If you keep an eye out on the Labs site you will have noticed that we have released a tool which can classify, create a Civil 3D ground surface and also extract linework.
http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/civil3d_pointcloud
It is a Labs project, i.e. it is not ready for full production use but we want your feedback.
I have been looking at this over the past couple of months as it came together and trying out a number of datasets which my friends at Leica, Faro and Topcon have supplied to me. Big thanks to them for their time and use of their kit.
AutoCAD Civil 3D has the the fullest connection to point clouds in the Autodesk range and can support many industry file formats.
Here is a sample of point clouds from those equipment manufacturers.
NOTE: These samples were done not necessarily for production use and quality can depend on the extra time used to scan for longer, more setups etc.
Leica
Tricky thing with this one was a line of parked cars along the road edge, the scan was shot from the park on the left side with only a couple of setups
Using the Labs tool to ground filter and create a surface
Nice and clean surface without cars in the way.
Faro
This one shows up better in grey scale
Result after the ground filter tool and surface created
Topcon
This one has been done using their mobile scanner on a motorway, which is really the best way to scan without possession or traffic management in place.
Passing traffic, street lighting etc all removed after using the ground filter tool
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Please give it a try and feedback via the Labs site.
Jack Strongitharm
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