WIBSTAC User Manual
To use the View Planner make sure that rover.xml file is in the Release\InstrumentStuff folder. Then you can place one or more rover into your scene. Therefore set "PlaceRover" in the actions menu (see A in the image above), select a rover model in the rover menu (see B in the image above), press CTRL+LMB and pick two points on the surface in the main view. The first point (green) is the position and the second point (yellow) the viewing direction of the rover. In the ViewPlanner tab is a listing that shows all ViewPlans in the scene (see C in the image above). There is a little menu beside each ViewPlan shown in D in the image above:
- FlyTo: clicking on the "house button" triggers an animation to the camera position from where the rover placement happened.
- (In)Visible: switch the rover to visible\invisible.
- Remove: clicking on the red "x" removes the View Plan from the list and the view.
Select a view plan by clicking on the square icon in front of it to adjust it's properties:
- ChangeVPName: change the name and press the enter button.
- Name: shows the rover's name.
- Instrument: select an instrument (camera) from the list (see E).
The footprint for the selected camera is shown in light gray on the surface in the main view. In the properties panel (right) you can adjust the rover and camera parameters.
When a camera is selected you can change the instrument parameters as shown in A:
- Sensor (px): the image size in pixel.
- Focal (mm): the focal length of the camera sensor (zoom).
You can also change the rover's pan- and tilt axis (in degree) B.
In the main view the footprint of the selected camera is shown in light gray. For the footprint there are following settings:
- show footprint: you can enable\disable the footprint in the main view.
- export footprint: you get one screenshot from the main view, one from the instrument view *.svx file with diverse meta information.
- open footprint folder: opens the folder with the screenshots and the meta file.
The instrument view (right) shows the instrument's camera view.
You can also see the depth values in the InstrumentView:
- show depth: you can enable\disable the depth color visualization in the InstrumentView.
- show legend: you can enable\disable the color legend in the InstrumentView.
- max: the maximal distance considered by the color range.
- min: the minimal distance considered by the color range.
- interval: the colorbucket interval.
To load a new traverse select Extras -> Import Traverse
The listing (right) shows all traverses in the scene. Under the traverse's name is a little menu:
- FlyTo: triggers a FlyTo animation to the first sol in the list
- Toggle Visible: toggles the traverse visible/invisible
- Remove: removes the traverse from the scene
You can select a traverse by clicking on it's name, which turns the color to green. Then you can see the traverse's properties in the Properties panel and the sols in the Sols panel. The Properties panel:
- Name: the name in the listing (press enter to change)
- Textsize: the textsize of the sol labels
- Show Text: toggles the traverse's labels visible/invisible
- Show Lines: toggles the traverse's lines between the sols visible/invisible
- Show Dots: toggles the dots which mark the sols visible/invisible
- Color: color of the traverse's lines and dots
The Sols panel: The listing shows all sols of the selected traverse. You can select a sol by clicking on it's name, which turns the color to green. Also the dot in the 3d view turns its color to green. Under the sol's name is a little menu:
- FlyTo: triggers a FlyTo animation to the sol position
- Make Viewplan: creates a new ViewPlan at this position
Sequenced bookmarks can be used to create, view, and record camera flight paths between bookmarks. Properties like visibility of surfaces, annotations, and scale bars (the scene state) are also recorded with bookmarks, and applied during animations.
The scene state includes properties of surfaces, annotations and scale bars. It also includes general viewer settings in the Config tab.
Add bookmarks by clicking on the button with the plus icon at the top (A).
In the list of bookmarks (B) you can (from left to right) move the camera to the bookmark, delete the bookmark, update the scene state, and move the bookmark up and down in the list. Clicking on the label of a bookmark selects it. The selected bookmark is highlighted in green.
Updating the scene state for an annotation does not update its camera view.
You can find the properties of the selected bookmark below the list of bookmarks (C). Here you can change the bookmark's name.
For each bookmark, you can set two values. The duration is the amount of time it takes the camera to move from the previous bookmark to this bookmark. The delay determines how long the camera pauses at the bookmark before moving to the next one.
You can animate the camera according to the list of bookmarks by clicking the play button in the Animation section (D). The animation control buttons from left to right: Move to previous bookmark, start camera animation along all bookmarks, pause camera animation, stop camera animation, move camera to next bookmark.
Selecting the checkbox global animation has the following effects:
- A spline is used to travel a path along all bookmarks. The smoothing factor determines how smooth the path is. A value closer to zero means that the path hits individual bookmarks more precisely while a larger in general means a smoother path.
- The duration is set for the whole animation and cannot be set for individual bookmarks.
- The delay for individual bookmarks can not be used.
If there are large changes in the scene (and depending on hardware) the animation might not be entirely smooth when proceeding to a new bookmark.
There are three settings for looping: No loop, mirror, and repeat.
If the checkbox use easing is selected, the camera animation speeds up in the beginning, and slows down at the end. When global animation is selected, easing is used at the beginning and the end of the whole path. When it is not selected, easing is used for each bookmark.
In the snapshots section you can record camera animations. The red button changes to a stop button when you start recording. If you now use the animation controls (D) to animate the camera, the camera movement is recorded. Once you click on the red stop button, a JSON file with the recorded camera animation is saved into the output folder specified in the Snapshots section (E). To start rendering images with the saved file, click on the button with the camera icon next to the red record button. PRo3D will start rendering the images in the background.
The following settings are available:
- Allow JSON Editing There are more options for generating images you can use if you edit the JSON file PRo3D creates. Select this option if you want to edit additional properties in the JSON file (like the field of view) manually. If this option is selected, the JSON file is NOT regenerated when clicking on the Generate Images button. This means that settings changed after recording will not be taken into account. Click on the Update button if you want to update the JSON file, but be aware that all manual changes will be overwritten. Make sure to backup a JSON file once you have changed it manually, as PRo3D will write over it as soon as you record a new sequence. You can also start the generation process via the command line (as described in the next section "Batch Rendering") using an old JSON file.
- Update JSON Only available if Allow JSON Editing is selected. Updates the JSON file with the current settings. All manual changes to the JSON file are overwritten.
- Image Resolution Resolution of output images. Larger images take longer to render.
- Current FPS Once an animation sequence has been recorded, the FPS of that sequence are displayed here.
- FPS Setting You can select full or half FPS, the actual FPS depend on the value displayed as Current FPS.
- Output Path The path where the rendered images will be saved. Click on the path to change it.
To record an animation sequence follow these steps:
- Add some sequenced bookmarks at different locations using the + button (A).
- Set delay and duration to your liking (C). Press play to test your settings (D).
- Set image resolution and other snapshot settings (E).
- Click on the red record button in the snapshots section (E).
- Click on play to start the animation (D).
- Wait until the animation is finished.
- Click on the red stop button in the Snapshots section (E).
- Click on the button with the camera icon (E, Generate Images).
With the executable PRo3D.Snapshots.exe you can produce rendered images in a batch process via the command line. For this process, snapshot files are used. They are in the JSON format, and contain transformations for each rendered image. There are two types of snapshot files: One type that only transforms camera parameters, and another that can be used to transform surfaces as well. This section describes the format of these files, and how they can be used with PRo3D to render an arbitrary number of images.
Snapshot files have the JSON format, and need to follow a distinct scheme to be usable with PRo3D. Field of view and resolution of the resulting image are only specified once, at the beginning of the file. The parameter snapshots contains one entry for each output image. The following table lists all available parameters of the format:
| Parameter | Comment | |
|---|---|---|
| fieldOfView | required | |
| resolution | required | resolution of the output image |
| snapshots | required | each entry in this list will result in one output image |
| filename | required | name of the output file |
| view | required | camera parameters |
| forward | required | forward vector of the camera |
| location | required | location of the camera |
| up | required | up vector of the camera |
| surfaceUpdates | optional | |
| opcname | required | name of the surface to be transformed |
| trafo | optional | transformation to be applied to the surface |
| visible | optional | visibility of the surface |
| renderDepth | optional |
The --help flag will provide you with a full list of possible command line arguments for PRo3D.
PRo3D.Snapshots.exe --help
The simplest way to start the rendering process is to start PRo3D from the command line with only the path to the OPC file(s) and the snapshot file:
PRo3D.Snapshots.exe --opcs MyOPCs\firstOpc\;MyOPCs\secondOpc\ --asnap snapshots.JSON
The --opcs flag is followed by multiple paths to folders containing OPC surfaces separated with a semi colon. The --asnap flag is followed by the path to a snapshot file in the format described above. Make sure you are in the same directory as the PRo3D.Viewer.exe file or specify the path to that file in the command. Paths can be either absolute or relative. The root of relative paths is the directory in which PRo3D.Viewer.exe is located. The flag --snap is used for legacy files which do not contain surface updates, and do not group the view parameters under a view entry.
To specify an output folder use the --out flag:
PRo3D.Snapshots.exe --opcs MyOPCs\firstOpc\;MyOPCs\secondOpc\ --asnap snapshots.JSON --out MyImages\Renderd
If no output folder is specified, the images will be placed in the folder in which PRo3D.Viewer.exe is located.
All available arguments:
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| --help | show help |
| --scn [path] | path to a PRo3D scene |
| --obj [path];[path];[...] | load OBJ(s) from one or more paths |
| --opc [path];[path];[...] | load OPC(s) from one or more paths |
| --asnap [path\snapshot.json] | path to a snapshot file, refer to PRo3D User Manual for the correct format |
| --out [path] | path to a folder where output images will be saved; if the folder does not exist it will be created |
| --renderDepth | render the depth map as well and save it as an additional image files (*.png and *.tiff) |
| --exitOnFinish | quit PRo3D once all screenshots have been saved |
| --verbose | use verbose mode |
| --excentre | show exploration centre |
| --refsystem | show reference system |
| --noMagFilter | turn off linear texture magnification filtering |
| --snap [path\snapshot.json] | path to a snapshot file containing camera views (old format) |
To use the Transformation tool you first have to select the surface in the listing on the right.
You can translate the surface along the north-, east and up axis of the coordinate system. And you can rotate the surface around the north-, east and up axis.
To set a new Pivot Point for the transformations select PickPivotPoint in the picking actions and set SurfacePivot to set a new pivot for the selected surface. Press Strg + LMB to pick a new position on the surface. This position is shown in the Transformation GUI on the right (shown in the Figure above).
You can translate the selected scale bar along the north-, east and up axis of the coordinate system.
To add a new OBJ open the main menu in the upper left corner of the window. Then click on Surfaces and choose Import (*.obj) as shown in the figure above. This opens the Select Folder window where you can choose the obj file. The surface is loaded into the viewer and listed in the Surface page in the right part of the window. You can add more OBJs in the same way.
Additional OBJ improvements:
- OBJs without textures (with vertex colors)
- OBJs with big coordinates
- OBJs with more than one texture
Note: Annotating on OBJs is only in the projection mode "Line" possible!