Preparing the Sumoto Castle Point Cloud for Presentation

Last time, I prepared the point cloud data of the Sumoto Castle ruins to the point where it could be handled in Navisworks.

This time, I will continue from there.

As part of the work at Kukan Honyakusha, I will create view images for the report from the point cloud.

Looking only at the finished images, it might seem like the process ends with just deciding on a viewpoint and exporting the image.

However, in reality, there are several adjustments made before that.

This time, I will share a little bit about the work behind the stable quality.

First, I decided on the locations to view from within the Sumoto Castle ruins and registered the views.

The locations registered this time are:

• Sumoto Castle

• Observation Deck

• Teahouse

• Sumoto Castle Entrance

• Hachioji Shrine

• Hachioji Shrine Approach

• Restroom

• East Climbing Stone Wall

—a total of 8 locations.

For the client's usage, I anticipate they will view the report and switch between these registered views.

I adjusted the viewing angle for each and exported the images for the report.

Looking at this alone, it just looks like I displayed the point cloud, decided on a view, and exported the images.

However, there is one more thing I am adjusting here.

It is the display size of the points.

In areas where the point cloud is sparse, if the point size is small, it looks empty and the shape is difficult to discern.

So this time, I checked by changing the point display size in stages from 1 to 9.

For example, the "Teahouse".

At point size 1, it is quite sparse. It is almost invisible.

With this, it is difficult to read the shape of the building and its surroundings.

So, will it be easier to see if I make the points larger?

This time, the points are too dense, and the fine details are crushed.

I will check the values in between as well.

For this "Teahouse," I determined that a point size of 4 was the most natural.

However, this is not the end of it.

Just because a point size of 4 was easy to see in the Teahouse does not mean it can be used as-is for other views.

In fact, in the view of Sumoto Castle, setting the point size to 4 caused the points to overlap and become difficult to see.

In other words,there is no single "correct display size" for the entire point cloud.

The optimal display changes depending on the location being viewed.
In addition to the "Teahouse," a point size of 9 was adopted for the "East Climbing Stone Wall."

Decide on the viewing angle.

Change the point display size.

Compare them.

Adjust if necessary.

And then, export the images for the report.

I repeat these tasks for every single view.

The finished images do not show this adjustment process.

However, at Kukan Honyakusha,we do not just "export images for the sake of it"; we prepare the location until its shape is easy to read before making it into a report.

For the Sumoto Castle ruins this time, I created eight views.

For each of those eight images, I adjusted the viewing angle and display settings.

The accumulation of these detailed tasks becomes the foundation for creating reports of as stable a quality as possible, even when the location changes.

When people think of working with point clouds, they tend to focus on loading and processing the data.

But there are also many decisions to be made at the stage of actually making it into "something for people to see."

This time, I introduced a part of the behind-the-scenes process.