3D Markups and Fast Tag display

3D Markups and Fast Tags can be created directly in Viewer or AVEVA Point Cloud Manager 4.3 onwards.

Viewer projects use the same AVEVA Point Cloud Manager dataset that is used for design. In practice, this can be a copy of the data, or the same data which is used for both purposes. AVEVA Point Cloud Manager has authoring tools to create 3D Markups and add Fast Tags from coordinate/description spreadsheets. There is also provision to add and maintain project labels. These can be adapted to suit the needs of the project, but could include routine maintenance tasks, inspection items, discussion points and so on.

Please refer to the AVEVA Point Cloud Manager Server section for further information about these possibilities. This section will focus primarily on the tools available through a Viewer session.

Markups can be made directly within Viewer. If field Markups are defined these can be edited further upon return to the office if needed. For example, anomalies can be quickly identified and ‘marked-up’ on a tablet in the field, and reworked when connected back to the main project.

One important feature about the Markup process is that all markups are stored as 3D volumetric shapes in the project database. This means that they will be automatically displayed in any BubbleView that can conceivably see them.

Markup functions are accessed through the Viewer Tools "Pill" Menu. To open the Tools Menu:

• Click/tap the Markup icon at the bottom of the BubbleView as shown below.

  

You can create markups in the 3D Context Viewer as well as BubbleViews.

Creating a point markup

1. Select the Point Markup button from the Tools "Pill" Menu.

   

2. Click and release on a point of interest, then move the mouse cursor to drag the sphere to an appropriate size. Click again to complete.

3. Press and hold your finger on a point of interest in the BubbleView; then drag away to control the size of the spherical Markup. Release to complete.

   When Markups are committed to the database they appear in the Properties Panel and turn green in the BubbleView.

   Markups are created in the group that is currently selected in the Properties Panel. If no group is selected in the Properties Panel, the markup is created at the top-level 3D Markups node.

4. To delete the Markup, select Delete.

5. To edit the Markup, select Edit.

   

   You can rename the Markup and edit the labels/URLs associated with the Markup. You can also change the Markup colour.

   

6. To add a new label/URL, select Edit against a point markup and enter the information in the Enter Label or URL field then select Add. To delete a label/URL select the cross next to that label/URL.

7. To add link text to a URL, simply enter the text to be displayed and select Add.

   Please note that URL text shortening is not available for projects hosted on Desktop.

8. When the desired changes have been made, select Submit to commit these changes to the project. To exit this dialog without committing any changes, select Cancel or select the cross at the top-right-corner of the dialog.

To select multiple markups for deletion, select the Toggle multi select option at the top-right corner of the markup window.

Creating a box markup

9. Select the Box Markup button from the Tools "Pill" Menu.

10. Click and release on a point of interest, then follow the prompts at the top of the Viewer interface as shown below.

11. Press and hold your finger on a point of interest in the BubbleView; then drag follow the prompts at the top of the Viewer interface as shown below.

    

    When markups are committed to the database, they appear in the Properties Panel and turn green in the BubbleView.

    Markups are created in the group that is currently selected in the Properties Panel. If no group is selected in the Properties Panel, the markup is created at the top-level 3D Markups node.

12. To delete the markup, select Delete.

13. To edit the markup, select Edit.

    You can rename the Markup and edit the labels/URLs associated with the Markup. You can also change the Markup colour.

14. To add a new label/URL, simply enter the information in the Enter Label or URL field and press Enter.

15. To delete a label/URL, select the cross next to that label/URL.

16. To add link text to a URL, simply enter the text to be displayed and select Add.

    Please note that URL text shortening is not available for projects hosted on Desktop.

17. When the desired changes have been made, select Submit to commit these changes to the project. To exit this dialog without committing any changes, select Cancel or select the cross at the top-right-corner of the dialog.

Editing a markup

To edit a Markup once it has been created:

18. Right-click on the desired markup. Alternatively, select the arrow next to the markup in the Properties Panel and then select Edit. This applies to both box and point Markups.

    

19. Tap and hold, then release on the desired Markup.

    

    This displays arrows on the faces of the selected markup.

    

    Choose between resizing and repositioning the markup by using the buttons at the bottom-right of the interface.

20. Click and release the arrow corresponding the face you wish to edit. Moving the mouse cursor will move/resize the markup in the specified direction. Click to finish.

    Further adjustments can be made at this point in the same manner. When you are happy with the new size/position, click away from the markup to commit to the project database.

21. To cancel editing, press Esc or right-click to return to the original markup size and position.

22. Tap and drag on the arrow corresponding the face you wish to edit. Release to finish.

    Further adjustments can be made at this point in the same manner. When you are happy with the new size/position, tap away from the markup to commit to the project database.

23. To cancel editing, press/tap on the blue X on the callout at the top of the screen to return to the original markup size and position.

    

Markup display in the floorplan

Markups/Fast Tags can be quickly identified in the floorplan. Users double-clicking/tapping on a Markup in the Properties Panel will be able to identify all the close scans to that object. This makes the process of finding individual Markups/tags on often large complex facilities straightforward.

Simply click/tap on the nearest viewpoint to view the Markup.

External document, URL and drawing linking

Markups can be assigned external links to documents and URLs either in AVEVA Point Cloud Manager or directly in Viewer. Users can quickly call up inspection method sheets, diagrams, or equipment specification information. Several external links can be applied to a single 3D Markup to aid the different sets of people reviewing a particular item.

To add a link to a Markup:

24. Select Edit at the side of the markup name in Properties Panel. Enter in the desired URL and select the Add button to commit this to the project database.

25. To add link text to a URL, enter the text to be displayed and select Add.

26. When the desired changes have been made, select Submit to commit these changes to the project. To exit this dialog without committing any changes, select Cancel or select the cross at the top-right-corner of the dialog.

    The link will appear under the specified Markup with a yellow link icon next to it. Clicking on any of the links (when not in editing mode) opens the link in a new tab.

27. To remove a URL, select the X at the end of the URL when in editing mode and select Submit.

    Note: Any invalid URLs will be displayed in red.

Adding photos to markup

When a Markup has been created, photos can be added to the Markup to help the user see more detailed information.

To attach photos to a Markup:

28. Select the markup in the Properties Panel and select the +New button. This opens a file browser where you can select the images you wish to upload to the selected Markup.

29. Select OK to upload the selected images. Currently supported formats are: .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .ico, .bmp, and .jfif.

    Note that you can select multiple images at once.

    When uploaded, a thumbnail of each image is displayed when the Markup is selected in the sidebar. Selecting an image in the sidebar opens the image in the Viewer interface.

30. To expand the image size to the full Viewer view size or the full image size (whichever is smaller), click on the Maximize button. When maximized, select Restore Down to return the image to its previous size.

31. To close the image window, simply select the × at the top-right corner.

    Please note that viewing attached images is not available when using a Viewer offline session.

    Please note that this feature is not available when projects are hosted on Desktop.

You can also add videos of the formats .mp4 and .mov with a size limit of less than 100 MB. The procedure to add videos is the same as that of adding photos to a markup.

Deleting photos/videos from markups

To delete a photo or a video from a Markup, select Delete and then select Yes on the confirmation dialog to confirm you wish to delete the selected photo or video. The thumbnail will then be removed from the sidebar.

Grouping markups and tags

The Properties Panel will support the Markup hierarchy set by the administration team. This requires access to the primary dataset through an AVEVA Point Cloud Manager session. The illustration below shows the presence of a Markup category.

It is desirable to configure several repositories to store categorized markups. This could reflect the needs of differing users of Viewer, ranging from inspectors; maintenance operatives; designers and operations staff. Alternatively, design annotations could be compartmentalized into structural; HVAC; electrical and piping etc. If a grouping structure is not adopted, all the markups & Fast Tags will be listed at the same level in the Properties Panel.

When creating new Markups inside Viewer, the markup is created in whichever group is currently active in the Properties Panel. If no Markup group is active or if a Measurement group is active, newly created markups are created at the top level of the 3D Markups in the Properties Panel.

Markup labels

All Markups can be assigned labels. These can be added directly in Viewer or by interaction with the primary project through an AVEVA Point Cloud Manager session. Labels enable users to add important additional information to a 3D Markup. Labels can be seen as work lists that require user input/action. They are searchable and simple to use.

There are many different use case scenarios for these. Two examples are listed below.

Predefined markups and labels by a project administration team using AVEVA Point Cloud Manager

Maintenance and Inspection. All process valves are marked up and assigned several labels. These range from ‘condition’, ‘inspection date’, ‘operational status’, and ‘manufacturer’. Personnel conducting site visits can search for relevant labels; locate in the images and on site; then clear or alter the relevant states of these items. These will then be synchronised with the project database upon return.

Field markups by staff visiting site

A Maintenance Engineer is conducting a routine site walkthrough. An anomaly was witnessed which may develop into a serious incident if not rectified. The item was located in the Viewer BubbleView and a Markup was made. This was then given an ‘anomaly’ attribute, and ‘severity’. These are then collated and actioned by project staff when committed to the annotation database upon return.

Adding labels

32. Select Edit on the Markup being labelled.

    The markup expands to allow the user to add all necessary labels. Viewer supports single or multiple labels within the project.

33. Select Enter Label or URL, then type the required name/description. To commit the label to the Viewer project database select Add or press Enter on the keyboard.

34. If several labels need to be added at the same time it is preferable to follow this workflow:

    1. Type label > [Enter]

    2. Type label > [Enter]

    3. Type label > [Enter] etc.

    

35. Then select Submit. This will keep all interactions local until all the labels are uploaded to the primary project database in one pass. When the project database has been updated, the labels are displayed with the marked-up item.

Inspection example workflow

• Search for inspection items for this site visit.

• Select the name of the parent Markup and locate in the floorplan.

• Using the floorplan as a guide, walk to the item to perform the inspection. Then call a near BubbleView from the Viewer project and look at the requirements described by the labels and/or external linked documentation.

• For the example above: if the inspection was passed, the inspector could add an inspection completed/date/recharged label or additional information to be passed back to the project coordinator. These can then be actioned by the correct personnel or linked through to external Asset Management Systems as appropriate.

Markup categories

To support better markup visibility and to improve the ability to perform inspection tasks, Viewer enables you to organise your markups into different category types. You also have the ability to add icons to each category type. However, you must have Administrator permissions to create categories and category groups.

After you have created your markups, you can assign a category to each markup through the 3D Markups tab at the top-level node in the Properties Panel by selecting the Category drop-down arrow as shown below.

Your category is displayed in the BubbleView at the center of your markup.

The background colour against the category name indicates the group that it belongs to.

To create a category/category group:

36. In the Properties Panel, select the Categories node.

    

37. Then, select the Add icon against the Categories node.

    

38. In the Create categories window that is displayed, you have the option of creating a category under a new group or under an existing group.

    

    Viewer enables the option of assigning a background colour for each of your categories. You can also select an icon for each category from the Search icons drop-down list.

39. After you have entered all the details,select the Create button. You will then be able to view your category under the specified group. You can also drag and drop each category in between groups.

40. To filter the categories, turn off/on the check-box against a category/category group.

41. To edit or delete a category, select the three dots icon.