PointCloudSurfaceBuilder

Takes an input point cloud and reconstructs it into an output mesh.

Configuration

Input Ports

Output Ports

Parameters

General

Construction Mode	Specifies whether to use Simple Triangulation, Poisson, or Marching Cubes reconstruction. Simple Triangulation uses a greedy algorithm to connect points into surfaces. Poisson reconstruction creates a closed, smooth mesh. Marching Cubes uses the Hoppe signed distance function to estimate the distance of each point to a surface.
Normal Estimation Tolerance	The maximum number of neighbors to consider when performing normal estimation.
Clip Output Mesh	Specifies whether to clip the output mesh based on the distance between mesh vertices and original point cloud points.
Clipping Distance	The maximum allowable distance between each vertex in the output mesh and the closest point in the original point cloud. Vertices beyond this limit will be removed from the output mesh.

Triangulation

Search Radius	The maximum distance between points. Practically, this is the maximum edge length for every triangle.
Multiplier	The maximum acceptable distance for a point to be considered, relative to the distance of its nearest point.
Maximum Nearest Neighbors	The maximum number of neighbors to consider when performing surface reconstruction.
Minimum Angle (Degrees)	The minimum angle in each triangle.
Maximum Angle (Degrees)	The maximum angle in each triangle.
Maximum Surface Angle (Degrees)	Sets the maximum angle between point normals. Above this maximum, points will not be connected.
Consistent Normals	Specifies whether input normals are consistently oriented.
Consistent Vertex Ordering	Sets whether output triangle vertices should be ordered consistently.

Poisson

Maximum Depth	Specifies the maximum depth of the tree that will be used for surface reconstruction. Higher values can result in more detailed output at the cost of performance.
Minimum Depth	Specifies the minimum depth of the tree that will be used for surface reconstruction. Higher values can result in more detailed output at the cost of performance.
Point Weight	Specifies the importance that interpolation of the point samples is given in the formulation of the screened Poisson equation. The results of the original (unscreened) Poisson Reconstruction can be obtained by setting this value to 0.
Scale	Specifies the ratio between the diameter of the cube used for reconstruction and the diameter of the samples’ bounding cube.
Solver Divide Depth	Sets the depth at which a block Gauss-Seidel solver is used to solve the Laplacian equation. This parameter can be used to reduce memory overhead at the cost of a small increase in reconstruction time. Solver Divide Depth must be greater than or equal to Minimum Depth.
Isosurface Divide Depth	Sets the depth at which a block iso-surface extractor should be used to extract the iso-surface. This parameter can be used to reduce memory overhead at the cost of a small increase in extraction time. Isosurface Divide Depth must be greater than or equal to Minimum Depth.
Samples Per Node	Specifies the minimum number of sample points that should fall within an octree node as the octree construction is adapted to sampling density. Larger values should be used for more noisy input data.
Confidence	Enabling this parameter causes normals to be used as confidence information. When disabled, normals are normalized to have unit-length before reconstruction.
Output Polygons	Specifies whether a polygon mesh or a triangle mesh should be output.
Manifold	Enabling this parameter causes the polygon barycenter to be added when triangulating polygons with more than three vertices.

Marching Cubes

Grid X Resolution	Sets the resolution along the x-axis of the cubic grid used for processing. Higher values will generally give more detailed results, at the cost of longer processing time.
Grid Y Resolution	Sets the resolution along the y-axis of the cubic grid used for processing. Higher values will generally give more detailed results, at the cost of longer processing time.
Grid Z Resolution	Sets the resolution along the z-axis of the cubic grid used for processing. Higher values will generally give more detailed results, at the cost of longer processing time.
Isosurface Level	Sets the iso level of the surface to be extracted.
Grid Extend Percentage	Sets the percentage of the bounding box that should be left empty between the bounding box and the grid limits.

Editing Transformer Parameters

Using a set of menu options, transformer parameters can be assigned by referencing other elements in the workspace. More advanced functions, such as an advanced editor and an arithmetic editor, are also available in some transformers. To access a menu of these options, click beside the applicable parameter. For more information, see Transformer Parameter Menu Options.

Defining Values

There are several ways to define a value for use in a Transformer. The simplest is to simply type in a value or string, which can include functions of various types such as attribute references, math and string functions, and workspace parameters. There are a number of tools and shortcuts that can assist in constructing values, generally available from the drop-down context menu adjacent to the value field.

How to Set Parameter Values

Using the Text Editor

The Text Editor provides a convenient way to construct text strings (including regular expressions) from various data sources, such as attributes, parameters, and constants, where the result is used directly inside a parameter.

Text Editor

Using the Arithmetic Editor

The Arithmetic Editor provides a convenient way to construct math expressions from various data sources, such as attributes, parameters, and feature functions, where the result is used directly inside a parameter.

Arithmetic Editor

Conditional Values

Set values depending on one or more test conditions that either pass or fail.

Parameter Condition Definition Dialog

Content

Expressions and strings can include a number of functions, characters, parameters, and more.

When setting values - whether entered directly in a parameter or constructed using one of the editors - strings and expressions containing String, Math, Date/Time or FME Feature Functions will have those functions evaluated. Therefore, the names of these functions (in the form @<function_name>) should not be used as literal string values.

Content Types

String Functions	These functions manipulate and format strings.
Special Characters	A set of control characters is available in the Text Editor.
Math Functions	Math functions are available in both editors.
Date/Time Functions	Date and time functions are available in the Text Editor.
Math Operators	These operators are available in the Arithmetic Editor.
FME Feature Functions	These return primarily feature-specific values.
FME Parameters	FME and workspace-specific parameters may be used.
Creating and Modifying User Parameters	Create your own editable parameters.

Dialog Options - Tables

Transformers with table-style parameters have additional tools for populating and manipulating values.

Table Tools

Row Reordering

Enabled once you have clicked on a row item. Choices include:

Add a row
Remove a row
Move current row up one
Move current row down one
Move current row to top
Move current row to bottom

Cut, Copy, and Paste

Enabled once you have clicked on a row item. Choices include:

Cut a row - delete and copy to clipboard
Copy a row to the clipboard
Paste a row from the clipboard

Cut, copy, and paste may be used within a transformer, or between transformers.

Filter

Start typing a string, and the matrix will only display rows matching those characters. Searches all columns. This only affects the display of attributes within the transformer - it does not alter which attributes are output.

Import

Import populates the table with a set of new attributes read from a dataset. Specific application varies between transformers.

Reset/Refresh

Generally resets the table to its initial state, and may provide additional options to remove invalid entries. Behavior varies between transformers.

Note: Not all tools are available in all transformers.

FME Community

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Keywords: point "point cloud" cloud PointCloud LiDAR sonar