B13.

Point selection tools

Selection tools
Here you will learn how to use Reconstructors tools for:

1.Performing 2D-based and 3D-based selections of point clouds

2.Collect point, create new point clouds, fitting geometries to point selections: planes, cylinders, spheres

B13. Point selection tools

These tools are useful for

1. Editing point clouds 2. Merging, selecting and crating new point cloud 3. Creation of architectural plans, sections, and other geometries exportable to CAD tools 4. Etc.

B13. Point selection tools 2D-based and 3D-based selection of point clouds and meshes
Reconstructor supports selecting and managing portions of point clouds. Selection happens by using 2D or 3D elements.

Selection based on 2D shapes

To select a portion of a model with 2D shapes: 1.Click on the select button in the toolbar 2.Select one of the 2D selection shapes (rectangle, polygon, lasso), by clicking on one of the corresponding buttons: 3.Start drawing on the 3D view the shape corresponding to your selection

B13. Point selection tools

Draw a rectangle by keeping the Left Mouse Button pressed and releasing it when youre done.

Draw a polygon by clicking with LMB to define the vertexes. LMB double click closes the polygon.

Draw a lasso by pressing LMB and moving the mouse around. Releasing LMB closes the lasso.

When you are finishing drawing a shape (for example when you release the LMB): Shift + release LMB = selected region is the union of former region with the shape just finished Alt + release LMB = selected region is the difference of former region minus the shape just finished Shift + Alt + release LMB = selected region is the intersection of former region with the shape just finished

B13. Point selection tools

Once you have selected a region on the 3D view using 2D shapes, what can you do?

Cloud editing: 1.Delete selected points. With this option, the points that fall inside the selected region are deleted from the view. They can be undeleted at a later moment. 2.Delete outside points. With this option, the points that fall outside the selected region are deleted, and can be undeleted at a later moment. Options 1, 2 affect all point clouds that are loaded and visible. If you are deleting point from a Grid, it is possible to recovere the deleted point -> see next page

B13. Point selection tools

Right-click on a grid point cloud item, select Filtering tools -> Edit 2D. The dialog shown on the left appears, to edit the grid point cloud. Editing operations are based on the same selection tools seen before: rectangle, polygon, lasso. The Undelete option allows to undelete the points deleted by the buttons explained before.

B13. Point selection tools

Once you have selected a region on the 3D view using 2D shapes, what can you do?
Collect point The point in the selected area can be collected in 2 ways: A)Collect all the points inside the selected region B)Collect point with Virtual scan, only superficial point are used The selected point are marked in yellow. To remove the selection press Once the region is sampled, many other options can be chosen: Create a new point cloud If the point are collected with A) a unstructured point cloud is created If the point are collected with B) a grid point cloud is created Fitting Fit plane to sampled points Fit cylinder to sampled points Fit sphere to sampled points

B13. Point selection tools Selection of point clouds with 3D objects

3D objects too can be used to perform selections from point clouds: 1.Polylines can be used to delimit selections of point clouds, given a particular plane 2.Cubes centered in a particular UCS can delimit selections too. Explained in UCS section

Selection of points with 3D polylines

It works with three elements: 1.A point cloud, structured or not. 2.Any closed polyline, defined in the 3D space. 3.A plane. The current view can also be used. The points of the cloud are projected on the plane The polyline is projected on the plane as well. The resulting selection is the set of all points falling inside the projected plane

B13. Point selection tools Selection of points with 3D polylines how to do it

1. Press the button

2.

The recipe window appears. Follow the instruction on it, dragging from the tree view the necessary ingredients. Press OK. The selection is computed as desired:

3.

Only the points that fell inside the polyline, on the plane, are kept in the resulting cloud.

B13. Point selection tools Selection of points with 3D polylines an intriguing question
The following dialog appears after point selection with polyline:

The plane used as projection reference for selecting points with polyline can also be used for calculating a mesh from the selected points, using a view-dependent algorithm. This is explained in the Surface section.