Builder App for FARO SCENE
Contents
Installation ................................................................................................................................................ 2
Before Running the App............................................................................................................................ 2
Activating the App..................................................................................................................................... 5
Creating Monitoring Points ....................................................................................................................... 6
Calculate Steel Camber ............................................................................................................................. 8
Using the Debris Filter............................................................................................................................. 12
Creating Colorized Topographic Maps .................................................................................................... 13
Create Topographic Contours ................................................................................................................. 16
Changing the viewing elevation of objects ............................................................................................. 17
Using the Layers ...................................................................................................................................... 17
Exporting to the DXF format ................................................................................................................... 18
Changing Settings.................................................................................................................................... 18
Updating.................................................................................................................................................. 19
Frequently Asked Questions ................................................................................................................... 19
Feedback is always welcome! ................................................................................................................. 20
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
Installation
1. To install the FPP file, you must first make sure that you have the latest version of SCENE (5.3+).
If you do not have the latest version, you may download it here. To check which version you
have, go to Help>About SCENE and read the SCENE Version number.
2. Once you have verified that you have the latest version of SCENE, run
RithmSoftwareInstaller.exe, and choose the app(s) you’d like to download and install.
Before Running the App
Prior to running the app, make sure you’ve done the following to ensure a fast and more reliable
performance:
1. Delete Scan Point Clouds – Although Scan Point clouds may be an important part of the registration
process, they will prevent the Rithm Apps from functioning properly (due to issues with the Scene
API; it’s out of our control at the moment). You will know that you have Scan Point Clouds if you see
clouds next to your individual scans
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
To remove them, right click on your scans folder>Operations>Point Cloud Tools>Delete Scan
Point Clouds
2. Create a PROJECT point cloud – Click on the Create Project Point cloud button icon near the top of
your screen
in order to create a combined point cloud for the purpose of having a clean
data set. When you create a project point cloud, it would be wise to eliminate duplicate points, and
homogenize point density, to ensure fast and efficient performance, without harming the quality of
your data. This process may take a while, depending on the number of scans you have.
3. Unload All Scans – Make sure you’ve unloaded scans from memory, if they haven’t already been
automatically unloaded after the project point cloud creation process. To ensure they are all
unloaded, right click on your scans folder and click “Unload All Scans and Pictures”. If this is greyed
out, then you are good to go.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
4. Activate 3D view – All interaction with the plugins will happen in 3D view (not quick-view, due to
limitations with the Scene API; it’s out of our control at the moment). After you’ve created your
project point cloud, click on the “3D” icon
located near the top of your screen. Having a 3D
mouse while using these apps will come in handy and increase your productivity.
5. Create a Clipping Box – Most data sets have large amounts of data, such as trees, walls, ceilings, or
even adjacent buildings, which you might want to leave out for your analysis. Keeping this data in
the 3D view while using the apps will lead to very long processing times, as the apps will have to
search through the entire point cloud for information. To ensure efficiency and make sure you can
work efficiently without having to wait very long to produce deliverables, create a Clipping box
that isolates the area of interest (the smaller, the better).
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
You will be clicking on points within the 3D view. Once you’ve created your clipping box and isolated
your area, be sure to make the clipping box not “visible” by right clicking on the clipping box on the left
side of your screen in the structure window, and un-check the “Visible” option. Otherwise, when you
click on objects within the 3D view, you will inadvertently be activating the clipping box properties
window.
6. Hide Scan objects – You should have finished registering and rotating your scans to control at this
point, so you won’t need to see your targets or spheres or scan locations for the purpose of analysis.
Since you will be clicking on areas within the 3D view, having these objects visible will get in the way
of your clicking. To hide these objects, go to visibility settings
uncheck the objects and hit OK.
near the top of your window, and
Activating the App
When you open 3D view, the app toolbar will appear. You will see a lock icon
the first time this
app runs, and will be required to activate the plugin prior to using any features. Click on the icon, and
enter your license in the screen. If you do not have a license and you need to obtain one, you may either
request a 7 day trial license, or purchase a license.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
Alternatively, you may request a 7 day trial license by entering your email and clicking “send”, which will
automatically create a request email if you have Microsoft Outlook installed on your computer.
Creating Monitoring Points
You may create a series of points on a surface to monitor its movement using the point creation
button. For example, if you want to examine the change in elevation of a concrete surface, or an
excavation, to determine how much grinding or excavation has occurred, you will create points on key
areas of a surface and compare those points, in the same XY locations, to a scan of the same area taken
at a different time.
First, give the points a common name, and the number you’d like it to start from
Then, start double clicking points in 3D view
If you would like to investigate the current Z elevation at points you choose, make sure that the
checkbox for Show Z is selected.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
You will notice that it may take a bit of processing time to find each point if you choose to show Z. This is
because the app is deriving a more accurate Z elevation by fitting a small plane to an average of points
within a 1” diameter circle of where you clicked, to ensure that the elevation is very accurate, and to
prevent “noisy” data from becoming a factor in this analysis. Ensuring accuracy is of utmost importance
in projects, especially if you’re going to be liable for the work done.
When you’ve completed the selection of areas you’d like to monitor, press SPACE on your keyboard to
end the command, or click on the
pressing SPACE or ENTER.
button again. Note: You may end most commands by either
You will then export the points you created in order to create a deviation analysis in the next scan
project. To export the points for this analysis, click on the export button
and select CSV-Monitoring
in the drop-down menu. Now browse for a folder to save the file, and click Export.
Now, open the second scan project that depicts the same area, but a later time.
Note: Since you will be comparing two scan projects, which would be scans of the same area at different
times. For the analysis to work, you must first make sure that the two scan projects are rotated exactly
to the same coordinate system, in order to locate the same locations.
In the second project, open the Builder toolbar, and go to the Analysis area
. Select “GroundMonitoring” from the drop-down menu, and browse for the file you exported earlier. After finding that
file, click on Import.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
The app will now search the same XY locations as in the previous scan, and determine the new Z
location. Then, the app will display how much the surface moved. You may now export these points out
to the DXF format for input into AutoCAD, Revit, or other modeling software.
Calculate Steel Camber
In this analysis, we will be able to determine the camber of the structural steel beam, by examining the
elevation at the bottom edges of the beam against the center elevation.
Before performing a Steel Camber Analysis, make sure you’ve isolated the structural beams using the
clipping box. Try your best to remove as much of the metal decking as possible, while also keeping a
little bit of the columns so you’ll be able to better gauge beams that begin and end at columns.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
Don’t worry about clipping out the web of the beams; The app is intelligent enough to automatically
locate the bottom surfaces of the beams for obtaining the elevations.
Use the Steel Camber Analysis button
to begin identifying which beams you’d like to analyze.
Double click on a point on the edge of the beam (about 1’-2’ offset from the edge to ensure you don’t
choose a column), then double click on the other edge, to create a line.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
You may hold SHIFT and double click on another beam, in order to draw another similar line that is of
the same length and orientation as your previously drawn beam. This will speed up the identification
process.
Continue to draw lines until you’ve identified all of the beams in the scan.
When you are done, it the SPACE button. Alternatively, you may hit the
un-pressed.
button to make the button
Now that you’ve identified the beams, go to the analysis area
and select
. After
the analysis is complete, you will see beam edges and beam centers identified at each beam you’ve
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
identified, as well as an associated camber (positive for an up-wards bent beam, negative for a sagging
beam).
From this point, you should check to see if any sagging beams are within design tolerance by comparing
the results to your structural drawings.
If you see something strange, such as a beam that is sagging more than it truly is, this may be due to a
point falling on a hanger, or a pipe being underneath or a piece of debris in the way. To fix this problem,
you may move the center location of the beam at any time by using the selection button
and hitting
the “Move” command, and double clicking to choose a new location. This will automatically re-calculate
the camber. In any analysis, you may encounter 2 or 3 anomalies, so it is always wise to double-check all
beams prior to creating the deliverable.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
Using the Debris Filter
Prior to using the point coloring or contouring tools, it would be wise to first filter out debris to prevent
false positives in your analysis. Debris would include any equipment or materials left on a surface during
your scan of a surface, or any vehicles or people who traveled through the scanner’s laser during the
duration of a scan. Filtering would be useful when creating contour maps or TIN files.
Example below:
To the left is what happens when you DO NOT filter out points. Notice that contour lines are created on
the debris, which is a challenge to remove in AutoCAD.
To the right is what happens after you filter out the points. Notice that the contour lines move straight
through the debris, as if you had manually removed the debris in Scene.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
Warning: Before activating filter, please make sure to create a clipping box around the area of interest.
The larger the clipping box, the longer the process may take.
First, you must activate the Filter
and enter settings. In the settings window, the Topography-Based
filtering numbers will divide the area into a grid, with a Grid Size of what you specify (in the settings
window shown, that's a 2'x2' grid), and within that grid, it will find any debris that suddenly jumps a
certain height. In the settings window shown, anything .04' (1/2") or higher on the surface will be
detected.
The "Fine-Cleaning" distance number will take it a step further by removing points within a .08' radius
(or 1") from the debris already found, so that you're assured the debris is completely removed from the
analysis.
Once you are happy with your settings, double click along the surface to enclose an area. Press ENTER to
close the area. All points detected as “debris” will be highlighted red. The points will be slightly raised by
on the surface for the purpose of viewing; otherwise, the red points would be invisible.
Now, these points will be ignored for analysis purposes.
Creating Colorized Topographic Maps
Warning: Before activating heatmap feature, please make sure to create a clipping box around the area
of interest. The larger the clipping box, the longer the process may take.
You can use the
button to colorize a floor based on the Z elevations (detect high and low).
1. DOUBLE CLICK on various points along a floor to create an area of the floor you’d like to create
the topographic map on.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
2. Press ENTER to close the polygon. Then give it a name so that you can re-run it again later with
different settings to suite your preferences. topo
3. You will then see the points colorized on the surface.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
From here, you can do several things:
a. Press the
again to stop drawing more topos.
b. Change the settings for the topo you just created. Go to settings
to open the
settings window. Go to the Topo tab, and you can create a new profile to change the
settings to your preference, or choose a different pre-set profile. Then hit “Re-Run” to
re-create the topo using the same boundaries you specified.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
c.
Create Topographic Contours
Warning: Before activating topographic contouring, please make sure to create a clipping box around
the area of interest. The larger the clipping box, the longer the process may take.
To create topographic contours, use the button
and do the following:
1. DOUBLE CLICK on areas on the floor to create an enclosed polygon. Press ENTER to close the
polygon, then give the contour a name so that you can alter it’s settings later.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
Changing the settings will be similar to the previous section.
Changing the viewing elevation of objects
You may notice that all objects drawn within the 3D view using the Builder plug-in will be placed at a
specific height above the point cloud. This is simply to allow viewing of the drawn objects without the
point cloud visually covering it up.
a. To toggle the visual placement of these objects, you may use the visual elevation icon
to
move a given layer up or down in Z elevation visually. For example, you may want to elevate
contours above a colored heat map (example below) Note: all exported objects will be drawn at
the exact Z elevation originally drawn within SCENE, not the elevated location which is purely for
visualization purposes.
Using the Layers
Everything you draw using the Builder tool will be associated with a layer. You can only change layers
when you are not currently executing a command.
1. Colors
can be edited. This will change the colors of all objects within a
given layer.
2. The currently selected layer will be the “active Layer”. Everything drawn will be associated with
the Active Layer. You may switch to another layer by selecting the drop-down menu, and you
may add additional layers.
3. Layer Visibility
– This window allows you to hide, unhide, or remove layers. You can select
multiple layers at a time by holding CTRL on your keyboard while selecting layers.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
Exporting to the DXF format
The Builder tool allows you to easily export all lines, text, points, etc. in their respective colors and layers
into the DXF format for use in your CAD applications.
1. Activate the export tool
2. Choose where you want to export the DWX file and hit “Export”
3. Open the file within your favorite CAD program (AutoCAD, Visual Statement, etc).
Changing Settings
You may change various settings that will affect the way your dimensions are shown, such as units and
precision.
Units supported: Feet-Inch-Fractions, US Survey Feet, Inches, Yards, Meters, Decimeters, Centimeters,
and Millimeters.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
Updating
If there is a new version available for the App, you will see a download arrow
appear on the very
right side of the toolbar. Follow the instructions in the updater to install the latest version of the app.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Question: My toolbar disappeared. How do I get it back?
Answer: Go to View>Toolbars> Builder to reactivate the toolbar if you accidentally closed it.
If that doesn’t work, go to Tools>apps and “de-activate” the app and “re-activate” it.
2. Why doesn’t the contouring function work?
Ensure that SCENE is running with full administrative privileges. To do this, right-click on your SCENE
shortcut (either in the start menu, or on your desktop), and go to properties. In the Compatibility
tab, make sure that “Run as Administrator” is checked. If you cannot check it, click on “Change
Settings for All Users” and ensure that “Run as Administrator” is checked.
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015
Feedback is always welcome!
Feel free to contact us anytime at [email protected] for the following:



If you run into any problems with using this App
Would like some guidance/training on this App or other SCENE/Laser Scanning related questions
You would like to request additional features
Builder App Instructions – Updated January 16th, 2015