We are a new owner of a C10 and I plan to get knee deep into the software this week. We purchased Cloudworx for Autocad, that we will run with Civil 3D. I want to use the scanner for a lot of topo work of intersections, roadway corridors, ADA studies and Bridge work. I am needing to extract linework that has feature codes assigned to them. What is the better software Cloudworx or Cyclone II topo?
Hopefully someone has used them..
Leica should be happy to give you a 30 day trial of Cyclone Topo. We don't use either, but I've had a look at them and from memory you will definitely need the topo package for the tasks you mention.
Keep us posted on your progress, especially on the software learning curve. Oh yeah, and let us know how well this works inside manholes for measure downs and pipe types and sizes...
I have used both Cyclone II Topo (which is no longer in development by Leica), Cloudworx Basic and the Cyclone Surveyor/Model Modules to extract Topo data from Scan Data since 2003.
When i first started scanning extracting topo from scan data was pretty much unheard of - however Cyclone had a great too called 'virtual surveyor'. This allowed you to create a code list and pick points from within the model space as you would have if you were detailing in the field. All this generated was a simple Point No, Code, Easting, Northing and Height text file that could be imported into any survey package and processed as /combined with traditional obs. All you needed in the old days!
Leica found that the drawbacks for this was that CAD Tech's would often be handed scan data and not be familer with the interface of navigating the scan data - not making it an especially effiecient process. Topo II was created as a straightforward interface with a much more traditional CAD viewpoint (top down for detailing) that had a much less steep learning curve.
I have to say that I found Cyclone II Topo a generally excellent program. The drawbacks were that you had to export the data from cyclone to a .PCI format to be read into Topo II, but once it was there it was fast to load and would give you a default 'top down' view from which you would use the 'nearest, highest, lowest, edge etc tools). This worked incredibly well for topos - but one thing I would say is make sure that you sketch the topo area. It is very easy to miss things such as covers etc unless you know where to look for them (or how many there are!) and also these are not so easily to identify the service type afterwards.
These advanced picking tools - highest lowest etc have now been ported into Cyclone Survey in the Virtual Surveyor Tool and so that Cyclone II Topo was no longer supported / developed (even though you could pay maintenance on it - which I would strongly suggest against). The codelists could be imported from DBX files so that you are using the same codes as per the field, and the whole interface was a lot better.
Going from Virtual Surveyor to Cyclone II Topo, was an excellent step. I have since changed jobs and did not by topo II for the above reason. I am back using virtual surveyor - with these new tools - which work reasonably well - but the virtual survey interface itself has not changed since i began in 2003 - and is a bit clunky. For example - you must pick your points using one code - "accept" them - before changing the code - otherwise the new code will be applied to all your previously selected points.
Cloudworx (Basic) is great for detailing any objects that need to either be ortho in some way (buildings etc), or where a more precise alignment is needed such a walls. Digitising in 3d for topo features where you need to be able to pick the base of a feature is also challenging as ACAD and the cloudworx engine are not really capable of handling them number of points, or allowing a free rotation thats required to align your viewpoint on a ad hoc basis. That said, it is more than sufficient for most measured building surveys and adding spot levels to a topo is a simple as having a lisp or dynamic block to extract the Z values. Although Civil 3D may have similar tools?
However, one that I would highly recommend is the point cloud module from a company called McCarthy Taylor ( http://www.dtmsoftware.com/ ). It is currently in Beta - but can be purchased - for a measly sum of å£250 along with a basic licence of LSS (the survey package) for and additional å£250.
I have been beta testing this for about 6 months - and can say it has all the benefits of topo II in terms of coding, but has the flexibility of viewing similar to cyclone modelspace.
If you have any queries please don't hesitate to give me a shout though - I'm happy to expand on anything above!
Regards,
Tim
Tim,
Thanks for the reply. That is the exact information I am looking for. Right now our initial use for the scanner will be to complete intersections and roadway topos where the corridors are hard surfaces with asphalt and concrete curbs. From the demos I have viewed online, it seems to show that Cyclone II topo is a very useful software. It's my hope that we can collect the data in 40-50% reduced field time, extract the features from the scan data and produce the topo drawings rather quickly.
I would suspect that the images from the scan will help with the utility covers (manholes, etc). Also while the scanner is running we can collect the inverts on the structures and shoot them in conventionally along with the boundary points.
In theory, we can scan a shopping center at night (i.e. Wal-Mart), come back in the AM to pick up the utilities, inverts and boundary. I am just so excited to collect all those curb islands without having to run the line work for each one. Plus, no more break lines!
For our pilot project we have scanned a power substation. It took 65 mins to scan the whole place vs. 2.5 days of a two man crew to topo the substation, measure the footings and sketch/photo....Although nothing has been processed yet.
I will be in touch with tons of questions.. Ill check out that software too.
Thanks
StLSurveyor, post: 350778, member: 7070 wrote: In theory, we can scan a shopping center at night (i.e. Wal-Mart), come back in the AM to pick up the utilities, inverts and boundary. I am just so excited to collect all those curb islands without having to run the line work for each one. Plus, no more break lines!
I think the way Cyclone Topo and LSS work is to use cross sectiion views of a road. You can then define the channel, top kerb etc from the section view before progressing to the next section.
Greatfor a long straight road but may be fiddly to setuo for each island as you are describing
I thinkTrimble Realworks (and other software I'm sure) has a facility for automatically recognising breaklines. I would like to know more about how this works and how automatic it is.
I came across this saying the other day from an old timer....
" Scanning is for guys who can't do topo" 😀
He he I do think that sometimes myself. There is a bit of an obsession with scanning with the engineers and architects here. Then they get the cloud and wonder what to do with it.
There are a lot of times when we have very limited site access so the opportunity to wrap up the field work quickly and do the coding and as much checking as you want at leisure in the office is quite attractive.
pdop 1.0, post: 350830, member: 459 wrote: I came across this saying the other day from an old timer....
" Scanning is for guys who can't do topo" 😀
That's funny...
