Prerequisites and points cleaning (read this first)

Both RGB point clouds and RGB panorama images are needed for AIM to process your data. We cannot process datasets with only point clouds at the moment.

The displayed export methods ensure that AIM understands which points were seen from which scan position, and that the associated RGB photos are included in the export.

AIM can also display (drone) photogrammetry results exported as textured meshes.

Trimble RealWorks

For all operations, first select your project (it is the child of "WorkSpace" in the "Scans" project tree explorer). For large projects, you need to wait a few seconds after this.

Provide AIM with an export folder containing the following:

1. The point clouds in E57 format, into subfolder "pointclouds". From the Home tab, choose Export and Export TZF Scans of Selected Stations (Structured E57, ...). For older versions (< 2024.00), this option is called Convert to E57. In the dialog, choose E57.

2. The equirectangular panorama images, into subfolder "panos".

a. For current versions of RealWorks (>= 2024.00):

1. From the Imaging tab, choose Export Panorama with Location and

Orientation.

b. For versions >= 12.4.2 but < 2024.00:

1. From the Home tab, choose Export and Export TZF Images.

c. For older versions of RealWorks (< 12.4.2):

1. From the Edit tab, click Create Station Images from TZF Color. (If this

button is greyed out, see Exporting laser-intensity panos from

RealWorks.)

This generates cube maps and ensures they are in the RTF below.

2. For each scan station separately, click it in the upper "WorkSpace"

panel, select all 6 cube sides from the lower panel (e.g. "Scan 1_front",

"Scan 1_top"etc.), and in the Home tab click Export -> Export Images,

which pops up 6 save dialogues. This workflow is a bit tedious (takes a

few seconds per scan station); we recommend upgrading to RealWorks

>= 12.4.2 if possible.

3. The poses of the images, into the top-level folder.

a. For current versions of RealWorks (>= 2024.00):

1. Move the file "panos\*.csv" to the top-level of your folder, and rename it to

"trimble-cameras.csv".

2. From the Home tab, choose Export and Export Station Positions to CSV

File.

Save the file as "trimble-positions-mm.csv". In the popup, set Unit to

Millimeters.

b. For versions >= 12.4.2 but < 2024.00:

1. Select your project (it is the child of "WorkSpace" in the "Scans" project

tree explorer).

2. From the Imaging tab, choose Export and Export Location and

Orientation.

(If this button is greyed out, see Exporting laser-intensity

panos from RealWorks.)

Save the file as "trimble-cameras.csv" with CSV

format. Open it with a text editor and verify that it has the format

"filename,x,y,z,qx,qy,qz,qw".

c. For older versions of RealWorks (< 12.4.2):

1. Increase the pose precision by going into the RealWorks: In the

Preferences, go to Units and change Decimal Places to "8".

2. From the Home tab, choose Export and Export Object Properties. Save

the file as "trimble-poses" with RTF File Format.

If you use RealWorks < 12.4.2, please upgrade. The older format is a pain to maintain and not very reliable to use. It will also cause you lots of manual clicking.

Note we are aware of a bug in Trimble RealWorks that makes the export of "trimble-cameras.csv" fail, producing an almost-empty CSV file if scan station names contain non-English (non-ASCII) characters. As a workaround, each station name can be renamed individually in RealWorks.

When you are done, the export folder should look as follows:

For current versions of RealWorks:

name-of-your-export-folder

trimble-cameras.csv

trimble-positions-mm.csv ⬅ if you use RealWorks >= 2024

pointclouds

Station_1.e57

Station_2.e57

...

panos

Station_1_Color.jpg

Station_2_Color.jpg

...

For older versions of RealWorks (< 12.4.2)::

name-of-your-export-folder

trimble-poses.rtf

pointclouds

Station_1.e57

Station_2.e57

...

panos

Scan 1_back.jpg

Scan 1_bottom.jpg

Scan 1_front.jpg

Scan 1_left.jpg

Scan 1_top.jpg

Scan 2_back.jpg

...

Step 1: Exporting scans via the Export tab (for various RealWorks versions):

Step 2a1: Export Panorama with Location and Orientation:

Step 2b1: Exporting pano images as TZF:

Step 2c1: Creating Station Images:

Step 2c2: Exporting cube side images:

Step 3a2: Exporting station positions as CSV:

Step 3b1: Exporting pano images as CSV:

Step 3c1: Setting decimal places high:

Step 3c2: Exporting trimble-poses.rtf:

Exporting laser-intensity panos from RealWorks

RealWorks cannot currently directly export uncoloured scans as panorama photos. Some important buttons, such as "Create Station Images from TZF Color" and "Export Location and Orientation", will be greyed out.

If you wish for AIM to show grayscale intensity laser panoramas in AIM for situations where you scanned without colour, you need to use the following workaround:

Export laser intensity panos from RealWorks and re-import them; then RealWorks will treat the greyscale images as RGB images, and make the above needed buttons available.

Steps:

1. Export all greyscale panoramas as JPG into a folder via

Home -> Export -> Export TZF images.

These images are not useful for AIM, do not upload them to AIM.

2. Edit -> Open RealColor.

3. Drag-drop in the JPGs you exported in step 1.

4. In the RealColor GUI, order the images by Name, ensure images match in the

left column.

5. Select all images with the mouse. Click Match.

6. Save the project, close the RealColor GUI.

7. Delete (in Windows Explorer) the greyscale panoramas folder you created in

step 1.