Creating a Fly Throughs3.microsurvey.com.s3.amazonaws.com/Training_Forensic/IMS...“End Time” field to trigger an adjustment of the track to match the velocities. • Note how a

IMS Course Training Standard June 7, 2018

Leica Geosystems Incident Mapping Suite CTS – | © 2017 MicroSurvey Software Inc - 1 -

Creating a Fly Through

The Exercise

A fly through of a 2d, 3d or Point cloud can be created in the IMS Animation module. The drawing you work with requires the following elements:

• The Drawing or Pointcloud with the elements you need to see.

• A 3D polyline that defines the path to be followed by the animated camera

• A symbol should be inserted into the scene. This gives us a symbol we can animate and use as a location to mount an animated camera.

Opening the drawing

A drawing containing the needed elements can now be opened. We’ll use it to create a path and then create a fly through animation. 1. Start IMS 2. Pick “Open Scene”

3. Navigate to the location “Intersection” is stored and open the drawing.

Inspecting the Drawing

This file contains all the elements we need to start working. Before we define a path, let’s learn how to navigate our drawing using the Zoom and Pan tools built into IMS.

Viewing and Zooming

Common Commands

There are a number of ways to access the zoom tools to allow you to zoom in or out of portions of your diagram. The View tools can be found on the “Home” Ribbon:

Creating a Fly Through IMS Course Training Standard


The Zoom Window command allows you to zoom into a rectangular area that you specify by opposite corner points with the cursor.

You can find this button on the zoom fly out.

The Zoom Extent command allows you to see the entire drawing as large as possible in the window.

You can find this button on the zoom fly out.

The real-time pan button lets you pan around your drawing by dragging in the drawing area. To cancel the command, hit ESC on your keyboard.

Using the Mouse to Zoom and Pan

Zoom:Using a mouse with a scroll wheel is the easiest way to zoom in/out and to pan within a diagram. Position cursor over the area where you want to zoom and use the scroll wheel to zoom in or out. Pan:Position the cursor over a point within the diagram, press and hold the scroll wheel and move the mouse to pan within your diagram. Zoom Extents:Double click the mouse wheel to see your whole drawing in one step

Undo

You can undo steps you’ve completed in your drawing by pressing the Undo button. This takes you back one step so you can try again.



Executing Command Line Commands

When a command is typed in at the command line the user executes it by: 1. Pressing the [Enter] button on their keyboard. 2. Pressing the spacebar on their keyboard 3. Pressing the right mouse button on their mouse

Accessing Options from the Right Mouse Context Menu

If you have an entity highlighted, right click the mouse to see relevant options:



Canceling Commands

Escape This allows you to end a multistep operation so you can start again:

Escape is your friend!

Drawing the Path

Your drawing has points stored that we can use to guide drawing a path. Use you newly acquired navigation skills to look for points 1 to 5 and note they all have the description “Sidewalk.” Our path will be drawn using a 3D arc and will include two straight line segments with an arc in the middle:

Entity Snaps



Entity snaps are activated before you start a drawing command. They ensure that an entity that you are drawing adopts the exact X,Y,Z coordinates of the entity you are using as a guide.

• Find the Settings group in your Draw Ribbon

• Clear all active entity snaps (“Active” snaps are indicated by the orange highlight)

• Set the “Node Snap” active

Setting the Current Layer

Before drawing, ensure you set the “Animation” layer as “Current.”

• Select the pulldown to the right of the layers dialog.

• Move your mouse so that “Animation” is highlighted

• Left click so that “Animation” now shows in the current layer display.

Drawing a Path

“Draw a 3D Curve” is a command that is ideal for creating animation paths, both 2 Dimensional and 3 Dimensional.

• Look for “Polyline” in the “Draw” section of the “Draw” menu

• Select polyline and find “Draw a 3D Curve” in the extended options.

• Now watch the command bar for instructions while creating this path:



• Pick first point:

• When you see this prompt, mouse over point 1

• Note the Node snap icon. This indicates the node has been recognized and will ensure your path begins at these exact coordinates.

• Options: Redraw/Undo, or select segment type: Line/<Spline>/Arc

• Now we are seeing options for creating a 3D curve.

• Type “L” and enter to indicate we are drawing a line segment

• Then snap to “2”

• Options: Draw/Redraw/Undo/Close/Wrap/COarseness/Tension, or select segment type: <Line>/Spline/Arc, or pick next point:

• Now type “A” and enter to tell the routine we are going to select the first of two points that define an arc.

• Snap to 3


• Snap to 4




• Now type “L” and enter to tell the routine we are going to start drawing a new line segment

• Snap to 5


• Now we’re at the end of our path, but we have not yet created it.

• Note how when you zoom the red preview line vanishes.

• Type “R” and enter to turn the preview on.

• When you are satisfied with your work, complete the operation by typing “D” and enter.

• The path is complete

Save your work.

Creating the Animation

NOTE: Unlike many CAD commands, a 3D curve is not created when you hit “Enter.” You must select the Draw option before it is created. Follow the next section carefully.



We are now moving on to the next critical step, creating an animation file and creating our first symbol.

• Find “Animate” on the Animate Ribbon

• Select “Symbol” and “Add Symbol.”

• Select “Pick” and then select the 3D Person symbol that is positioned to the left of the road

• Select “3D Polyline, Straight” and then “Pick.”

• Select the polyline that connects points 1,2,3,4 and 5



• Pick “Apply” and now you can configure your Symbol Offsets.

• We want this symbol to move along the ground as a pedestrian would. Use the “Jogger” buttons to adjust the Z offset so that the blue plane representing the ground is at the symbol’s feet.

• Configure the Rotation setting to 270 degrees to correct the native rotation of the symbol so that the direction is forward travel matches that shown by the red arrow.

• Select “OK” to complete the operation.

The Result:



• File | Save as…

• Save your file as “Anim1”

Inserting a Camera

Next we’re going to insert a camera, and link it to the Person Symbol.

• Go to “Camera” and “Add Camera”

• Note in the image below that a new track has been added to your animation designer.

• Highlight the track by left clicking with your mouse so you can configure it.



Configuring Camera Position

• Select the “Camera” tab

• Select the “Symbol” radio button

• Select “Symbol 1” from the pulldown

• Set a Z Offset value of 25 feet, so that the camera will be mounted at above eye level on the symbol.

• Pick “Apply”

Configuring Camera Target

• Select the “Target” tab

• Select the “Forward Angle” radio button

• Set the Start Angle at 0


Configuring Viewtwist

• Select the “Viewtwist” tab

• There is nothing to change here




Previewing the Animation

Now that you’ve imported all the basic elements of an animation you can preview it, using either the Play button, the slider bar or typing in an exact time:

Hiding the Tracks

If you have a single screen it is good to know you can hide part of the Animation Designer dialog. Hide or unhide part of the dialog as you require:

• Select View

• Select “Show Tracks/Hide Tracks” button

Previewing

• Preview the animation by: 1. Type in a time and pick the

binocular icon 2. Pick the Play button 3. Pick and move the slider

widget

Adjusting the Time and Velocity of the Track

Now we need to adjust some of the specifics of this animation. The assumed velocity of 60 feet/sec is not accurate.

Setting the Velocity



• Show your tracks again

• Highlight the track for Symbol 1

• Select the Velocity Tab

• Edit the Start and End Velocities so they show 10 feet/sec


Adjusting the Time on the Symbol Track

• Pick the tuning fork icon next to the “End Time” field to trigger an adjustment of the track to match the velocities.

• Note how a new time value of 16.434672 has been calculated.


Setting the Camera Track time to match the Symbol Track time

• While still viewing the Symbol track, copy the time list by:

1. Highlight 2. Right click 3. copy

• Highlight the track for Camera 1

• Paste the value 16.434672 in the end time field by:

1. Highlight 2. Right click 3. paste


Setting a Camera Position

Now we are ready to play back and record our animation. We have many options for positioning and targeting of the camera, but in this example we’ll play yhr whole animation from the perspective of the person symbol, looking straight forward.



Setting the Playback View

• Open Playback | Set Playback view | Animated Camera Track

• Select ANIM CAM 1

• Now pick the “Play” button

• Pick the Stop button at any time to stop and reset the playback

• You can also use the Binocular icon or slider widget to move to different segments of your animation

• Try these options to preview your animation from the assigned camera.

Record your animation

Once all the details are in place, we can record an animation.

Setting the Visual Style

This drawing contains a limited number of 3D elements. By default they are rendered as Wireframe entities as this is more efficient. But now that we are recording we should change to “Realistic” view:

Once you have defined a playback view many of the viewing options in your drawing view are temporarily disabled, as shown in red below:

Resolve this issue by picking the “Perspective View” toggle found on the Home Ribbon as shown in green above.



• Switch to the “Home” ribbon

• Find the “Rendering” group

• You current visual style is displayed. (Usually it is 2D wireframe)

• Pick on the pulldown and select “Realistic.”

Recording

• Pick the “Record” button:

• Navigate to the folder you need to save your media file

• Enter a name for the media file

• Save



• Select a Video Compression Option

• (NOTE: your options may vary from this image)

• “OK”

The Result:

The animation will play back in your default media viewer software:

Documents

Creating a Fly Throughs3.microsurvey.com.s3.amazonaws.com/Training_Forensic/IMS...“End Time” field to trigger an adjustment of the track to match the velocities. • Note how a