How to create orthophotos from point clouds

Modified on Thu, 4 Jul at 12:40 PM

With NUBIGON, you can create high-resolution orthophotos directly from point clouds. 


Basic steps of creating an orthophoto

  • Select the active camera in the Object List. The name of the active camera is displayed in the bottom center of the viewport. 
  • Expand Object Attributes in the Object Inspector.
  • Switch to the orthographic view.
  • Launch the Orthophoto windowfrom the sidebar.
  • Customize the settings described below.
  • Press Export.


Resolution

You can choose from one of three resolution types:

  • Choose Viewport to capture an orthophoto of the current viewport resolution.
  • Max. dimension lets you specify the resolution of the longer side of the orthophoto.
  • Select Pixel size if you want to specify the size of pixels in meters. The pixel size will determine the resolution of the orthophoto.

Orthophoto generation has a resolution limit of 23170 pixels in width and height. This limit might be exceeded depending on the region to be captured and the chosen pixel size. In this case, you will be prompted with the following message in the Console window: "Cannot exceed the max. dimension of 23170. Increasing pixel size to …."


Region

You can choose whether to capture the content of the entire viewport or only a portion of it.

  • Choose Viewport to capture the entire viewport.
  • With the User-selected region, you can specify a rectangular viewport region after pressing the Export button. Optionally press & hold the Shift key to select a square region.


Use the cross-section tool to discard portions of the point cloud irrelevant to the orthophoto.


Output Options 

  • VRAM per tile [GB] controls the number of points rendered in each tile. Increase it to render more points. Keep in mind that this can prolong orthophoto generation.
  • Transparent background enables a transparent orthophoto background.
  • Write TFW (World) file forces the generation of a World file to store the georeference information.


Set the background colorfrom the toolbar.


When importing an orthophoto into CAD software, georeference it using the TFW file. All orthophotos generated in NUBIGON are to scale. Only top-view orthophotos are fully georeferenced. See the related article for exporting orthophotos into AutoCAD


Check out our tips to use x-ray in orthophotos.