2D Line Drawing from Photoscan Model

[Dallas]

I use CloudCompare to do this from the pointcloud.  There is a point list picking tool that allows you pick a list of points and then generate a dxf polyline from the points you selected.  I find the pointcloud is easier to extract data from as it is much sharper visually.  We also use orthophotos and trace but CloudCompare has become our preferred method.

[nadar]

In Autocad 2016 (and 2015 I guess) you can import very large point clouds (prepared with Autodesk's Recap application) and directly draw on it. There are plenty of efficient tools to make slices in the point cloud, to automatically recognise planes and edges, etc.

[Alexey Pasumansky]

Hello all,

Just a small comment on PTS format, it is now supported in PhotoScan for export points operation.

[nadar]

AutoCAD 2015 and 2016 can handle very large point clouds. Clouds must be preprocessed in Recap to generate a proprietary format (.RCP or .RCS) but then it's very fast

[NilsS]

I'd like to pic this topic up again and go a little further into detail concerning the workflow from exporting the orthofoto and drawing the lines in Illustrater/Autocad.

How do you manage to get the exact angle for generating the Orthomosaic considering that creating an Orthomosaic from"Current View" is always a manual setting.
How do you avoid mistakes in your object-alignment before creating the mosaic? Or are there other, more stable export options for redrawing models?

[dense_data]

Not sure if I missed the point, but instead of tracing you could import the mesh into a 3D modelling software (such as Blender) and do a non-photorealistic rendering (with Freestyle)  to get a line drawing.

[NilsS]

i think i understand what you are suggesting but for my usage it would be important to decide manually, which areas of the exported orthomosaic should be traced and how those lines should be the be represented on the final 2D drawing (e.g. lines or dashed lines).
So as far as i know, it seems essential to me, to trace the lines manually.