Viewing

Source file: viewing.htm

The scene viewer displays the scanned area overlaid with zones of interest and heatmaps indicating movement. The scene viewer can also display the photographic image captured by the scanner (provided the monitoring scanner was fitted with a camera).

The overlaid heatmap translucency is adjustable with the left vertical slider. With decreasing translucency, more of the underlying point cloud or image becomes visible.

Follow the instructions in this section for managing scene views.

Scene image

The scene image is a composite 2D image of the scan data at a given time. The scene image consists of the following main elements:

• Background: An image based on data acquired from the scanner.

• Heatmap: An overlay indicating the magnitude of movement.

• Zones: Regions of interest defined by the user.

Background image

You can set the background image to show either photographic or laser intensity data from the scanner. The resolution of the background image is based on the scan resolution.

• To change the background image type, click the photo/laser intensity toggle button ( or ), located in the top-left corner of the scene viewer. The button icon indicates the current background image type, either for photographic, or for laser intensity.

Heatmap

The heatmap shows the magnitude of displacement or velocity for each cell within the current scan relative to the measurement base.

You can control heatmap visualisation in the following ways:

• Click the (Hide or show heatmap) button to show or hide the heatmap.

• Click the heatmap type selector drop-down button, located next to the button, to set the heatmap type.

• Use the heatmap translucency slider, located next to the heatmap legend, to make the heatmap more or less translucent.

See Preferences > Views for instructions on configuring the heatmap colour scheme.

Zones

Zones are indicated by frames drawn on the scene and either descriptive or numbered labels. See Configuring > Configuring zones for instructions on defining zones.

Scene viewer actions

Follow the instructions below to manipulate the scene view.

Scene viewer—2D mode

The image below shows a snapshot of a scene made up of a laser intensity scan created on 21-Mar-2025 at 12:03, overlaid with a heatmap that indicates displacement. Using the heatmap legend (far left), Zone 5 and Zone 9 indicate the most movement towards the scanner.

Note:  Positive values represent movement towards the scanner and negative values represent movement away from the scanner.

Following is a snapshot of the same scene with the heatmap image made slightly more translucent to expose more of the scan data. In this view the surface details of the scene are more visible and may make zone creation easier.

Manipulate the 2D view as follows:

• To pan, drag with either the left or middle mouse button.

• To zoom on the cursor location, rotate the scroll wheel.

• To zoom on the view centre, drag vertically with the right mouse button. Alternatively, drag the zoom slider located at the right side of the scene viewer.

• Click on a zone to select that zone.

Scene viewer—3D mode

You can view scenes in 3D mode to get a better impression of perspective and depth.

• Click the (Switch between 2D and 3D view) button in the bottom-left corner of the scene viewer to toggle the view into 3D mode. Click the button again to revert to 2D mode.

The image below shows the same snapshot of the scene in 3D view made up of cells derived from a scan, overlaid with a heatmap that indicates displacement.

Manipulate the 3D view as with the 2D view except:

• Press and hold the left mouse button while moving the mouse to rotate around the centre of rotation.

• Click anywhere on the surface to change the centre of rotation.

The following buttons only appear in 3D view:

	Recentre Click to reorient the view, putting the axes in the centre of the view.
	Hide unselected Click to hide areas of a scene outside selected zones (only available when at least one zone is selected). Click again to reveal hidden areas.

All the other areas and zones were hidden from view.

Scene viewer—full screen mode

You can enlarge the view to occupy the full screen. Click the (Full screen (F11)) button in the bottom right-hand corner of the view to toggle full screen mode.

Tip:  You can also toggle full screen mode by pressing the function key F11.

Stepping through the scene in time

The scan time of the scene image currently being viewed is displayed in the top-right corner of the scene viewer.

• Click the (View previous scan) button (or press the left arrow key) to step the scan time back to the previous scan in the series.

• Click the (View next scan) button (or press the right arrow key) to step the scan time forwards to the next scan in the series.

• Click the (View latest scan) button to set the scan time to the most recent scan.

The scan time can also be set by dragging the time slider in the dashboard graph view.

Cell queries

You can obtain information about a cell, a region of cells, or a zone using cell queries.

• To toggle cell query mode on and off, on the Home ribbon tab, from the Query group, click Cell Selection.

With the remaining controls in the Query group, you can customise the information and appearance of a cell query with the following options:

• Items: Deselect any details in the drop-down list that are not required.

• Font Size: Adjust the height of the query text.

• Colour: Select a different text colour from the palette.