Poisson Surface

The Poisson Surface tool uses a technique for creating closed solids of underground voids.

The benefits of using the Poisson Surface tool:

  • The tool is resilient to noisy data and miss-registered artefacts.
  • The Poisson algorithm is a quick calculating and rendering process.
  • The Poisson algorithm will predict where missing scan points should be and fill in those voids.
  • The Poisson algorithm will also detect any extra unwanted points and ignore them for the surface reconstruction.
  • The tool is highly configurable to any surface types.

To reconstruct the surface using Poisson Surface:

  1. On the Labs ribbon tab navigate to the Create group and select Poisson Surface.

  2. Select the surface output type required from:

    • Create a one single surface or
    • Create a single surface per object.

  3. Under Point Normals, in the Nearest neighbour count field, enter the number of nearest neighbouring points to use for the reconstruction calculations.

    • A larger count will make the surface smooth out a lot more.
    • A lower count will make the surface appearance look coarser.

      • Hint:In most situations, a nearest neighbour count in the range 3-20 is recommended.

  4. Enter a value for the maximum depth / sub levels of calculations to use for surface reconstruction;

    • Higher values will create a more accurate surface with smaller triangles.
    • Low values will make the surface appearance look coarser using larger triangles.

      • Hint: A depth value between 8 and 16 will keep the surface clarity and detail.

  5. Set the scale ratio between the diameter of the cube used for reconstruction and the diameter of the bounding cube of the input sample data.

      Hint: A scale ratio of 1 as default is sufficient to use for the surface area.

  6. Tick Use linear fit if the surface reconstruction is to use linear interpolation to estimate the positions of the iso-vertices.

  7. Click OK or Apply.

In the below example, the scan (below left) had all the black areas (the voids) completely filled in by the using the Poisson surface tool. The details are preserved and edges are smoothed out.

    The settings used for this output are shown in the panel above.