I am intersted in doing limited surface scanning with a robot. I have an S6 and TDS, but TDS routine for windowing the area to be shot is primitive. It only allows two points to define the area, and the scan shoots way too many points of any object that even slightly obligue to the field of view, thus it can take forever. I had hoped by now that TDS would allow the shooting of a polygon around the area to be scanned, but they have done nothing to address this.
Does Leica's software make polygon areas to scan with robot?
Will Carlson Surv CE do that?
Does Survey Controller by Trimble do it?
Field Genius?
Suggestions?
PS There is no way I will spend what it takes to get a scanner going to do this. Leica's software and maintenance are RIDICULOUS, and I had no luck with the FARO because of range issues. Plus I don't need that many points--too much information.
Frank - yes the 1200 and TS12 have the surface scan mode, however I think its pretty limited. I think the TS15 robot has a little more capability, but not sure.
We had thought along the same lines as you, but then we ended up just getting a scanner because when it comes down to it, a robot is not a scanner.
> Does Leica's software make polygon areas to scan with robot?
Leica did/does have that feature available, though it may not be part of the standard bundle. For the 1100 series it's called Face Scan. My TCRA1102 doesn't have it installed, and I haven't been able to find a copy. For the 1200 series it's called Scanning a Plane, but that's all I know about it.
> Will Carlson Surv CE do that?
My version of SurveCE (v1.67) doesn't have it. As I recall when I looked into this some months ago, later versions don't offer it either.
Cyclone was developed by Cyrax before they were bought out by Leica. Back in the late 1990's I thought that software was miraculous and more valuable than the scanner. Back then they sold the software for $15k - I think; I may be confusing that with Leica's AXYZ software for Laser Trackers. Since the Swiss bought it, they may have made Cyclone modules available for their other instrument lines. (Probably changed the name, too.)
I think Curt Busby's software, XYZWorks, will do it.
Trimble's Survey Controller gives you a few options. It lets you pick 3 points for a plane and specify observation spacing, use horizontal and vertical intervals, or an offset from a line. If you're shooting across traffic you can pause and unpause to avoid hitting a passing truck. We use it with an S6 fairly often to scan the face of bluffs.
Frank,
The current application on the TS series for Leica is called Reference Plane and Grid Scan. It is a progression of the past applications Leica has had in the past on different platforms. In the TS series application you have the following options:
1. Measure to a Plane - After defining plane you can measure points and get the spatial relationship of the measurement to the defined plane. Many people are using this in industrial settings such as ship building and large walls for structural quality control.
2. Grid Scan on Plane - This is a scan but is a scan of a rectangular area where the user defines the limits of the rectangle and then the instrument performs a scan at the distance or angular interval the user specifies. For example the user defines the rectangular limits and then enters say a 0.5 ft interval. One distance has to be shot to the object to get a calculated distance interval. If you do not measure the distance you will have to give angular interval.
3. Grid on a Surface - This is what everyone is labeling as "The poor man's scanner". In this part of the application you can define a polygon for your scanning area. There is no limit on the number of points that define the polygon. This is used for scanning a specific shape. A good example would be the scanning of a stock pile. The user defines the polygon limits and then enters say a 0.5 ft interval. One distance has to be shot to the object to get a calculated distance interval. If you do not measure the distance you will have to give angular interval. There is also an option to measure the intersections of the interval grid to the outline of the polygon if desired. The user then simple tells the instrument to start measuring and then will count done the number of remaining measurements and the time that the scan will take. The TS15 can measure a point at about 1.1 Hz but this are all direct individual measurements and not interpolated measurements as done by other brands that change angles and shoot distances every other interval (or more).
So... The measurement speed is 1.1 shots recorded every second. This is the fasted on the marker but... for 1000 measurements you are looking at 15.2 minutes per scan of 1000 points. If this is acceptable you could look into this further as a solution. There are lower priced point cloud software available but I doubt they have all of the power that Leica's Cyclone software has in it's toolbox. MicroSurvey is the only other brand that I have looked at for handling point cloud data. You can download a 30-day demo of their software...MicroSurvey CAD 2013 Ultimate and see if this may be a solution for your needs.