Viewing Photos in the Photo Viewer

The photo viewer allows you to get a better view of a particular photo as well as highlights and provides a graphic display of the strength of each of the photo features, i.e., how many other photos contain each of the features that were automatically identified in this photo. You can display either the matched features identified in the preliminary match process of the AT step or the matched sparse point cloud features, whose match quality was validated and position calculated during the AT’s bundle adjustment process. This information is only available after the AT build step is complete.

In addition to a single docked viewer, multiple instances of a floating viewer can be opened simultaneously.

To view a photo in the Photo Viewer:

1.     Select the required photo. See "Selecting Photos" in this chapter for information. Then on the ribbon's Photo tab, in the View group, click Photo Viewer. The Photo Viewer opens with the selected photo displayed. If a different photo is selected, then it replaces the previously displayed photo in the viewer. You can also click any camera symbol in the 3D Window to open the corresponding photo in the photo viewer.

Note:        To open a photo in an additional floating photo viewer, without closing or replacing the photos in any currently open viewers, in the Project Tree, select the Photos group, and then in the Photos list, right-click the required photo, and select Open in a Floating Photo Viewer. A floating photo viewer opens with the selected photo displayed in a photo viewing window.

2.     Use the Photo Viewer ribbon commands to zoom in  and out .

3.     If you want to highlight matched features in the photo and color-code them according to the number of times they were found in other photos, do the following:

a.     Select which of the following matched features to show:   

·         Show Features from Match  - Display all the matched features identified in the preliminary match process of the AT step.

·         Show Features from Sparse  - Display all matched sparse point cloud features, whose match quality was validated and position calculated during the AT’s bundle adjustment process.

b.     Click Show Features . A photos panel is added to the Photo Viewer with all the photos which have features in common with the selected photo based on the AT build step. In the photo viewing window, the photo’s features are color coded according to the number of other photos in which they appear:

·         Gray – Feature wasn’t found in any other photo (no match)

·         Yellow – Feature was found in one other photo

·         Green – Feature was found in two or more photos

Color-Coded Features

c.     Select a viewing format for the photos panel:

·          – View as thumbnails

·          – View in table format with information about name, collection, and number of matches for each photo.

d.     In the photos panel, select which features to display in the photo viewing window:

·         All features in the selected photo (including "gray" features that weren’t found in other photos)

·         All features in the selected photo that were found in at least one more photo

·         Only the matched features between the photo selected in the photo panel and the main photo. Double-click a photo in the Photos panel to select this photo as the main photo in the viewer.

Note:        This information is only available in Review mode after aerotriangulation was completed. See "Setting Build Steps, Parameters, and Outputs" in the "Building" chapter. Build steps after aerotriangulation do not need to be completed to view this information.

Show Features

e.     To darken the image so that the feature markers are more noticeable, click Dim mode .

f.      If you want to identify all photos that contain a specific feature, click Select , and select a feature in the photo viewing window. The photo panel displays all photos that include this feature. In thumbnail mode, the thumbnails are zoomed in to the point of interest and display a red plus + sign where the feature is located. Click Select  to toggle the selection mode off.

Show Photos Connected to Selected Feature