Data Editing

Editing

After acquiring some information from the scanner, there might be the need to clean the data from unwanted parts or noises, or to remove some unwanted parts from a mesh.

Selecting Data

First select the part of the image to be removed. The Selection Tools can be used on both, acquisitions and meshes, while the Select Outliers function only works on acquisitions.

Selection Tools

The selection tools are interactive tools that can be used dragging the mouse on the 3D View and holding its left button. A shape will appear, following the mouse, and all the information inside its borders will be selected.

The tools are:

• Rectangular: draws a rectangle that starts from the click point and grows following the mouse; to select, release the left mouse button
• Elliptical : draws an ellipse centered in the click point that grows following the mouse; to select, release the left mouse button
• Polygonal : click in two different points to draw a line and a third point to create a polygon. Double click to close the polygon and select all the area inside its borders
• Free Closed Line : click and hold the left mouse button to start drawing a line that follows the mouse. Release the left mouse button to close the line and select all the area inside its borders
• Free Open Line : click and hold the left mouse button to start drawing a line that follows the mouse. Release the left mouse button to select all the data exactly below the drawn line
• Segment : click and hold the left mouse button to draw a line and release the left mouse button to select all the data exactly below the segment.

Unselect Data

While using one of the tools, hold to unselect data instead of selecting it.

Pass-Through Selection

The Pass through selection, changes the behaviour of the selection and only works on meshes data.

Normally all the data inside the drawn area will be selected, even if not visible or hidden behind other mesh surfaces.

By holding when finalizing the selection, only the visible part of the mesh will be selected. All the hidden parts, or the parts on the other side of the object, will not be selected.

Outlier Cleaning

Outliers are all the points of an acquisition that are not part of the object surface, such as noises, reflections or acquisition defects.

Each acquisition strategy already applies a specific outlier cleaning process. Therefore, data is often ready to be aligned and converted in mesh directly after the acquisition.

In order to remove outliers manually, use one of the three Select Outliers tools.

Select Outliers

This tool identifies all the points that are isolated, far from all the other points. Click on this tool button to open a window containing two parameters

• Selectivity : how many points have to be near each other to consider them either isolated or not. The higher the value, the more points get selected
• Strength : how close two points have to be to consider them as not isolated. The higher the value, the more points get selected

When changing the parameters, the software will show the selection in real time. Click ok to confirm the selection.

Select Outliers by Angle

This Outliers selection provides only one parameter: an angle. A point is considered an outlier only if there are no points near it that create an angle smaller than the one established by the parameters. The smaller the angle, the less points selected.

When changing the parameters, the software will show the selection in real time. Click ok to confirm the selection.

Select Outliers Segmentation

This Outliers selection tool analyses blocks of points and not single points.

Base Selection

To remove the Base of the acquisition (the part of the acquisition near the model holder) use the Cut Height Acquisition Tool.

A slider will appear, which controls the height value. All the points below the chosen height will be selected.

When moving the slider, the software will show the selection in real time. Click ok to confirm the selection.

Editing Functions

When a selection is performed, use one of the following editing functions either from the 3D View Context Menu, from the Edit Menu or using the related keyboard shortcuts:

• Delete Selection (DEL) : deletes the currently selected data
• Crop Selection (+ K) : keeps only the selected data and removes all the rest
• Invert Selection (+ I) : selects all the data that is not selected and deselects the selected data
• Clear Selection (+ C) : deselects all the data
• Select All (+ + C) : selects all the data
• Select Connected (+ + D) : (only for meshes) extends the selection to get all the parts connected to the current selection area
• Dilate Selection (+ D) : extends the selection to the data adjacent to the actual selection
• Erode Selection (+ + D) : reduces the margins of the selection