Curious as to what is a typical deliverable to an engineering client from a scan project? Our typical project is done for a mapping company, we deliver a georeferenced .las file and they use topodot and other software to extract what they need for their client.?ÿ
Just did a scan of a vertical wall for a new client, the scope specified that we would deliver a .las file. Sent a 2.5 GB .las file, and they said they needed a .dwg file because Civil3D will not read a .las file. So we removed all extraneous data, and resampled to a 5 mm spacing (we scanned very dense to get every crack and hole, etc) and delivered a 400MB dwg file. But, if I try to open that in my admittedly old version of autocad (2016) or a newer version of Carlson (2019) it pretty much freezes my PC. It is definitely there, I can see the wall, but trying to do anything takes forever.?ÿ
Most of the time it ends up in Autodesk Recap .rcp file. This can be brought directly into most of the major Autocad products and works very well. I like Recap and it is free for basic importing to create an .rcp file. These are all terrestrial scans in my case.
You used to be able to import the .las file directly into Civil 3D.?ÿ I think that stopped with Civil 3D 2018 (?).?ÿ Now, you have to convert the .las file with Autodesk ReCap into a .rcp file.?ÿ I believe ReCap comes with most Civil 3D packages.
Used our P50 on a parking lot topo and a slope failing behind some buildings at a mountain facility. Those I produce a standard topo map using Cyclone and Civil3D. My work partner prefers to use Microsurvey which can open a Cyclone IMP file.
The third project we scanned a portion of our property and inside one of the buildings to get data for a transfer to the city where we are keeping a small corner. This is in exchange for a larger city owned property...they want our existing facility which is too small for us because they own everything around it, two parks, a library, their local cop shop, and City Hall. The city has managed to wipe out all of our monuments but we have old maps in our files with various dimensions so the scan of the foundations has been useful to reconstruct where the boundaries are located.
The email from the client siad...
"Civil 3D no longer supports importing .las directly without using another software (Recap)."
So I assume they don't have recap. I sent the dwg but have not heard back.
In TBC I export pointclouds to the e57 format for further handling in C3d, no complaints from or Users so far.
?ÿ
Thanks, Chris...I will investigate that option
e57 files are always metric. So proceed with caution if that could be an issue.?ÿ
I was on the fence about posting this, but eventually had to -
I saw this topic and the first thing that popped in my head was why scan the map when I can print it to a PDF?
????
Ken
That, or they haven't installed it. Either way, they probably won't, so it'll be on you to figure it out.
