How to quickly get up and running with ColourCloud
Product Description
ColourCloud has been developed in-house by NCTech Ltd. ColourCloud is set to redefine your workflow for colourising scan data. It's Fast, Precise and works with ALL scanners that support E57.
Key Features
- Works with scans from all models of laser scanners supporting the E57 format, including Leica, Trimble and Faro
- HDR (High dynamic range)
- Precision imaging - extreme accuracy
- Fast capture and process speeds
- Improved workflow - quick and easy to use
System Requirements
ColourCloud runs on Windows 64 bit operating systems only. OSX is not supported at this time.
Minimal configuration:
- 64 Bit Operating system:
- Microsoft Windows 10, 8, or 7
- Processor: Core i5
- RAM: 4 Gb
- Display: resolution of 1024x768 minimum
- A sufficient hard disk space depending on the size of the panoramas you process
Recommended configuration:
- 64 Bit Operating system:
- Microsoft Windows 10, 8 or 7
- Processor: Core i7
- RAM: 8 Gb or more
Welcome to ColourCloud
iSTAR is designed to be easy to use with as minimal operator involvement as possible and this philosophy carries over to ColourCloud. The ColourCloud "Getting Started" guide will cover the basic operations of the software.
Note: Please consult the ColourCloud User Manual for a complete guide to using ColourCloud.
In this guide we'll show you how to:
- Import Data
- Process Data
Download ColourCloud
If you haven't already done so, download the latest version of ColourCloud here: Download Colourcloud
Install ColourCloud
Double click the "Setup-NCTech-ColourCloud" application to launch the ColourCloud Installer:
License Agreement
Once you've read and accepted the license agreement, click the "I accept the Agreement" radio button and click "Next" to continue:
Desktop Icon
If you wish to create a desktop icon, click the "Create a desktop icon" checkbox and click "Next" to continue:
Ready to Install
You can now review the install options. When ready, click "Install" to continue:
Finish Install
Once the installation has finished, you can launch ColourCloud. Click "Finish" to launch Colourcloud:
Using ColourCloud
Once ColourCloud starts, you are presented with the main screen:
Folder Structure
ColourCloud needs the following files to be in each folder you wish to process:
- The source E57 file
- The associated iSTAR .nctri file
- The associated iSTAR .yml file
Here's a typical folder containing the data needed:
As you can see, there are three files in this example folder:
- 20140917-185347.nctri - This is the source iSTAR file
- NCT-IS10053.yml - This is the .yml file that is generated at the same time as the source iSTAR file
- Office - This is the source E57 scan data file
The source E57 file is produced by exporting to E57 format a single scan position from within your chosen point cloud editing application. The key point to remember when exporting your scan data to E57 is to include the black and white "intensity map" or "greyscale" in the E57 export. Here's an example of how to do this using FARO Scene: How to export to E57 from FARO Scene
Note: Please consult your own chosen point cloud software application for detailed instructions on how to do this.
Import data
There are two ways to import data into ColourCloud:
- Use the "Browse" button to locate the folder containing data you wish to process
- Drag and drop a folder containing data you wish to process onto the Colourcloud application window.
Once you've selected the folder you wish to process it's pathname will appear at the top of the ColourCloud main screen.
Simply click the "Process" button to process the data.
Processing Data
As ColourCloud starts to process the data, you will see the lower progress bar turn green and there is a progress text log showing what is happening.
The time to process depends on a number of factors:
- Size of source scan E57 file
- Exposure mode of source iSTAR data, i.e. HDR Off, HDR 3 or HDR Auto
- CPU and Memory of PC
Finished Processing
Once the processing has finished, ColourCloud will ask if you wish to clear the message window.
Click "Yes" to clear the window in order to process a new folder. Click "No" if you wish to first review the progress text log.
Additional Files
Open the folder you just processed.
You will see a number of additional files were created by ColourCloud. In our example folder we can see the following additional files:
- CClog-20150208-101146 - This is a text file copy of the processing log for the folder
- ColourCloud.nctdi - This is an error log for use by NCTech Support
- Office-iSTAR - This is the new ColourCloud generated colourised E57 file
- Office-iSTAR.png - This is a spherical panorama created by ColourCloud
View Data
You can now import the colourised E57 file into your chosen point cloud software application to see the iSTAR colourised point cloud:
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