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.

Commercial mobile LiDAR systems like Trimble’s MX50 and MX9 collect all of the data needed for this process. This document provides detailed instructions for using the Trimble Business Center to export all the data necessary for Mach9 to perform automated feature extraction.

Ahead of exporting data from Trimble Business Center, please verify:

Cameras are well calibrated.

Procedure

Step 1: Preparation

Create a target export folder with two subfolders on your system named as follows (the folder names are case sensitive.):

topodot

Feel free to name this folder any project name you want, here we name it “mx9_export” and refer to this root folder as “<Export_Folder>” in the rest of the document.

Step 2: Export to TopoDOT Format

In Trimble Business Center, click the Export button, Mobile Mapping, and select “Export to TopoDOT”.

Make sure to have the following settings: (The screenshot below is taken with a MX9 system. Some systems like the MX50 will have less fields but you can just ignore the missing ones).

Then, use multiselect to highlight all runs you wish to export.

Next, select export “File Name”. Press “...” and select <Export_Folder>/topodot folder created in Step 1.

Double check if “Misc Settings” matches above.

Click “Export”.

Step 3. Verify Output Structure

A properly exported dataset should resemble the following directory structure (bold: folder):

└── topodot
    └── ProjectName
        └── Raw Project Data
            ├── Image Project
            │   ├── Camera 4 360 Back.cal
            │   ├── Camera 4 360 Bottom.cal
            │   ├── Camera 4 360 Front.cal
            │   ├── Camera 4 360 Left.cal
            │   ├── Camera 4 360 Right.cal
            │   ├── Camera 4 360 Top.cal
            │   ├── Image Project.iprj
            │   ├── Image Project.lst
            │   ├── Run 1 Camera 4 360 [6570 entries]
            │   └── Run 3 Camera 4 360 [6516 entries]
            └── LAS Files
            	├── Run 1 Laser Left.las
							├── Run 1 Laser Left.las.log
            	├── Run 1 Laser Right.las
							├── Run 1 Laser Right.las.log
            	├── Run 3 Laser Left.las
							├── Run 3 Laser Left.las.log
            	├── Run 3 Laser Right.las
							└── Run 3 Laser Right.las.log

Step 4: Compression

Create a new upload folder to store the zipped files into. This folder should only contain the zipped files to be uploaded.

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)

.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 Trimble 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.

Support

If you need any help during this process, please contact Mach9 Customer Support at customersupport@mach9.io.

Trimble MMS