Manage

Start the MANAGE portion of your MAeX workflow by using TopoPLANNER and TopoMISSION to layout, schedule and estimate the cost of your LIDAR project. These FREE web applications are used by hundreds of LiDAR project managers around the world. Simply register as a user, follow some intuitive instructions and you'll be estimating time, costs, and project logistics more accurately than ever before. Share these results with your team, your consultants, and your customers.

Once your project data and been acquired, continue the MANAGE process with TopoDOT's unique and powerful data organization tools. Define the tile shape and configuration that best meets your project's requirements and allow TopoDOT to automatically divide up your data within those tiles. TopoDOT will place an icon link at the center of each tile for easy access to your LiDAR data. Using TopoDOT's unique tools and processes, there are no practical limitations to your project size.

Assess

TopoDOT offers innovative tools to quickly "ASSESS" LiDAR data quality and calculate evaluation metrics. These tools and workflows are designed to establish a well-defined lineage from the point cloud data and calibrated images to the reference survey control coordinates. TopoDOT's automated tools quickly process and summarize the results of these metrics in an easily understood spreadsheet format.

Begin the ASSESS process by using TopoDOT's "Flight Line Assessment" tool to evaluate LiDAR data alignment. This tool assures that data alignment between multiple flight lines from mobile LiDAR systems or individual scans from static LiDAR systems is within a specified tolerance. Alignments outside that tolerance are flagged with results summarized in a spreadsheet report. Continue the ASSESS process by using TopoDOT's "Point Cloud to Data Analysis" tool. This tool will automatically compare the point cloud to survey control points assuring the point cloud position is within a specified tolerance. Deviations are summarized in a spreadsheet report. These two processes establish a clear lineage from LiDAR data to survey control coordinates.

eXtract

TopoDOT offers hundreds of productive processing tools for identifying, extracting and modeling features from LiDAR data. Each tool is designed to optimize the fidelity of the extracted model while minimizing the requirements on the necessary LiDAR data density, resolution and coverage. TopoDOT's exploits the synergy between calibrated images and point clouds making identification of features easier and extraction more accurate. TopoDOT's unique tools integrate quality assurance and feature extraction simultaneously yielding highly accurate 3D models and topographies. TopoDOT tools are easy to learn and well documented typically requiring only a few hours of training for productive use.

TopoDOT tools are designed to "simplify" the 3D LiDAR data environment by presenting the 3D data to the user in 2D. TopoDOT's "Breakline Extraction Tool" is a perfect example of how TopoDOT exploits this method. The user extracts in a 2D view, while simultaneously being presented with the data in the top view, asymmetric view and the calibrated image perspective view.

Whenever practically 100% reliability is possible, TopoDOT will automate feature extraction to the greatest extent possible. TopoDOT's road extraction tool is a perfect example of such automation. Road surfaces are accurately extracted automatically from the "original" LiDAR data. There is no need for expensive data filtering or "cleaning" to remove extraneous data resulting from passing cars, people, etc.

TopoDOT's "Cell Placement" tool provides the user with efficient tools to identify, locate and quickly place cells on features located within the scene while simultaneously storing metadata information. The "Elevation Grid" tool automatically extracts bare earth models from complex scenes. The resulting elevation points and breaklines often serve as inputs to DTM engines located in MicroStation™ itself or are easily exported to other CAD environments and associated DTM engines such as AutoCAD Civil3D™.

These are just a few examples of TopoDOT's hundreds of tools applicable not only in topography extraction, but across civil infrastructure, architecture, plant, engineering and construction operations. Click Here for a list of features that TopoDOT has to offer.