Settings and SmartFilter

Two controls decide what you actually see on a capture. Settings, on the tool rail, turns layers on and off and sets how they look. SmartFilter, on the gizmo in aerial mode, cuts the 3D map down to the part you care about.

Settings - what is drawn

Settings controls what is drawn in the viewport and on the plan. It is the answer to most why can't I see... questions in SiteView.

Opening Settings

Click Settings at the bottom of the tool rail. The panel lists the categories in up to four groups, and the group tells you what kind of thing you are switching on. Dormitory B, L4 shows seven categories in four groups; a level with less set up shows fewer.

Click a category to open it.

1. Settings - opens the panel.
2. Markups - SpatialNotes and Measurements.
3. Designs - Reference Plans.
4. Reality Captures - Pano Bubbles and 3D Maps.
5. Others - Public Share and Integrations.

The twelve categories

Why your list is shorter

You will rarely see all twelve. A category appears only when the project has the data behind it: no work areas, no Work Areas category; no drone data, no Orthomosaic Images, Ground Control Points or Flight Path.

Two projects, two lists. A building project with no drone data and no work areas shows six: SpatialNotes, Reference Plans, Pano Bubbles, 3D Maps, Public Share, Integrations. A drone project shows a different six: Reference Plans, 3D Maps, Orthomosaic Images, Flight Path, Public Share, Integrations. Neither is missing anything.

Inside a category

Most categories are a switch and a control or two: a slider for size or opacity, a colour, a list to pick which item to show. Pano Bubbles is a typical one:

Reference Plans is the largest category: it picks the plan, sets its opacity and colour, and chooses which level it belongs to.

1. Back - returns to the category list.
2. Show on 2D / 3D Viewer - draw bubbles on the map and plan, in the tour and dollhouse, or both.
3. Radius, Stand Length, Project to the ground - bubble size, how high it floats, and whether it sits on the floor.
4. Reset - back to the defaults.

3D Maps - rendering style

3D Maps sets how the 3D map is drawn, in aerial mode and in the 3D Map view of first-person mode.

1. Rendering Style - RGB Point Cloud draws true colour.
2. Opacity - fades the point cloud.
3. Point Limit per Frame - how many points are drawn at once; lower it if the view is slow.
4. Point Size - Adaptive changes with distance, Fixed keeps one size.
5. Hide surfaces facing the camera - clears the near wall so you can see inside.
6. Reset - back to the defaults.

What Settings does not do

SmartFilter - cut into the 3D map

SmartFilter separates a 3D capture into the things it is made of, and lets you show only some of them, pick levels, or cut the model open.

Opening SmartFilter

SmartFilter works on the 3D map and on drone captures. It does nothing in first-person mode.

1. Click Aerial mode on the gizmo.
2. Click SmartFilter, the bottom-right button of the gizmo.
3. Pick a tab: Segments, Multi-Level or Clipping.

Drag the handle at the top left of the panel to move it out of the way.

Segments

Segments filters the points by what was detected in them. The panel lists each class with the share of the capture it accounts for, largest first. On a classified building level it reads like this: Wall 29%, Ceiling 28.4%, Floor 23%, Beam 6.3%, Debris / Clutter 5.8%, Pipe / Duct 2.2%, Railing 1.4%, Equipment 1.2%. A plant room reads differently: Energy Facility Level 1 is mostly Wall, Floor and Ceiling, then Equipment, Pipe / Duct, Railing, Electrical Box and Conduit.

1. Clear the classes you do not want to see.
2. Tick Select All to bring every class back.
3. Turn on Show unselected in true color to keep the cleared classes on screen in their original colours, instead of hiding them.

1. Select All - ticks or clears every class at once.
2. The classes - Wall, Ceiling, Floor, Beam, Debris / Clutter, Pipe / Duct, Railing, Equipment, each with its share of the points; untick one to hide it.
3. Show unselected in true color - on: hidden classes stay visible in photo colour; off: they disappear.
4. The dollhouse in class colours - each point coloured by what it is.

The full set is twenty labels, and it is the same twenty everywhere: one flat list, no groups above it. If your capture shows fewer, none are missing. Labels that do not occur in the capture, or that belong to levels you have not loaded, are shown greyed out and marked Not in loaded levels. Load more levels and they come back.

Multi-Level

Multi-Level brings the 3D models of other levels in beside the one you are on, for full-building context. Tick the levels you want; a multi-storey building can then be shown one level at a time or several together.

Levels come in as they load, so give a large building a moment. The tab only has something to offer when the capture has data on more than one level.

1. Levels you can bring in - tick L3 to draw it under L4.
2. L4 with L3 underneath - the building in context.

Clipping

Clipping cuts the model along three axes so you can see inside it. Each axis has two handles:

Drag a handle in to cut. The figure above each slider is the width that is left, and the figures under it are where the two cuts sit. A box drawn around the model shows what is kept.

Reset puts every cut back to the full extent.

1. Bottom / Top - the top handle dragged down, so the ceiling is cut away.
2. Front / Back - cut from the front or the back.
3. Left / Right - cut from either side.
4. Relative Range - shows the handles as distances from the model instead of coordinates.
5. Reset - puts the box back around the whole model.
6. The clipping box - what is left inside it is drawn.

What SmartFilter does not label

SmartFilter labels what a thing is, never what condition it is in. The twenty classes are building elements: floor, wall, duct, column. Nothing here marks corrosion, water damage, concrete defects, spills or cracks, and there is no confidence score on a class.

Changes from 4.0