I. Background
Mach9’s Digital Surveyor uses mobile LiDAR point cloud, trajectory and the associated 360 degree and directional images to perform automated feature extraction to create CAD/GIS outputs.
Digital Surveyor can use generic E57 export formats to intake data, including outputs from NavVis systems. This document serves as a guideline to structure your export folder to help facilitate smooth uploads. As each mobile mapping software can have variations in its data structures, please contact customersupport@mach9.io with any issues.
II. Procedure
Step 1: Preparation
Prior to exporting data, make sure your trajectory is processed and cameras are well calibrated.
Next, create an empty export folder to export your data:
The export folder name can be arbitrary, in this case we named it “Project Export”.
Step 2: E57 Export
Click “Crop & download from within your collection site to begin the export process.
After adjusting the cropping region to the desired export area and height, select download and choose “.e57 with panoramas”. This ensures Digital Surveyor receives all the data needed for high quality extraction.
If your dataset is georeferenced choose Spatial reference system and specify it in Step 3.
Place all the E57 into the Project Export folder prepared in Step 1. The specific organization method does not matter for the E57 files. You can place them all together into the main folder:
Or the files can be placed in subfolders if that is your typical export workflow:
Step 3: CRS Information Setup
It is not required for files to be properly georeferenced but it is highly recommended. This allows for datasets to be properly located within our platform for QA and visualization. If your data does not have a CRS associated with it then you can skip this step.
The coordinate information for the E57 export must be provided to us explicitly using a WKT string. You can download a WKT string at https://spatialreference.org/. After navigating to your project coordinate system, select the “OGC WKT” option and then copy the contents into a text file named “wkt_override.txt”. This file is case and spelling sensitive. Then place it within the along with the laser files like so:
The “wkt_override.txt” must be placed in the top level export folder and not any sub-folders. Only 1 CRS system can be provided.
Step 4: Compression
We ask that you compress the export folders and their contents into split compressed files no more than 10 GB each. You can use any of the following formats:
- .tar.gz (gzip compressed tarball)
- .tar.xz (LZMA compressed tarball)
- .7z
- .zip
Not every compression tool will create split archives. One free software we use for this is 7-zip. It is available at www.7-zip.org. This video (credit to GEEKrar Guides) walks you through the entire process of using 7-zip to create split archives.
Right click the export folder and click 7-Zip > Add to archive…
Configure the export setting as shown below:
Be sure to set split volumes to “DVD DL” and set the archive location to a separate upload folder from the zipped export folder.
Step 5: Upload
Navigate to your target upload folder and select Upload > Mobile LiDAR data
Input a name for your dataset and then select Generic E57 from the dropdown menu. Add your email to be notified when uploading is complete.
Click Chose files and use multiselect to chose all the zip files to upload.
Verify your uploaded files and click Upload
After uploading be sure to not close the tab or let the computer go to sleep. This will interrupt the upload.
III. Support
If you need any help during this process, please contact Mach9 Customer Support at customersupport@mach9.ai.