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Lidar Meshes
SynthEyes imports Lidar data from set surveys as described above, from XYZ or PTS files, which are equivalent formats. The files can contain not only XYZ data for millions of vertices, but RGB color information for each vertex as well. The vertices will be displayed in the viewports as a point cloud.
Tip : Use File/Import/Mesh to read XYZ or PTS lidar files.
Typical GIS-type lidar files use Z- coordinate data, so SynthEyes assumes that by default. To process files with other axis settings, select the appropriate setting on the lidar import settings panel (see the preference in the Meshes section). Note that the setting for the lidar file is independent of the setting of your scene! Data will be converted if necessary.
Lidar files will automatically be re-centered if they are too lopsided, ie the average offset is much larger than the bounding box of the data. Lopsided files cause numeric inaccuracy, and can be hard to find in the viewports and hard to work with in general. If you are reading lidar in sections, or otherwise need to disable this, turn off the Re-center lopsided Lidar checkbox (there is a preference for this in the Meshes section).
Tip : If you read a lidar file with re-centering turned off and don't see it, click control-shift-HOME and look in the viewports for a tiny dot that is your scene. You can then zoom in on it. In the perspective view, click control-F.
Lidar files will be decimated automatically to maintain a maximum vertex count set from the Decimate to Mpnts spinner (see the Lidar vertex limit target preference in the Meshes section). You can choose a random decimation style or a patterned every-N style, only in the preferences.
Use decimation to control the number of points input and displayed. Large numbers of points will severely impact performance. The default 10 million points will generally maintain reasonable performance, while still giving a very dense point cloud.
Although Lidar data does not contain facets, you can use the Edit Mesh tools in the perspective view to create facets from the vertices, if your task requires it. Use well- positioned clipping planes to control the Lasso Vertices tool while triangulating lidar data (any SynthEyes-generated plane will do—Lasso Vertices won't look behind it/them).
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