ContextCapture Update 16 (link to LIVE chat)

ContextCapture Update 16 was released on 5th of August, just on time for my birthday. ??

We had a live chat last week with S?awomir Ha?at, our User Success Manager, where we discussed and showcased the main new functionalities of ContextCapture Update 16.

This update is really all about optimizing the workflow. Most of the functionalities released will help you becoming more efficient as well as adapting better to more challenging projects. The main improvements that we covered during the live chat:

New touch-up tools and quality control

This feature allows you to “clean-up” your mesh from artifacts and other non-desired objects on your 3D mesh, within the same ContextCapture environment. After running the AT and reconstruction, you can open the touch-up tool. Then, you have two options:

1. Use the semi-automated "mesh cleaning" tool which will take you through the automatically identified artifacts, so you can easily keep or remove them

2. Manually select the artifact and remove it from your 3D mesh

NOTE: The touch-up tool works best with tile size below 2 million triangles. Please remember this before starting your reconstruction. Even with a very capable computer, we strongly recommend tiling your project in order to optimize the workflow.

New alternate AT engine available as a preset (robust on challenging scenes)

The new alternate AT engine is a great tool for challenging projects where, because of the similarity of the scene, the software might not be able to scale or extract the geometry very accurately. This new AT looks at a larger number of key points and iterations, without the need for additional pictures. The downside is that this process might take 20 – 30% longer. The AT process is generally speaking not very long but be aware that there is no need to use this option unless you are dealing with a complex project.

Optimized reconstruction for vertical assets captured with an orbit path

This is a new reconstruction mode for vertical assets which provides, as highlighted on the image, a much more accurate geometry for vertical assets.

New function to merge tiled orthophotos and DSM

ContextCapture has a project limitation of 300Gigapixels and 500 Million points. Larger datasets can be split-up in several projects and you can now easily merge the tiled orthophotos and digital models afterwards.

Improvements we did not cover in the live chat but worth mentioning:

• New 3Dmesh format “OpenCities Planner”
• Faster reconstruction - by about 20%
• New Block Export to Orbit 3DSM
• New Reference Manager. Enabling cloud synchronization of Image Collections and updated reference manager UI
• Updated 3DTiles format for consumption in 3rd part software

"This update is really all about helping our customers becoming more efficient even with the most challenging projects."

Please get in touch if you want to share your feedback with us. And stay tuned for our next LIVE chat!

Happy processing!

Alicia