Graphic Objects

Through this panel the user can insert various types of objects in the 3D scene.

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Figure 53 Graphic Objects panel

Using the “Visible” property the user can check the visibility of all the objects placed in the scene. Each inserted object is automatically positioned at the origin of the three axes (0,0,0). Through the table X-Y-Z it is possible to change this, making a Translation (to translate the origin to a different point in space), a Rotation (rotation in degrees around each axis) or using a Scale tool (useful if there is the necessity to emphasize one dimension or to work with many objects of different dimensions). Clicking with the right mouse button on the Graphic Objects submenu, it is possible to load an object saved in a personal folder, using the Load button, or to insert one of the available objects through the Insert Object button. In this case a panel with a list of tools will appear, as shown in Figure 54.

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Figure 54 Objects available for the insertion in 3D scene

Data Folder

It is possible to create and to save some custom objects using a combination of the other simple objects. Insert a new “Data Folder” through Insert Object. A new node “Graphic Object” will be added to the tree menu (Figure 55). This method is a way to group together more objects and manage them with a simple click (for example they can all be shown/hidden with one click, or they can moved just editing a single rototranslation panel).

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Figure 55 Graphic Object node added to the menu

In the following example a house is created using one cube, one pyramid and 2 images. The Image is a photo of a front of a house; in this example it is used two times, to cover two sides of the cube. The setting of each object used to make the house as shown in Figure 56.

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Figure 56 Example of creation of custom object

Once the new object is created, it is possible to give to it an appropriate name through the setting panel (“House” in this example) and to save it through the “Save As” menu option which appears by clicking with the right mouse button on the object name (Figure 57).

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Figure 57 Saving new created object

This way the user can load it again for further projects using the appropriate menu option “Load” in the object menu. This is a very useful instrument, which lets to customize the project with personal photos of the survey area (for example, the building facade of the investigate site to which the project refers to, creating a real aspect of the studied area).

Image

This tool (Figure 58) lets the user import an image from an image file in common formats such as bmp, jpg, png, etc. A new node will be added at the tree menu (one new node for each created object).

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Figure 58 Detail of sub-node “Data” panel, property of “image”

Through the box “Name” it is possible to give a name to the object (“geostudi” in this example). The transparency of the image is editable through the “Transparency” slider. It is possible to rototranslate the image through the appropriate table (setting the Position, the Rotation and the Scale of the displayed object) or manually through the Pick button (see Rototranslation).

Geographic Map Image

Warning

Feature not available in the basic license; included in the “Graphics pack” add-on.

This tool let the user to plot a map in the 3D scene.

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Figure 59 Geographic Map Image example

A map downloader is opened to select the right region to be plotted.

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Figure 60 Map downloader

It is possible to select the “Map type” to get different type of images from specific sources. See the text file “Map.txt” in the installation folder.

The “Latitude” and “Longitude” can be set manually editing the displayed numbers, or, more easily, it can be translated the map with the left mouse button. The little black cross plot at the centre of the map is the point provided.

The “Zoom Level” can be set in a wide range, moving the slider, or using the mouse wheel on the image.

In real time the “Latitude” and “Longitude” (that are in degrees) are also converted in UTM metric coordinates and showed in the window.

Increasing the “Definition” it will be possible to get larger images. Note that the default map tile is 256x256 pixel, and at each increment of the “Definition” the image map will be one tile larger than before.

Pressing the “Ok” button it will ask to save the map as an image on the computer. The name used it will be the name of the new node created in the tree.

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Figure 61 Geographic Map Image properties

The main parameters are similar to the ones that can be also found with the tool Image.

It will always be possible to modify the map pressing the “Edit” button to go back to the map downloader.

DXF

It is possible to import a CAD file (*.DXF format) selecting the appropriate button in the Insert Object menu. The CAD file is the only object which is automatically located in its real coordinates and not in the origin. The dxf format is very complex and constantly improving, so it possible to import just the basic elements as points, lines, poly-lines, arcs, circles, and text (and blocks made from these items); more complex objects are not imported nor represented. However, this tool is very powerful and can be used in many situations.

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Figure 62 Example of dxf; in red, electrodes

Shape

From here it is possible to insert several 3D object in the scene, see the following options.

Label

It is possible to insert some labels as words, text or numbers in the scene (Figure 63).

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Figure 63 Detail of sub-node “Graphic Object” panel, property of “Label”

As for the objects explained before, it is possible to set the Transparency of the object, the Colour, the Size, the Position in X, Y and Z, to control the visibility of the label, and to give it a Name (“Label” in the example) by writing it in the appropriate space. It is also possible to rototranslate the label manually through the Pick button, see above.

Plane

It is possible to insert a plane in the scene through the appropriate button in the Insert Object menu (Figure 64).

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Figure 64 Plane Panel

As for all the objects explained before, it is possible to set the Transparency, Colour, Size, Position in X, Y and Z, Visibility, and to Name the object (“Plane” in the example). It is also possible to rototranslate the plane manually through the Pick button as explained before.

Cube

It is possible to insert a cube (Figure 65) in the scene through the proper button in the Insert Object menu.

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Figure 65 Cube panel

As for all the objects explained before, it is possible to set the Transparency, Colour, Size, Position in X, Y and Z, Visibility, and to Name the object (“Cube” in the example). It is also possible to rototranslate the plane manually through the Pick button as explained before.

Sphere

It is possible to insert a sphere (Figure 66) in the scene through the proper button in the Insert Object menu.

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Figure 66 Sphere Panel

As for all the objects explained before, it is possible to set the Transparency, Colour, Size, Position in X, Y and Z, Visibility, and to Name the object (“Sphere” in the example). It is also possible to rototranslate the plane manually through the Pick button as explained before.

Cylinder

It is possible to insert a cylinder (Figure 67) in the scene through the proper button in the Insert Object menu.

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Figure 67 Cylinder Panel

As for all the objects explained before, it is possible to set the Transparency, Colour, Size, Position in X, Y and Z, Visibility, and to Name the object (“Cylinder” in the example). It is also possible to rototranslate the plane manually through the Pick button as explained before.

Cone

It is possible to insert a cone (Figure 68) in the scene through the appropriate button in the Insert Object menu.

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Figure 68 Cone Panel

As for all the objects explained before, it is possible to set the Transparency, Colour, Size, Position in X, Y and Z, Visibility, and to Name the object (“Cone” in the example). It is also possible to rototranslate the plane manually through the Pick button as explained before.

Pyramid

It is possible to insert a cone (Figure 69) in the scene through the appropriate button in the Insert Object menu.

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Figure 69 Pyramid panel

As for all the objects explained before, it is possible to set the Transparency, Colour, Size, Position in X, Y and Z, Visibility, and to Name the object (“Pyramid” in the example). It is also possible to rototranslate the plane manually through the Pick button as explained before.

Grid

It is possible to insert a grid (Figure 70) in the scene; it is useful to have a reference for the objects, similar to the “Axes”.

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Figure 70 Grid Panel

In addition to the usual setting of Visibility, Transparency, Colour, and Rototranslation there is the option to set the Orientation of the grid and the Number of cell to insert in two dimensions (inside the dashed red line in Figure 71).

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Figure 71 Grid panel

By selecting one of the 3 options available in “Orientation” (3 primary plans “XY”, “XZ” or “YZ”) it is possible to choose the plane on which to visualize the grid, as shown in Figure 72.

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Figure 72 Different orientation of the grid in the 3D space

To set the size of the grid use the slider or insert the number of grid boxes (10 by default) manually between the minimum dimension of 1 box to the maximum dimension of 100 boxes. The relative minimum and maximum value for the grid box number selection can be set (in orange in Figure 73) by writing the corresponding number in the dedicated boxes. This way the user can change the limiting values of the slider from their defaults 1 and 100 to the new selected values.

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Figure 73 Changing maximum and minimum values

For example, if the minimum size should be 15 and the maximum 60, writing this numbers in the boxes the slider will show 15 as the minimum value when it is totally on the left, 60 as maximum value when it is totally on the right, and any intermediate value of the sliding bar (Figure 74).

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Figure 74 Example of setting of minimum and maximum number of cells

The two dimensions are separately editable (Number of dim1 and dim2 cells in Figure 75).

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Figure 75 Example of number of cells setting in the two dimensions

Axes

This node has exactly the same functionalities of the global node Axes. The main benefits of using this option rather than the global one are:

  • it is possible to have multiple axes to the same 3D scene without the need to edit a single node more times to achieve a similar result

  • it is here possible to save/load all node settings to/from file

  • inserting axes into an inner (not global) Graphic Object node (like the one into an ERT project node) helps to have automatically saved its settings together with the project saving step.

Core Sample

Warning

Feature not available in the basic license; included in the “Graphics pack” add-on.

It is possible to insert a core sample in the scene as shown in Figure 76. A sequence of vertical cylinders are drawn to show the core in the 3D scene.

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Figure 76 Core Sample panel

The properties available are, as usual, Visibility, Name, Transparency. It is also possible to set the Position of the top of the core, and the diameter of the cylinders (see Size). The given Name will be also plot in the 3D scene near the top of the core, the font Colour and Size can be set (see Label group).

To customize the Core Sample it is possible to use some tools available right clicking on the node.

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Figure 77 Core Sample edit tools

From Figure 77 it can be noted that one option is to open and edit a table to set the properties of each layer. The tables can be used to set a thickness and a colour to each layer. It is also possible to set names, that are globally managed by the software, so they can be shared between multiple nodes to easily link the same colour to the same type of material.

The buttons at the bottom of the panel are for Append a new item at the end of the table, or to Delete all the currently selected rows.

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Figure 78 Core Sample Table

From Figure 77 it can be note that other options to edit the Core Sample are an Import / Export from/to text files. The format of the text file is like the example below, where the information are listed in three columns, that describes “Thickness”, “Name” and “Colour” for each layer.

3   "Clay"        "#0000FF"
5   "Sandstone"   "#00FF00"
15  "Stone"       "#FF0000"

Point Cloud

Warning

Feature not available in the basic license; included in the “Graphics pack” add-on.

It is possible to insert in the 3D scene a cloud of points that can represent many type of information, like a DTM (Digital Terrain Model) data for the field surface topography description, or a LaserScan dataset for a 3D view of the surrounding scenario.

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Figure 79 Point Cloud panel

The properties available are, as usual, Visibility, Name, Transparency. It is possible to set the point Colour to an homogeneous one, or, if available, to use the colour provided provided for each point (see Use Colormap flag). It is possible to set the Size (in pixel) of each point. In addition to (or as an alternative to) the point visualization it is also possible to interpolate all the provided points with a surface (that can also be smoothed, if desired). It is possible to rototranslate the Point Cloud through the appropriate table (setting the Position, the Rotation and the Scale of the displayed object) or manually through the Pick button (see Rototranslation).

When trying to create this kind of node it is asked to select a file from the computer and to select the type of import, as shown in Figure 80. The selected file needs to be in text format, usually in numeric format only, with many lines as the number of points to be loaded, and the correct number of columns according to the type of import selected.

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Figure 80 Type of import

  • XY for flat point list (Z is assumed equal to 0). The number of columns required in the text file is 2. An homogeneous colour will be applied to all the points.

  • XV (V) for flat point list (Z is assumed equal to 0). It will be also managed an additional value (V) for each point, that will be related to the point colour. The number of columns required in the text file is 3.

  • XY (RGB) for flat point list (Z is assumed equal to 0). It will be also managed three additional values for each point, with RGB (red-green-blue) format, that will explicitly describe the point colour. The number of columns required in the text file is 5.

  • XYZ for 3D point list. The number of columns required in the text file is 3. An homogeneous colour will be applied to all the points.

  • XYZ V for 3D point list. It will be also managed an additional value (V) for each point, that will be related to the point colour. The number of columns required in the text file is 4.

  • XYZ V=Z for 3D point list. It will be also managed an additional value (V) for each point, that will be related to the point colour. That V values will be an implicit copy of the Z values. The number of columns required in the text file is 4.

  • XYZ RGB for 3D point list. It will be also managed three additional values for each point, with RGB (red-green-blue) format, that will explicitly describe the point colour. The number of columns required in the text file is 6.

Note that when the additional scalar value (V) is provided together the point position is then created also the sub-node Colour Scale to customize how the value needs to be rendered as colour.

In Figure 81 some rendering examples starting from a similar dataset:

  • A shows an XY V flat Point Cloud, with colours

  • B shows an XYZ 3D Point Cloud, without colours

  • C shows an XYZ V 3D Point Cloud, with colours

  • D shows an XYZ V 3D Point Cloud, with colours and interpolated into a surface

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Figure 81 Point Cloud examples