Contour lines and false colour to show depth

[John Broomfield]

Hi, I've been asked to produce some photogrammetry for a paper which is describing some dinosaur footprints.  Apart from a textured model we are wanting to produce an image with false colour and contour lines and scale to show depth.  Can some or all of this be done in Metashape Pro or do I need to export to another program to generate these images?  Any guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks
John

[Alexey Pasumansky]

Hello John,

You may need to build DEM (digital elevation model) for this task (model should be scaled to the proper dimensions), based on the DEM you can generate the contour lines with the selected elevation step.

[taran]

Hi John - you can do all of this in the open source CloudCompare package. Scale your model to the correct units (e.g. metres) in Metashape Pro first. Export your mesh from Metashape (obj, ply) and open in CloudCompare (where you can also set up real world units). You can use the cross-section tool to generate contours, and the Scalar Field (SF) Tools > Projection > Export coordinates to SF to produce a false-colour plot with scale showing depth distance (if you get your axis/alignment right).

Hope this helps!

[John Broomfield]

Thanks for the suggestions and tips Alexey and Taran, a steep learning curve here.  I've created the DEM in Metashape which is looking good but looking at old forum posts it seems adding contour lines isn't possible within Metashape.  Is this still the case?  If so I'll focus my attention on CloudCompare with an exported ply.
Thanks again for the help.
John

[Costas]

It is possible to generate Contour Lines within Metashape.

1) Right click on the generated DEM and choose "Generate Contours"
2) On the pop-up menu choose your settings.

[John Broomfield]

Thanks Costas, that was a lot easier than I was trying to make it!