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IPhone 12 Pro lidar and VW Point Cloud


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I’ll preface this by acknowledging that I have only the most basic understanding of lidar and point cloud (never used it) but the technology intrigues me and I could definitely see some usefulness with it. Having said that, do those of you that know the technology better see 3rd Party apps for the iPhone being able to capture data that would be able to import into Vectorworks files, either as a simple measurement model or actually using 3D point cloud and render able images? I briefly just researched some info on the iPad Pro and its lidar sensor and available apps, it seems even if you can’t directly import into Vectorworks the data it can capture could be very useful in documenting existing conditions.

 

I’m ready to update my iPhone 6 and considering the value of the extra features and cost of the iPhone 12 Pro.

 

Thanks!

Edited by Damon Design
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52 minutes ago, jeff prince said:

I imagine all these app developers will go the route of Canvas https://canvas.io by offering a limited export and then charging you for value added services.

Canvas can supposedly export an OBJ model that you can then import into Vectorworks and other 3D packages.  It is unclear if this OBJ is textured with the photos, but their additional services do provide it for a fee.  I have not used this yet, due to not currently having an apple lidar equipped device, but it looks promising for interior spaces.

 

I have used my drone to do photo based scanning of large exterior spaces with great success.  I have also hired aerial lidar scanning services for areas I could not gather the data myself, this too was very good.  I have also worked with datasets produced by ground based lidar scanning from Leica and Faro, which are superior.  Point clouds and OBJ models in Vectorworks is possible, but it sometimes can be problematic due to the methods Vectorworks imports such data.  Currently, it is easier to use Autodesk Recap, Pix4D, etc. to process and edit your point clouds, then prepping it for export to something Vectorworks can deal with reliably.

 

You can read a lot about that here on the forum, as many of us have been using this type of data in Vectorworks and run into the various problems and work arounds.  I've been beating the drum for quite some time saying this is the future of surveying and it's been here a while... hoping that Vectorworks improves the workflow.  Accurate and predictable pointcloud workflows are as essential as importing traditional 3D survey data, it needs to be perfect to be useful.  Having the hardware on your phone and simple apps to collect the data will just make this increasingly more prevalent.  I imagine that very soon we will all be able to scan entourage for our models using these phones and ipads as easily as we snap a photo.  That, and the photographic possibilities of changing depth of field after a photo has been taken will reach entirely new levels of quality.

 

Thanks so much for this informative post Jeff. It’s all new to me but I noted what looked like a CAD measuring app during the Apple presentation re. the lidar sensor. It looks like additional integration and development is warranted and needed for everything to begin to work seamlessly (or as much as technology and software can). 

Edited by Damon Design
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6 hours ago, Damon Design said:

 

Thanks so much for this informative post Jeff. It’s all new to me but I noted what looked like a CAD measuring app during the Apple presentation re. the lidar sensor. It looks like additional integration and development is warranted and needed for everything to begin to work seamlessly (or as much as technology and software can). 

 

Previous experiences with such devices makes me a bit sceptic. For objects with sharp edges, such as architecture, the key question is whether it can extract edges accurately. Having lots of coordinates on a flat surface is not very useful and creates huge files with not very useful data. Another major issue is the range it can handle. Earlier, and moderately priced devices,  tended to have short and narrow scanning span, and the result was blurry at best. Scanning with textures if for sure be doable if it's implemented in the program used.

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I have a Canvas Structure scanner.  I hoped to use it for modeling kitchen or closet spaces to model cabinets and organizers.  It is absolute garbage, and has never proven useful for me even in 3D mapping simple table top objects.  I could easily see this working effectively if properly done.  I believe for not much more than the add-on costs for the Canvas output I can just call the local real estate photography pro to bring over his Matterport and be done with it.  @jeff prince what drone are you using?  Been meaning to get an Anafi Work myself which includes 1 year of Pix4D.

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I also always thought it is Apple, so it is cool.

(enought to buy a iPhone 12 Oro Max ?)

But I also heard that it is not that precise.

 

And Lidar not noticeably better than by Camera and photogrammetry.

Also Lidar is meant for a range of 0-5 meters only.

I think Camera was not that limited.

 

But I would love such a feature that captures rooms in an architectural scale

and an App that uses neural engine to create simple but precise geometries

from it.

Do I have to wait another decade ?

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