AVEVA Point Cloud Manager tool palette in Marine

This Tool Palette contains Laser Scanned Point cloud manipulation tools only. These are intended to complement the main Point Cloud Manager – Marine tools called from the drop-down menu.

The tools are particularly relevant when no existing project models are loaded into the 3D environment, such as, where point cloud volumes cannot be selected based on the Current Element (CE). For general volume control information, please refer to Volume Selection Tools.

These tools enable the user to:

• Define the center of rotation from a picked point within the point cloud.

• Display laser scan bubble images in the 3D window

• Create Marine Cartesian Design Points [D-Points] directly from the point cloud in Marine

• Extract point coordinates quickly to the screen

• Set pipe branch head/tail position, direction and bore from the Piping Aids.

Select Rotation Point from Cloud

Using this function centralizes the screen on a selected point. Subsequent movement revolves around this point.

Print Selected Point to Command Line

This displays the selected point coordinates on the command line. To select the required point, click in the 3D display.

Show Point in BubbleView

This displays the scan intensity BubbleView of a selected point in the Marine 3D environment. The BubbleView enables the designer to place themselves at any scan location and to perform a virtual fly through in the laser scan. Real time zooming and panning give the user the sensation of actually flying around the scanned environment. Coordinate extraction and measurement functionality is then available to the user. A position marker is displayed in the BubbleView to highlight the point of interest.

Because the Dataset is compiled from potentially hundreds of separate scans, the bubble displayed may not be the most appropriate viewpoint. This can be refined by picking in another area of the point cloud, or opening another BubbleView by right-clicking on one of the pink scan site markers in the current BubbleView.

Select Points with Polygon Fence

Select the button shown below to begin selecting the polygon fence.

All points enclosed by the fence will be presented in a performance optimised resolution. The smaller the fenced area, the higher the point cloud density displayed. Define the fence vertices by repeatedly moving the cursor and clicking with the left mouse button. Press Esc to close off the fence.

The example below shows the point cloud before and after polygon fence selection:

CE Volume Selection

This selects the volume bounding box around the Current Element (CE). The border and point density of this box is defined in Options which is accessible from the AVEVA Point Cloud Manager menu.

Pick Volume Selection

To select volume extents using objects, select the Pick Volume Selection button shown below. Select the first object, then select the second object. A volume will be selected encompassing both objects as the extents of the volume.

Reset Point Cloud Volume Selection

This clears the current point cloud selection, and displays the low resolution Dataset in its entirety.

Toggle Low Density Points

Toggles the Low Density points on/off.

Toggle Edge Detect mode

Edge detect mode assists viewing outlines of objects in the point cloud. Select the icon shown below to enter this mode, then select the icon again to return to the standard view.

Construct Aid Cylinder from Points

A temporary Marine cylindrical Construction Aid can be introduced into the 3D environment. After selecting the function, a point should be picked on the surface of the pipe data which should ideally be central to the captured points representing the pipe size and length. This process determines the best fit cylinder diameter and also its direction.

To always apply pipe standards, set Point Cloud Manager options to Closest Standards (Auto) which applies the nearest standard pipe diameter into the point cloud. The length should be manually adjusted using the Trim/Extend function. If an unsatisfactory result is displayed, remove using the Select Pipe Aid to Clear function.

Trim/Extend Cylinder

Select the end of the cylinder needed to be changed, and select a new end point from the point cloud. This operation may be repeated until the desired end point is achieved.

Add D-Points to Cylinder Ends

The fitted and trimmed construction aid cylinders can be individually selected, and the two center end points used to automatically place Marine Design Points.

The user is prompted to select a Cylinder Aid.

This function creates two Cartesian Design Points [DPCA] stored in a DP Set in the project XGEOM. The example below is the resulting structure created for one pipe. Further use of this function will add additional D-Points in the DP Set.

The D-Points can be displayed by making the XGEOM CE, and selecting the Show D-Point function in the AVEVA Point Cloud Manager drop-down tools. Select Set CE and the D-Points will appear on screen, in addition to their respective coordinates in a tabular format. Please also refer to general D-Point information.

Create D-Point on Point

This places a D-Point on a picked point. This function creates a Cartesian Design Point stored in a DP Set in the project XGEOM.

The D-Points can be displayed by making the XGEOM CE, and selecting the Show D-Point function in the AVEVA Point Cloud Manager drop-down tools. Select Set CE and the D-Points appear on screen, in addition to their respective coordinates in a tabular format. Please also refer to general D-Point information.

Invert D-Points

To invert a D-Point, select the icon below.

Click on the base of the D-Point to be inverted. To refresh the display in order to reflect this change, select the XGEOM as the CE and then select Set CE in the AVEVA Point Cloud Manager D-Point Viewer.

Set branch head position

Pipe head positions can be set using the Piping Aids with D-Points. This procedure allows a head position to be quickly assigned in the point cloud (on center line) by snapping to a suitable D-Point. This facilitates the correct location without the need for any modelling work.

The designer should use the Design Aids to locate the pipework, trim to length, and then assign D-Points as covered previously.

Prior to selecting the function:

• The relevant pipe branch must be CE.

• Ensure the D-points are visible in the 3D display.

To use the Set branch head position:

1. Select the icon shown below:

   

2. Select, hold and drag inside the points representing the pipe, moving from pipe center towards required D-Point. The cursor changes to the following shape:

   

3. Drag cursor over to the required D-Point (Select at tail of D-Point display arrow, on the border of the blue square). When the D-Point is selected, the cursor changes to the following shape:

   

4. Release the mouse button and then refresh Branch attributes. HPOS, HDIR and HBOR should now be set.

   The bore value is based on point cloud geometry, not nominal bore value. The HBOR value assigned is a guide to the designer.

   

5. The D-points placed on each end of a pipe aid have exactly opposite directions. To reverse a direction, set head and tail values, then use q hdir or q tdir in the command line, then apply the delivered value as required. Remember that the direction value delivered is as-built, and so is unlikely to be orthogonal.

Set branch tail position

This procedure operates as described above.

Pipe tail positions can be set using the Piping Aids with D-Points. This procedure allows a tail position to be quickly assigned in the point cloud (on center line) by snapping to a suitable D-Point. This facilitates the correct location without the need for any modelling work. The designer should use the Design Aids to locate the pipework, trim to length, and then assign D-Points as covered previously.

Prior to selecting the function:

• The relevant pipe branch must be CE.

• Ensure the D-points are visible in the 3D display.

To use the Set branch tail position:

6. Select the icon shown below:

   

7. Select, hold and drag inside the points representing the pipe, moving from pipe center towards required D-Point. The cursor changes to the following shape:

   

8. Drag the cursor over to the required D-Point (select at tail of D-Point display arrow, on the border of the blue square). When the D-Point is selected, the cursor changes to the following shape:

   

9. Release the mouse button, then refresh Branch attributes. TPOS, TDIR and TBOR should now be set. If the Branch is in the Drawlist, then a dotted line is seen between HPOS and TPOS.

   

Select Pipe Aid to Clear

Removes single pipe aid from the 3D window. You are prompted for a selection.

Clear Pipe Aids

Removes all current Pipe Aids from the screen.