GPS World

Tag: technology

  • Boundless Uses GIS Imagery to Search for MH370 Debris

    MH370-Boundless

    Geospatial experts at Boundless, a geospatial IT company, discuss how GIS imagery can help find debris from missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.

    The blog post Georeferencing Imagery in the Hunt for MH370 takes the complicated location of debris from MH370, and puts it through the open-source software used by Boundless to overlay two major ocean currents, the South Equatorial Current, and the West Australian Current. Prevailing winds graphics and additional vector data of the MH370 search areas and potential flight path are also included.

    “While we wait for additional information regarding the missing Boeing 777, I wanted to examine if GIS could add plausibility that debris may have washed up this far west from the original search areas,” writes Anthony Calamito, solutions architect with Boundless. A piece of a wing known as a flaperon from a Boeing 777 was found on Reunion Island, thousands of miles from the plane’s flight path and official search area. No other Boeing 777 airplanes are missing. Flight MH370 vanished on March 8 last year with 239 passengers and crew.

    Boundless says in the post that the georeferenced and digitized graphics illustrate how the debris could have washed on shore as the surface currents rotating around the Indian Ocean Gyre could have moved the debris in a general western direction.

    According to Boundless, this is an example of how geospatial solutions can use existing data and intelligence to produce answers when none seem to be forthcoming, as it’s been during the search for MH370.

    Read the full blog post here.

  • Phase One Offers iXU-R Cameras for UAVs

    Phase-One-camera-iXU-R_180-W

    Phase One Industrial, a manufacturer and provider of medium-format aerial digital photography equipment and software solutions, is offering the iXU-R camera series. Available in 80 MP, 60 MP and 60 MP achromatic versions, the cameras feature dedicated interchangeable 40 mm, 50 mm and 70 mm Phase One Rodenstock lenses equipped with central leaf shutters that can be quickly changed in the field, offering flexibility in aerial applications.

    The Phase One iXU-R systems have been designed to address the aerial data acquisition market’s needs for a small, lightweight camera with the high resolution of a medium format system, plus high-performance optics, flexibility to fit into small places and Phase One’s fastest 80 MP platform. For example, the iXU-R 180 is built around a large 80-megapixel sensor, with 10,328 pixels cross-track coverage yet it is compact enough to be easily integrated into a small gimbal or pod space or an oblique/nadir array. Or it can be used as a standalone photogrammetric camera with optional Forward Motion Compensation.

    Cameras are easily integrated into new or existing setups with USB 3.0 connectivity for control and storage via the Phase One iX Capture application. All Phase One aerial cameras offer direct communication with GPS/IMU systems and the ability to directly write data to the image files.

    “As the use of UAVs and small aircraft increases dramatically around the world, and every gram in a payload counts, Phase One Industrial is committed to offering small and lightweight cameras without sacrificing data accuracy, image quality and resolution,” said Dov Kalinski, general manager of Phase One Industrial.

  • New Esri Book Covers Aerial Imaging Basics for GIS

    EssentialEarth_medSatellites, aircraft and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) collect imagery that can be displayed and analyzed within a geographic information system (GIS) to extract important information.

    To familiarize GIS professionals and students with the advanced earth imaging technologies available today, Esri has published Essential Earth Imaging for GIS. The book is a field guide to Earth imaging, providing guidance to efficiently and effectively display, manipulate, enhance, and interpret features from an image. Essential Earth Imaging for GIS provides a basic education in remote-sensing technology, promoting the effective use of sophisticated multispectral and 3D imagery.

    Chapters introduce readers to remote-sensing methods and types of imagery as well as how to display and enhance multispectral images, process images in a GIS to improve quality, generate three-dimensional data, and visually interpret images in a GIS to extract information from them.

    The book provides hands-on experience working with imagery in Esri’s ArcGIS for Desktop and ArcGIS Online. Exercises include assigning colors in multiband images and extracting information from multispectral images by digitalizing features. Companion exercises and a free 180-day trial of ArcGIS are available by accessing the Esri Press Book Resources website.

    Essential Earth Imaging for GIS was written by Lawrence Fox III, emeritus professor of forest remote sensing and GIS at Humboldt State University in California. The book serves as a starting point for GIS professionals who want to learn the basics of imaging technology so they can incorporate it more effectively into their work, while students can use this book as a reference for introductory GIS courses that make use of image display and analysis.

    Essential Earth Imaging for GIS is available in print (ISBN: 9781589483453, 128 pages, US$59.99) or as an e-book (ISBN: 9781589484313, 128 pages, US$59.99). The book is available at online retailers worldwide, at esri.com/esripress, or by calling 1-800-447-9778. Outside the United States, visit esri.com/esripressorders for complete ordering options, or visit esri.com/distributors to contact your local Esri distributor. Interested retailers can contact Esri Press book distributor Ingram Publisher Services.

    Esri Press publishes books on GIS, cartography, and related topics. The complete selection of GIS titles from Esri Press can be found on the web at esri.com/esripress.

  • SAP Accelerates Geo-Enabled Access to Enterprise Data

    SAP-dashboard

    SAP SE is offering new capabilities to turbocharge spatial intelligence by simplifying, accelerating and geo-enabling access to enterprise data.

    In the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), proliferation of low-cost location-aware devices is augmenting enterprise data with the “where” component. The SAP HANA platform can help break the silos between enterprise and GIS systems, enabling companies to get more value from corporate data and uncover trends and patterns in a visually intuitive manner, the company said in a statement.

    The announcement was made at the Esri User Conference (Esri UC) being held July 21–23 in San Diego.

    Accelerating Spatial Processing for Real-Time Insights. The latest release of SAP HANA further enhances in-memory spatial processing capabilities to deliver faster responses for millions of data points, the company said. SAP HANA SPS10 brings new spatial features and enhancements, such as support for multidimensional geometries and on-the-fly spatial coordinate transformations, driven by customer innovation projects such as flight operations for Lufthansa Systems.

    Case Study: Lufthansa

    Lufthansa Systems is using the spatial capabilities in SAP HANA for tracking global flight operations. Changes in airport, meteorological and fleet data are monitored in real time and used to reroute flight trajectories in split seconds while optimizing fuel and crew costs. Lufthansa Systems believes that this innovative technology for dispatching, monitoring and visualizing air traffic by providing instant insights and real-time decision support will help change the face of its business.

    “Together with SAP, we built a prototype of a future operational database for commercial flight support,” said Christoph Krüger, lead architect, Lufthansa Systems. “The spatial engine in SAP HANA has given us the ability to track thousands of flights per day on a rich 3D mapping interface that includes both spatial and temporal coordinates. At the same time, we were able to uncover breakthrough application scenarios that would not have been possible without the SAP HANA platform.”

    Deeper Integration of SAP HANA and Esri

    In addition to the existing read-only query layer integration to SAP HANA released by Esri in 2014, ArcGIS for Desktop now supports feature services providing a method for users to create, read, update or delete spatial data directly in SAP HANA. This simplifies the access and use of spatial data in SAP HANA and provides powerful, transactional spatial data creation and editing capabilities to support real-time operational and analytic applications, opening a broad new range of use cases and workflows for both Esri and SAP users.

    The State of Indiana uses SAP HANA, SAP Lumira software and SAP Predictive Analytics software in combination with Esri for geo-spatial analytics to help ensure safer roads and traffic conditions and improve the lives of its citizens.

    “Our long-standing technical co-innovation with SAP has taken a major step forward with the introduction of the SAP HANA platform and its spatial capabilities,” said Jack Dangermond, founder and president of Esri. “We now have a single platform from SAP that simplifies both integration and the deployment of mapping and spatial analysis across the entire SAP application landscape.”

    Analytics Solutions from SAP Enhanced by Partner Extensions

    The native integration between Esri ArcGIS and data visualization software from SAP, SAP Lumira, provides new capabilities for customers. It includes a rich library of charts and visualizations, overlay charts with geo-spatial data for location-based insight, support to visualize multiple layers of business data on top of Esri base maps and support to embed and create custom extensions with software development kits (SDKs). SAP partners such as Galigeo use these SDKs to extend the value of analytics solutions from SAP with new options for visualizing and analyzing information in SAP Lumira and SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio using Esri cloud and on-premise resources. A free version of SAP Lumira is currently available for download.

    Geo-Enablement of SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA

    SAP is delivering geospatial enablement of SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA software with a geo-enabling services offering. Geo-enabling allows SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA to store spatial data directly on SAP HANA instead of on a third-party database, resulting in faster response times and a simpler architecture.

    Spatial Enhancements in SAP Work Manager

    The SAP Work Manager mobile app has added Esri feature layer integration and offline mapping capabilities. These improve user interaction on mobile devices and enable mobile technicians servicing clients in the field to access their maps and associated information without Internet connectivity.

    For more information, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews, or view the video below for a demonstration from the 2015 Esri UC.

  • Esri UC: City of Boston Takes Grand Prize in Storytelling with Maps Contest

    Esri-Boston-snow-storymap

    Esri revealed the winners of its Storytelling with Maps Contest at the Esri User Conference, highlighting grand prize winner Joyce John’s Snow Journal story map for the City of Boston. John’s story map incorporated data-rich maps, videos, photos, and text to craft an engaging story of how the city dealt with historic amounts of snow in Boston earlier this year.

    As the grand prize winner, John, a member of the City of Boston’s GIS team, will receive a one-year ArcGIS Online subscription for five users plus a plaque and certificate. 

    “Story maps harness the power of geography to tell stories in the most engaging ways,” said Allen Carroll, program manager, storytelling. “The winners of our Storytelling with Maps Contest demonstrate the endless ways people can use this rich medium to share their stories with the world.” 

    Storytellers from around the world submitted more than 400 entries that covered the full gamut of Esri Story Map templates. Contest judges selected the following 18 story maps as winners from across the five contest categories:

    Best Travel, Destinations, and Recreation

    First Place: Elizabeth Frank for Living on the Edge: The Extremes of Human Inhabitance

    Second Place: GIS Team, County of Simcoe (Ontario, Canada), for Matchedash Bay Loop Trail

    Third Place: Daragh McDonough, Donegal County Council, for The Hills of Donegal, Ireland

    Honorable Mention: Yasser Ayad, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, for Al Qahira: A Trip to the Past

    Best Infrastructure, Planning, and Government

    First Place and Grand Prize: Joyce John, City of Boston, for Snow Journal

    Second Place: Alberto Fiorillo, VeloLove/Legambiente, for GRAB: Grande Raccordo Anulare delle Bici

    Third Place: Pat Landrum, San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), for LOSSAN: Coastal Rail Corridor

    Honorable Mention: Cassie Hansen, FireWhat, Inc., GIS Team, for Rapid Damage Assessment

    Best Science, Technology, and Education

    First Place: Emily Wilson and Chester Arnold, University of Connecticut, for Connecticut’s Changing Landscape

    Second Place: Garry Simmons, Wilmington Grammar School for Girls (UK), for Journey into Danakil: Hottest Place on Earth

    Third Place: Anna Mölter, Colorado State University, for Pittsburgh—Health Impact of Black Carbon Air Pollution

    Best Culture, History, and Events

    First Place: Chris Ingram, Santa Clara County Fire Department, for The San Francisco 1906 Earthquake and Fire

    Second Place: Mark Gallant, EntertainMaps.com, for Ottawa’s Eyewitness: Thomas Burrowes

    Third Place: Gordon Campbell, COGS/NSCC, for Pilot Francis Mackey and the Halifax Explosion

    Best Conservation, Environment, and Sustainability

    First Place: Greenbelt Land Trust and FLO Analytics for Bald Hill Farm: A Legacy for Corvallis, Oregon

    Second Place: Dan Kelly and Sylvia Busby, The Nature Conservancy, for Ogooué: Field Notes from Gabon’s Great River

    Third Place: Thomas Skowronski, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, for Cooperative Solar: Driven by Cooperative Principles

    Honorable Mention: Lindsay Withers and Carolyn Ives, The Trust for Public Land, O’ahu Projects

    Submissions were judged on a range of factors. Each selected story map combined design, user experience, impact, and overall creativity with an interesting and engaging story.

    All first-place winners will receive a GoPro camera. Second- and third-place winners will receive a copy of the Esri Press book Cartographica Extraordinaire: The Historical Map Transformed. All winners will also receive a plaque and a certificate in honor of their award-winning story maps.

    For more information about Esri Story Map, visit esri.com/storymaps. To view all 18 winning story maps, visit esri.com/storytellingwithmaps.

  • Esri UC: LizardTech Launches GeoExpress 9.5

    LizardTech, a provider of software solutions for managing and distributing geospatial content, launched GeoExpress 9.5 at this week’s Esri International User Conference. The conference is taking place in San Diego, Calif., and LizardTech is exhibiting in booth number 2310.

    GeoExpress enables geospatial professionals to compress and manipulate satellite and aerial imagery. In addition to compressing raster data, GeoExpress 9.5 now features the ability to natively compress LiDAR data to MrSID and LAZ formats, saving up to 75 percent on storage space.

    GeoExpress 9.5 also includes batch color balancing, multipolygon cropping and exporting images to custom dimensions and tiles. Esri UC attendees can see demonstrations of the new features of GeoExpress 9.5 at booth 2310.

    “The launch of GeoExpress 9.5 is particularly exciting because of the many benefits this latest version brings not only to our raster image collection customers, but also LiDAR data collection customers,” said Jeff Young, LizardTech global business development manager. “GeoExpress 9.5 is now your one-stop shop to compress raster and LiDAR imagery to MrSID and LAZ formats.”

    LizardTech will also showcase the rest of the company’s line of geospatial products: Express Server software for high-performance delivery and publication; LiDAR Compressor software, which turns giant point cloud datasets into efficient MrSID files; and the recently updated GeoViewer software, which a fast way to view MrSID and JPEG 2000 imagery.

  • Avineon Unveils Business Intelligence Solution for ArcGIS Geodatabase

    Avineon Inc. will unveil the Metrics Extension to ArcGIS for Server at the 2015 Esri User Conference, being held July 20-23 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif. The Metrics Extension gives ArcGIS users better visibility into their enterprise geodatabase by revealing trends in their global and regional data updates. 

    The Metrics Extension enhances the value and usability of GIS data in ArcGIS by creating a spatial data warehouse in which key business intelligence metrics can be created and stored for historical reporting. It computes and stores key metrics such as asset quantity, length or area coverage for a specified period. Storing this data permits important historical trends to be documented and evaluated for potential performance improvements and cost savings.

    One of the most common applications of the Metrics Extension is tracking the installation, operation and decommissioning of assets for telecommunications, electric, gas, oil, water, waste water and sewer utilities. For instance, a telecommunications company can use ArcGIS for Server and the Metrics Extension to determine how many miles of buried fiber its network contained on a certain day or how many linear feet of fiber were laid in the past 30 days.

    Likewise, an electric utility can report the quantity and type of smart meters, poles and cable installed by month and location. Outside of the utility industry, local, state and federal government agencies can trend geodatabase objects such as fire hydrants, real property parcels, land use and environmental classifications, vegetation, and crime instances not only by neighborhood, zip code and political district but also by timeframe.

    “Avineon’s Metrics Extension elevates ArcGIS geodatabase to a true spatial data warehouse for historical reporting and data analysis. Once we release, you can download the Metrics Extension and have it installed and running in less than a day,” said Joel Campbell, Avineon Vice President of Commercial Systems. “Users can expect a quick return on their investment by deploying this technology.” 

    A long-time Esri Business Partner, Avineon develops and implements a wide variety of geospatial services.  “Avineon has been working closely with Esri for more than 10 years to create innovative solutions for GIS clients worldwide,” Campbell said. “We invite all Esri Conference attendees to visit our booth and learn how Avineon can make your geospatial content more intelligent.”

    Avineon will demonstrate the Metrics Extension publicly for the first time in booth #1015 at the Esri User Conference, as well as offering presentations and demos of its other products. For more information on the Metrics Extension, Avineon will conduct free 30-minute webinars on Aug. 11 and 25. To register for the Aug. 11 webinar click here. To register for the Aug.25 webinar, click here.

     

  • Avenza Releases Geographic Imager 5.0 for Adobe Photoshop

    Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and the PDF Maps mobile app, has released Geographic Imager 5.0 for Adobe Photoshop. This latest release is compatible with Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 2015 for both Windows and Mac.

    Among the new features, the Georeference tool has been redesigned to provide more flexibility and interactivity when referencing and rectifying images. This release also introduces map package export compatible with the PDF Maps mobile app and the upload of map packages directly to the PDF Maps digital map store.

    “We’ve been working diligently on this release of Geographic Imager to allow users to work with their spatial imagery and data in Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud 2015,” said Ted Florence, president of Avenza. “Geographic Imager is an excellent add-on to Photoshop and proves to be a competitive geospatial image editing platform for many GIS professionals in the industry. We’re looking forward to continuing to develop new tools for the Creative Cloud platform to improve productivity and to streamline workflows.”

    Additional Geographic Imager 5.0 Features

    • Fully compatible with Adobe Photoshop CC 2015
    • Redesigned Georeference tool: reference with online maps, coordinate system detection, and improved rectification process
    • New export DEM formats: ArcInfo ASCII Grid and BIL
    • New online help and help integrated into dialogs
    • New ability to export a PDF Maps package and upload it directly to the PDF Maps digital map store
    • New ability to record operations, errors, and messages to event log
    • New mosaic options including ability to apply blending mode and place mosaic layers above destination layer
    • Optimized Export to Web Tiles and now includes image interpolation methods and support for OpenStreetMap and TileMill
    • Enhanced scripting support now includes WMS import
    • New Preferences interface and options
    • Various other bug fixes and user experience enhancements

    Geographic Imager software for Adobe Photoshop leverages the superior image editing capabilities of the world’s premier raster-based image editing software and transforms it into a powerful geospatial production tool. Work with satellite imagery, aerial photography, orthophotos, and DEMs in GeoTIFF and other major GIS image formats using Adobe Photoshop features such as transparencies, filters, and image adjustments while maintaining georeferencing and support for hundreds of coordinate systems and projections.

    Geographic Imager 5.0 is immediately available and free of charge to all current Geographic Imager Maintenance Program members and at US$319 for non-maintenance upgrades. New fixed licenses start at US$699. Geographic Imager Basic licenses start at US$99. Academic, floating and volume license pricing are also available. Geographic Imager 5.0 is compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS6, CC 2014 and CC 2015. Adobe Photoshop CS5 and CC are supported but deprecated in this release.

  • ThinkGeo Releases Map Suite 9.0 with Aerial Imagery

    ThinkGeo has released version 9.0 of Map Suite, its full line of GIS software components for .NET developers. This major milestone refreshes ThinkGeo’s Map Suite product line with a wide variety of enhancements. It includes Aerial Imagery for the Map Suite World Map Kit Online, Xamarin.Forms in the Map Suite iOS and Android Editions, support for Google Traffic and Street View in the Map Suite Web Edition, and many performance and stability improvements.

    Map Suite World Map Kit Online now features beautiful aerial imagery. The all-new Hybrid View combines ThinkGeo’s detailed street-level world-wide maps with aerial imagery to provide the best of both worlds.

    Xamarin.Forms has been added to Map Suite iOS and Map Suite Android Editions. Developers are now able to rapidly create maps for iOS and Android devices while sharing the vast majority of the code.

    Another notable feature in ThinkGeo’s Map Suite 9.0 is the addition of Google Traffic and Street View to the Map Suite Web Edition. In the Map Suite MVC Edition, data binding and action triggers have been designed in order to simplify development. MapBox tile overlay support in the Map Suite iOS and Android Editions provides another option to the existing Google, Bing, and OpenStreetMap basemaps.

    The 9.0 update includes new builds of all of Map Suite’s editions, including WebAPI, iOS, Android, Desktop (WinForms), WPF Desktop, Web (WebForms), MVC, Silverlight, Services and WMS Server Editions, as well as the Map Suite Geocoder and the Map Suite Routing extension. Many performance and stability improvements have been implemented across the Map Suite GIS product range. Complete change logs are available at the ThinkGeo Wiki, the company’s official online source for Map Suite documentation and learning material.

    ThinkGeo’s next major release of Map Suite, version 10.0, is expected in the summer of 2016, but developers can expect to start receiving beta features in advance via the daily builds which can be downloaded directly from the ThinkGeo Product Center.

    For more information about Map Suite, or to download the ThinkGeo Product Center and access free 60-day evaluation of each Map Suite 9.0 product, visit ThinkGeo’s website. All evaluators and users can discuss and receive support for their Map Suite applications at ThinkGeo’s Discussion Forums.

  • Avineon to Demo Geospatial Services at Esri User Conference

    Avineon, Inc., a global provider of information technology and engineering support services, will be presenting its complete portfolio of geospatial offerings at the 2015 Esri User Conference in San Diego, Calif., on July 20-24. A long-time Esri Business Partner, Avineon develops and implements a wide variety of geospatial services. 

    Avineon will be making presentations and providing demonstrations in booth #1015.

    Avineon offers geospatial products and services to Esri clients in numerous industries, including energy water, and communications utilities and all levels of local, state, and federal government agencies. Avineon specializes in assuring and enhancing the quality of existing data through extensive data conversion, migration, conflation, and enrichment services. In addition, the firm extracts new data sets, such as orthoimagery, digital elevation models (DTMs), and 3D visualizations from aerial photography and LiDAR acquisitions.

    Avineon also provides support for version upgrades and cloud migration, software testing and help desk staffing. In the web/mobile arena, Avineon has a long history of creating custom applications and server extensions for outage management, field workforce management, wire down monitoring, and other efficiency-enhancing applications. When consolidating to a single system is not practical, Avineon implements cross-platform technologies that normalize spatial data and establish data governance programs across diverse GIS data sets.

    “Avineon has been working closely with Esri for more than 10 years to create innovative solutions for GIS clients worldwide,” said Joel Campbell, Avineon’s vice president of commercial systems. “We invite all Esri Conference attendees to visit our booth and learn how Avineon can make your geospatial content more intelligent.” 

  • Leica Geosystems Adds Cloud-Based Imagery with HxIP

    HxIP_in_Leica_Infinity

    Leica Geosystems announced that it is taking the first step toward bringing live-streamed intelligent cloud-based imagery into all field applications, beginning with the launch of the Leica Nova MS60 MultiStation, Leica Nova TS60 Total Station, Leica Viva TS16 Total Station and Leica Zeno 20 handheld.

    Geospatial professionals in the U.S. and Canada who invest in these new solutions can become part of this pioneering effort and add even more intelligence to their dataset with up to one year of introductory free access to georeferenced imagery from the Hexagon Imagery Program (HxIP), the company said.

    A high-quality, accurate and professional dataset, HxIP imagery is 30-cm (1-foot) resolution, with set specification and accuracy standards and a regular refresh schedule. The natural color RGB backdrop imagery (tile cache) is fast and easy to access and gives context to survey and construction maps and overlays, Leica Geosystems said. All content is captured using Leica Geosystems airborne sensors for the highest reliability.

    Access to HxIP imagery adds spatial and contextual awareness to surveys, enables better planning and decision-making for more efficient and productive time onsite, and eliminates the need to georeference data to the basemap during post-processing, the company said. Through Leica Infinity software, users can access HxIP imagery to view field measured data and imported design data in the office.

    Users can also prepare job data with the HxIP imagery and then clip and store georeferenced images that can be exported to the new Leica Captivate field software for use as background imagery and basemaps on the newest robotic total stations. The imagery can also be live-streamed to the Leica Zeno 20 handheld.

    The georeferenced HxIP airborne imagery is available to everyone on a subscription basis through the cloud via multiple content service providers, including Esri’s ArcGIS Marketplace, Hexagon Geospatial’s Power Portfolio and Valtus Imagery Services. Complimentary access to live-streamed HxIP image tiles is being offered through June 2016 to customers in the U.S. and Canada that have an active Leica Infinity Customer Care Package (CCP) or that purchase a Leica Zeno 20 handheld.

    “We’re quickly moving toward a world in which every geospatial sensor will have cloud-based access to real-time, high-quality imagery for invaluable survey intelligence,” said Ken Mooyman, president of Hexagon Geosystems NAFTA. “The integration of HxIP with Leica Infinity, Captivate and the Leica Zeno 20 in North America is the first step in bringing that rich, detailed imagery to users where and when it is available so they can be part of leading the way into the future.”

  • Topcon 3D Scanning Increases Integration with Autodesk

    As a result of the strategic business relationship with Autodesk, Topcon Positioning Group announces improved workflow compatibility for the GLS-2000 3D laser scanner and ScanMaster software with Autodesk solutions via the latest version of Autodesk ReCap.

    The GLS-2000 pairs with Topcon ScanMaster software to collect, process, edit and deliver 3D point cloud data from a laser scanner for a variety of applications. Autodesk ReCap allows users to perform tasks such as scan conversion, editing, and viewing point cloud data, and provides integration with Autodesk’s broader portfolio of design software.

    Autodesk ReCap and ReCap 360 have the new capability to read the Topcon CL3 format as a scan file in addition to a standard point cloud. The scan file allows for the use of individual scan positions for additional options in registration workflows.

    “File conversion is no longer necessary — exporting can be done straight out of scan position. Users ultimately get a more streamlined workflow, more data detail and increased access to the point cloud,” said Ray Kerwin, director of global surveying products. “With individual scan positions it is possible to generate ‘RealViews’ that offer a web viewing output.”

    The integration is available for versions including Autodesk ReCap, ReCap 360 and ReCap 360 Ultimate software.