Point cloud georreferencing in Revit

Post by cbaze »

There's a much easier way to align point cloud data in Revit.

Pick two control points and use View>Coordinate System>Set from points. Set them at 0,0, elevation and 0 degrees for the azimuth. Export to .PTS (PTX files seem to fail on the Autodesk import for some reason).

Import the .PTS origin to origin in Revit. Before you move the point cloud at all, draw two intersecting reference planes at the origin to mark your control point. If you draw these two reference plans orthogonally, you can extend one of them to your second control point. Group the reference planes with the point cloud so the alignment stays intact. Align the point cloud to the Revit model using these two points.

Revit isn't really made for geolocating projects, so I've found that this method works much better. As you found, there is a limit to how far you have elements from the origin. https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/ ... metry.html
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Re: Point cloud georreferencing in Revit

Post by jamesworrell »

Revit and point clouds on geodetic coordinates can give you grief. See plenty of threads on this site about that ... the metres-to-feet rounding bug is the first of the gotchas.

First up you need a point cloud on "local" coordinates. We tend to use a truncated version of the coordinates - that way it is easy to remember, type etc.

So coords like 596346.123,69484234.224 .. become 346.123,234.224 .. the transformation being -596000,-69484000 - stays on the same azimuth - geodetic north. You may need to tweak N/E by 1,000 to avoid negative coordinates .. your call.

Now .. save that coordinate system in Cyclone - you can swap between them easily - call it Truncated or Revit or something.

Select all clouds .. export to E57 on local system. We use E57 in case the client is on ArchiCAD .. or some other consultant - a generic format and it plays nice with Recap as well.

Open Revit .. survey base point stays at 0,0,0 (you can bring normal CAD in on "survey" system using shared coordinates as the insert option) .. project base point becomes your truncation from above (BTW: you can use variations of the project base point with different truncations and swings, your coordinate system in Cyclone just needs to match - we use a straight truncation for simplicity).

Whack the point cloud into/through Recap and link to Revit using origin-to-origin. Now you may not see it in Revit 2D views (you will in 3D) as yet as the project extents thingos/cut planes/elevations etc - don't know their names - may be too close to the origin and the point cloud is slightly further away - maybe scope boxes? Either way you can adjust the elevations to match the location of the point cloud - by default these views look at the origin.

This is all assuming you aren't using data that has a geodetic scale factor applied.

You should be away ..
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Re: Point cloud georreferencing in Revit

Post by AndreFernandes »

Thank you all for your help.
I did not tried to pick the two control points and insert it with origin to origin because I have not yet a Revit model, because I need to put it in the exact right place first.
In the 3D view, when I was able to find my point cloud (that was really far away from the origin), I first tried to move the PBP, but Revit didn't let me, because it was too far away from it's startup place. So I drew a wall next to the point cloud (in the 3D view) and with "spot coordinates" in that wall, I realized that the data was in fact in the right coordinates (I simply inserted it with Auto-Shared Coordinates). So now the problem was being able to get floor plans and sections and such of the point cloud, and not of the origin.
As I could not move PBP even if it was unclipped, i tried to move the survey point, giving it aproximated coordinates of the point cloud, so I could find it easier in space. Then, i drew a new wall between my Survey Point and my PBP, so I could follow that wall in an existing floor plan, and find the point cloud (had to ajduste my view range). When I got it, I was finnally able to draw a section in the right place, erase the existing floor plans, and create a new one in a more suitable level.
I'm not sure if it was the best way to solve my problem, but as a last resource, it works.
Thank you!
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