I am trying to import point cloud files of my project so that I can make some transition videos between point cloud and modeled elements.
I am noticing several things:
- Point cloud does not import in the correct position. My TM scene is actually made from a Revit model, and this model has been georeferenced, so when it is linked to a scene it has the actual project elevation applied (in this case 700+ meters as the project is at altitude).
If I load the same file into Revit I am able to choose “by shared site” which utilizes the coordinates of the model and matches them with the coordinates set in the point cloud. These are actual real world coordinates, and set to the local coordinate system. Both programs are able to understand this coordinate system, and point cloud and model line up appropriately when I import.
When I import the exact same file to TM, it plops down on what I assume is zero. Certainly the elevation is zero and I have to try to align the imported point cloud by hand.
Why does TM recognise somehow that Revit has a coordinate system and elevation that it needs to use, but the point cloud is not recognised? How can we resolve this?
I tried linking the point cloud into the revit model, which is limited to rcp format. However this did not sync with the TM model, so there was no way to bring this across through Revit. In my opinion, this would be an acceptable workaround but currently rcp format is not usable by TM (to my knowledge).
- When I want to isolate the point cloud in an image for a render or video, I can not seem to get the visualisation of it to stick. I want to be able to have comparitive images showing model vs point cloud and for this I need to have the same view but once with model and once with pcloud file. Same with a video, I want to have the same path, one pass with pcloud and one pass with model and then in post I can just make this work (although some way of doing this in the video authoring tool would be actually 1000 times better than trying to do it in post)
My site is quite large, so when I turn off everything except pcloud it takes literally several minutes each time. Then I find out after agains several minutes render time, that this did nothing and the model is visible in the view and the pcloud is not…so its just the same image twice.
- In short working with pcloud and models, that should seamlessly integrate in TM, is not possible with the current workflow (unless I’m missing something).