Gexcel tools app | © 2003 - 2013 European Commission. All rights reserved

MANUAL AUTOMATIC REGISTRATION TOOLS APP

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Manual

3 ©2003 -2013 European Commission. All rights reserved

Manual

Introduction

The Automatic Alignment Tools APP is designed to automatically and very accurately register your FARO

Focus scans without the usage of any sphere or target. A user friendly wizard will guide you from the data

import to the final quality control phase.

Moreover the Automatic Alignment tools APP provides a set of tools to register complex projects,

organizing your scans per group, and it provides you with all the functionalities to geo-reference your scans

in a global reference system.

Benefits

The Automatic Alignment Tools APP speeds up the scanning phase when you don't need to set

sphere or targets

The Automatic Alignment Tools APP highly improves your productivity in the initial and

fundamental phase of aligning and geo-referencing your scans.

The Automatic Alignment Tools APP runs a bundle adjustment with all the scans to minimize the

global registration error among points.

The Automatic Alignment Tools APP allows to efficiently manage scan geo-referencing using

external reference points or knowing the scans positions.

The Automatic Alignment Tools APP provides a pdf reports of the alignment process. With the

report by scan pair sorted by error, you can verify the registration for each scan pair, and, in case of

large error, identify exactly where the misalignment occurs.

Important reminders

Scanning strategy: to exploit appropriately the power of the APP, we suggest to acquire your scans

ensuring an overlap of at least 30% between one scan and another. The logic to adopt during the

acquisition is that the scans should have common features in the overlapping parts. The time spent

in the field will be fully recovered during the automatic alignment process. To properly organize

your scanning job, see also the LineUp Note APP described in the point below.

Connection with other Gexcel APPs:

o the Automatic Alignment Tools APP can be perfectly integrated with the Volume and

Isolines Tools APP. With the combination of the two APPs, you can start from the raw fls

data, align, geo-reference, create DTMs and calculate volume and cut&fill in a single,

complete workflow.

o To support your scanning activity on field, you can also use the LineUp Notes, available on

the Apple iStore. On your IPad you can control your FARO Laser scanner, import plan views

of your site, notes scans positions and share the on field project with the Automatic

Alignment Tools APP. LineUp Notes speeds up the automatic registration process especially

in complex and large environments.

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Connection with FARO Scene: the Automatic Alignment APP starts from raw *.fls data. The aligned

scan can be imported back in FARO Scene in E57 format to be used for example to enter in SCENE

WebShare . You can also import scans aligned in FARO Scene and run the bundle adjustment.

Free DEMO of Construction module: when you install and license the Automatic Alignment Tools

APP, clicking "Go to Reconstructor" in the main menu bar, you can test free for 1

month all the functionalities of JRC 3D Reconstructor COSTRUCTION, the perfect solution for

surveyors involved in building, architectonical and construction projects.

System requirements: if you run the APP on a laptop with 2 graphic cards (a default one, and a high

performance one), if the following warning appears, please verify to run the APP with the high

performance one. You can click on the APP icon and choose to run the application with the high

performance graphic card and/or change the graphic card setting to include the APP.

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How to install

Download the AUTOMATIC_REGISTRATION_TOOLS.exe from the APP main page or from the following link

Copy locally the executable and press on it. The installation wizard starts:

Click Next to proceed.

Please accept the term of the License Agreement and press next.

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Select the installation folder or (suggested) leave the default one, then click Next to go on.

Choose the default start menu folder and press Next. The installation starts automatically; at the end of the

process press Finish.

The following icon will appear in your desktop to run the APP.

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How to license the APP

Run the software by pressing the icon on your desktop .

The following window appears:

You can alternatively open the demo project by pressing "Open project"

or to create a new empty project, pressing "New project" and then "Browse" to select a new folder where

saving the project. Create and select a new folder; the project will have the name of the defined folder.

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The software starts as a free viewer. Press "Help"->"License manager" from the top menubar.

When you are in the "License Manager" press "Activate product key..."

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and insert the code you have received when you have purchased the APP in the Activation window.

Please remember to be on line with your PC during the activation phase.

If the activation is successful the following message appears "License activated successfully".

In case of activation problems please go back to the "License Manager" and press "Create .c2v license file"

and choose "Install new SL key".

The APP generates a *.c2v file.

Please sent to support@gexcel.it :

the *.v2c file

the activation code you have received at the APP purchase

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Input/Output

The APP import raw *.fls files before any process in FARO Scene.

If you are using *.fls processed in FARO SCENE, please remember to save the SCENE project and

possibly to compact all revisions into one single revision in order use the *.fls with the latest

changes (in FARO SCENE see "Clean Up and Compact Scan Project" command)

Geo-referencing coordinates can be imported in *.txt format

The aligned scans can be exported in E57 to go back in FARO Scene, or you can further elaborate

your data using the Volume and Isolines Tools APP.

Step by step video tutorial

To rapidly learn how to use the APP we suggest to download the demo data set from the following link:

Raw *fls data (530 KB)

Demo project (2.5 Gb)

A video tutorial describes how to use the App for Automatic Registration to align your FARO Focus raw

data, in few guided steps, and without any target, sphere or reference point.

1. As first step, we will show how to create a new project and import your fls files.

2. As second step, we will show how to automatically pre-process the clouds to prepare the data for

the automatic alignment.

3. The third step explains how to move all scans in a state of coarse registration without any target,

sphere or reference point.

4. The fourth step shows how to interactively control the quality of the previous pre-registration step,

by comparing pre-aligned scans pair by pair.

5. As fifth step, you will learn how to run the final fine registration including a global bundle

adjustment.

6. Finally, in the last step you will learn how to interpret the final registration report and evaluate the

registration quality.

Step by step video tutorial