Bandwagon's Drones Thread

Bandwagon · Feb 2, 2017

I was mainly concerned about alignment on the clouds. I'm not sure if I'm right, but I thought I remember reading that cloud compare doesn't read point coordinates and just used a local system. I thought there would be an issue with alignment if that was the case.

I was planning on making a 0.1' grid off the dtm(s) and and making a surface off of those to compare in cad, but I wasn't sure if there was a better (or more accurate) option. I figured this was the backup, since we'd just be doing it the same way they have been, by importing ground shots.

Is it pretty simple in Civil 3D though? I don't remember if I have a Civil 3D license at work, but I could just send the surfaces to one of the guys that does if it's a simple process.

Vepil · Feb 3, 2017

Very simple. If they have both surfaces in the CAD file its a few mouse clicks and you have a cut/fill volume report in seconds.

I have not use it myself so I cannot comment how it works with imports, however I did read this:

"CloudCompare reads the coordinates (and only the coordinates), then it translates them (if necessary) before letting the user work with the data, and eventually it translates them back to their original values when exporting the data. So the coordinates should be the same before and after."

Your software producing the point cloud should assign the coordinates and the surfaces overlay. When you import to cloudcompare it appears to convert to a coordinate they prefer working with. I would hope cloudcompare will convert both surfaces to similar coordinate zones so you can work with them otherwise you may have to use the transformation command they have.

Bandwagon · Feb 3, 2017

I have only worked with it once, and it was with uncontrolled clouds that I had to manually register.

I think that as long as Civil 3D is an easy, safe and reliable way to do it, I'll feel more comfortable playing around with the other options and seeing what I like. I'm curious to see how close the two different methods are too

Lenardo · Feb 3, 2017

i suck at volumes- since i do them so rarely, i always have to "retrain" myself on how to do them.

i haven't touched civil 3d in about 14 years -when it first came out- due to it sucking wind(when it first came out)...until the city of boston water and sewer dept requires files in a newer cad format- we are sticking with land development desktop 2006 (it came with civil 3d pro and actually could do the things we wanted to do--unlike civil 3d pro - which couldn't on it's initial release -they fixed the issue the next release but still when pretty much every land surveyor in existence says we cannot use the software because it will not do THIS...well that is an issue (basic function too--importing survey data- initial release of civil 3d pro could not do this)

Bandwagon · Feb 3, 2017

I have two flights in Seattle on Monday.
0.7 miles south of SEATAC on the first one and 1,212 ft north of the runway on the second one. :/ I'm heading that way the day after tomorrow and I still haven't heard from the FAA on the max altitude I can fly at for the 2nd flight. Supposedly it will either be 200ft or 50ft.

I'm also supposed to fly a ~900ft tall basalt cliff on Wednesday if the snow is gone. Little nervous about that one. We're using paintballs to mark some control points on the face of the cliff and that's the only thing I'm nervous about - being able to see the little fuckers. Planning to do 3 flights at 400ft above the terrain and a 4th flight at 200ft (to hopefully pick up the paint balls), but that means I'm low enough that I could turn right into the face of the cliff.

Lenardo · Feb 3, 2017

you should be able to see them @200'
@180' i was able to find the survey triangle points our field guys do
normal .60 cal paintballs? that will give you about an inch dot of paint with splatter...to make it easier to find, try to do 3 shots as a "close" triangle (try to get it under 2' in size) and pick the top of the triangle (3 marks easier to find than 1 imo) what color paint? normal bright orange?

image in spoiler--- see the yellow arrow sign @ intersection on right...just under that in the street before the breakdown lane are 3 paint marks about the size of a paintball...much easier finding a triangle than a point... (btw that is one of my GCP's -an actual traverse pk nail in the center of the triangle)

Bandwagon · Feb 3, 2017

I don't want any confusion as to which Mark is which.

I'm planning to process just using the gcps on the road, and then Mark the paintball shots after the point cloud is already controlled with the others. Should let me zero right in on them

Lenardo · Feb 3, 2017

that will work, i am just thinking @200' unless the contrast in colors is very distinct, it might be a bit hard to find said 1" dot with a bit o' splatter.

Bandwagon · Feb 3, 2017

3 white splatters would be just as hard to see, imo.

Looks like we're ordering a tethered drone this week.

I'm going to be testing these guys out soon - www.datafromsky.com

Friday · Feb 5, 2017

Hey Bandwagon,

With my DJI Phantom 3 Advanced what would be the easiest way to get my feet wet with this sort of stuff?

Bandwagon · Feb 6, 2017

Friday said:
Hey Bandwagon,

With my DJI Phantom 3 Advanced what would be the easiest way to get my feet wet with this sort of stuff?

You need a mission planner/GCS & a way to process photos.

Mission Planners (mobile apps)

Pix4D Capture
DroneDeploy
Litchi
MapsMadeEasy MapPilot (I think that's the MME app)

Process Photos-
Pix4D (trial)
DroneDeploy (trial)
Propeller Aero (trial)

DroneDeploy is probably the easiest way to get started. Fly a grid over your backyard with 70% frontlap/sidelap (should be default), and then upload to dronedeploy.

Bandwagon · Feb 6, 2017

This is from a shitty intersection on the south side of town that the city is going to be doing a bunch of work on.

First video is at 150ft, simulating a tethered drone.

Second video is at 390ft, simulating an untethered flight

Friday · Feb 7, 2017

Bandwagon said:
You need a mission planner/GCS & a way to process photos.

Mission Planners (mobile apps)

Pix4D Capture
DroneDeploy
Litchi
MapsMadeEasy MapPilot (I think that's the MME app)

Process Photos-
Pix4D (trial)
DroneDeploy (trial)
Propeller Aero (trial)

DroneDeploy is probably the easiest way to get started. Fly a grid over your backyard with 70% frontlap/sidelap (should be default), and then upload to dronedeploy.

I'm going to fly a mission like this over the weekend and process the results. I'll post my findings afterwards for review.

Bandwagon · Feb 7, 2017

Good luck!

Upload the photos to gdrive and send me a link if you don't want to mess with processing on the first one

Bandwagon · Feb 8, 2017

I have about 150,000 acres of 10ft interval contour lines and I'm trying to mark all of the south-facing slopes.

Using Carlson Civil Suite 2016 with AutoCAD.....Anyone know if it's possible to do this automagically?

Vepil ?

Vepil · Feb 8, 2017

No idea about Carlson last time I used it was 2007. Don't really have any suggestions either sorry. I will ask around at work tomorrow and see what others say.

Bandwagon · Feb 8, 2017

Vepil said:
No idea about Carlson last time I used it was 2007. Don't really have any suggestions either sorry. I will ask around at work tomorrow and see what others say.

Alright, thanks. And sorry to keep asking you Carlson-specific questions. I assume that if you can do it on your software, there’s a chance that I can do it in Carlson.

Bandwagon · Feb 8, 2017

Halfway there....I think....

Vepil · Feb 8, 2017

I don't mind, it keeps me learning new ways to do things.

Bandwagon · Feb 8, 2017

So, the slope angle analysis function gives you the opportunity to create hatches for the different slope angles, but the slope direction function does not. Pretty annoying.

The slope direction function lets you fill in the triangles of the mesh with a user defined color for the different directions, but no option for nofill/transparency.

I set the directions that I didn't want to a color that doesn't plot, but I found out that the no-plot colors will also mask the background layers, which would cover my ortho.

I'm planning to just set them to a very, very light gray and set the SW/S/SE slopes to dark colors and then changing the transparency of the entire layer to ~80%.
Hopefully that will work well and I can get this fucker out the door tomorrow. I already had to fill in all of the parcels with ownership information...I really didn't want to have to create hatches for all of the south facing slopes by hand.

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