How to draft a tree

Sounds like a laser scan of the tree would be a good approach. Not sure how I would produce a drawing from this, maybe build a tin surface? Or polylines starting at bottom of trunk working out to braches?

Uhm.. Wow. 3D Polylines, Shrinkwrap them, and then do your .TIN? Contour, and shade between contours maybe?

I guess I'm old school. I never would have thought of scanning a tree and attempting to get it into cad.

Oh for the days of inserting a tree symbol from cad (with a note of tree size and type) and moving on:mask:

What is the purpose of surveying the tree to such an extent?

That is an excellent question.

Perfect application for a small drone. Or you can simply take photos radially from the ground, with 75% overlap, then proccess it with Pix4d. Or send the photos to one of the 30 day free trial online processing sites such as http://www.DroneDeploy.com&apos ;">www.DroneDeploy.com

Totalsurv, post: 390452, member: 8202 wrote: What is the purpose of surveying the tree to such an extent?

I'm going to guess a tree house.

bridger48, post: 390444, member: 6251 wrote: Architect asked we as-built a large Oak Tree. Using reflectorless edm from 3 positions we took about 350 data points along the trunk and major branches. Looking for comments on the drafting of the data. We utilized a coding system to provide which data point goes with a given branch or the trunk.

Tin will not because of under cut in tree canopy over the truck. Could create a small point cloud. Or create a 3d mesh in CAD. Will need to define the proper face. I'm talking using true 3d software, not survey models.

Send me the points, I will model it.

I want to see the final model! Please post pics if you can.

Scan, then provide point cloud. Architectural programs handle point clouds and then they can do whatever they like with it. They will probably scale it by some unknown factor and then blame you when differences are found in the future though.

Be sure to scan it on a very windy day. That should be entertaining.

Well, what the architect is most likely interested in knowing is (a) what the clearance from some specific level to bottom of major limbs is as well as (b) what the extent of the likely root structure is (the dripline of the tree canopy being a good clue there). What is the most direct way to represent that data?

I know the question relates to comments on how to draft it, but like Kent intimated, what really is the intent of the request?
No point of elaborate and expensive output for something that may really be a 15 minute job.
An intriguing request.

Richard, post: 390507, member: 833 wrote: No point of elaborate and expensive output for something that may really be a 15 minute job.

Yes, just plotting the elevations of the bottoms of major limbs may be quite enough to help Mr. Architect figure out which limbs will need to be be cut. Plotting the dripline is an easy first cut, i.e. if the structure is outside the dripline, chances are no damage to the tree necessarily follows.

A tree is a living changing entity. I would locate the tree base, several heights to vegetation at 5' off trunk, at least 6 shots to vegetation height at drip line and three azimuth shots to top from 3 different directions to calculate height. Photographs can cover the rest.

Paul in PA

Photomodeler will make a point cloud from some photos combined with your reflectorless control.

1st attempt will be to construct by connecting data points of each limb by color. View the object in 3d, walk around the monitor saying "I am a Surveyor" and hope something else comes to mind. Thanks for all the comments and will post our progress.

Even using a scanner, you would only get the 'bottom' sides of the trunks. Not sure how you would position your scanner to get the 'top' sides of the trunks to make a realistic model. Not to mention the 'blank' spaces due to leaves coverage.

Had you thought of cutting it down and delivering it to the Architect's office?

I did one of these once (the survey, not the cutting down) more or less as Kent outlined. Underside of all the major bottom branches and an extent of the foliage. I think the architect angled his buildings round to fit into the gaps. I just hope the tree doesn't grow any more!