Collage Web

Project viewer

The Project Viewer is Collage Web's component to display, work with and export mass data.

When a Project name or thumbnail is selected in the Projects page, the viewer will open automatically, loading the project layers and displaying them in the views.

Note: if you see an error message about some layers failing to load in the project, or some layer fails to display, your user may not have permissions to access the data. Please check with your organization's account administrator.

Panel layout

The Project Viewer area is organized in panels to display and work with the data:

• 1. Left panel. It contains the Layers tab (Layer Manager) and Preferences tab.
• 2. Data views. This central space can contain one or two views, which can be the 3D View, the Map View or the Section View.
• 3. Right panel. It contains the Tools options area at the top, and the Properties area at the bottom.

The left and right panels can be resized by dragging their borders, and collapsed by clicking the side buttons:

Project menu

In the left panel, the three-dot project menu next to the project name offers commands to manage the content of the project.

Adding an existing layer to the project

The user can add existing layers to the project by using the "Add layer" command from the Layers tab menu. This command opens the Layer Browser, where the user can select one or more layers to add to the project.

Similarly to the Layers page, in the Layer Browser we can filter by layer type and name. We can also choose a grid or list view of the layers.

In the next sections of this online help, we will see how the other project menu commands work.

Layers tab

This tab is in the left panel. It shows the layers included in the project, grouped by type or category.

In the Layers tab, the user can:

• Filter the list of layers by name, using the input field.
• Change the visibility of layers by clicking on the buttons and checkboxes next to group items (e.g. PointClouds) and checkboxes in individual layer items. These checkboxes and buttons become visible when the group or layer is selected.

  For groups, these operations are possible:

  • Make all the children layers visible (but individual layers can still be changed)
  • Make all the children layers invisible (but individual layers can still be changed)
  • With the checkbox, switch off the group (make the group data invisible) or restore the original visibility

  

• Access the layer command bar at the bottom of the tab:

  

Layer properties

By selecting a layer (or layer group) in the Layer Manager, we can see its attributes or options in the Properties area at the bottom of the Right Panel.

In this area the user can see general layer properties like Name and Description. These properties can be edited, and will be saved automatically in the project after a few seconds.

Point clouds style

In addition, the layer Style properties depend on its data type. For point clouds, Style properties allow the user to select:

• The drawing rule (color mode) for the points:
• • RGB color
  • Greyscale intensity
  • Colored intensity
  • Elevation
  • Classified (if classification values are available)
  • Fixed color
• The geometry used to draw each point:
• • A square
  • A circle
  • An oriented circle (follows the surface shape)
• The light option: which shades each point depending on its orientation.
• The opacity value: which can be reduced to make the point cloud transparent.

In addition, point sizing can be Fixed or Automatic. In the second case, the distance to neighbor points is used to calculate the size of the point. In this Automatic mode, some isolated points might get very large, so the user can modify the "Max Point Distance" property to limit the maximum size. Also, we can tune the automatic size calculation using the "Point Size Factor".

Vector layers style

For vector feature layers, the user can see (but not edit) the geometry type in the general properties. Also, the color used to draw the features can be changed by providing RGB values or by clicking on the color selector.

Features can be labeled by switching on the "Show labels" property and selecting one of the layer attributes as "Label field".

Point features have an additional property to change the point size, and line features to change the line width.

It is possible to apply different symbols depending on the feature field values (attributes), using rules. We will see this advanced styling in the section about feature layers.

3D view

The 3D View is the default view. It shows the data in a 3D space, and provides:

• Navigation with the mouse, or finger gestures on mobile devices.
• Tools located in a hidden toolbar in the top left area.
• Visualization option buttons in the top right area.
• A compass in the bottom right area.

One of these option buttons allows the user to show the Map View or Section View instead of the 3D view:

Another option button allows the user to split the view in half, or alternatively, to expand it to cover the entire viewing area.

Navigation in 3D

To navigate in the 3D View:

• Rotate with the left mouse. Rotation will happen around the initial point where you clicked.
• Zoom with the mouse wheel.
• Pan with the middle mouse or wheel pressed.

The user can zoom out to full data extents by clicking on the "Reset extent" button:

A different navigation mode is the "Panorama" mode. By clicking on this option button, the user can "look around" by clicking and dragging the left mouse:

To leave the panorama mode and go back to normal mode, use the Exit panorama button:

In the default perspective projection, the user can also select a predefined orientation:

It is also possible to switch to a parallel (ortho) projection:

In ortho projection, the user can also select a predefined orientation, including the isometric orientation:

Lidar properties

This button allows the user to control the global setting of the point cloud style and visualization in the project.

All the options listed image below, permit the user to configure globally the drawing and geometry rule style detailed in this section.

Map view

If the layers use a standard coordinate system, the Map view will show them overlaid on an OpenStreetMap background map.

The Map View includes the same view control tools as the 3D View, to switch to another view or expand the Map.

Navigation in the Map

• Pan with the mouse (any button).
• Zoom with the mouse wheel or zoom level control (+/-) on the Map.

Preferences

This tab is in the left panel. It shows the editable project and user preferences.

Project preferences

• Field of view: angle covered by the 3D view.
• Level of detail: factor controlling how much detail is shown in the scene (currently controls the point cloud density).
• Ambient light (Eye Dome Lighting): rendering option that simulates light contrast and enhances contours in the scene.

This image shows the result of applying Ambient Light (EDL) options:

User preferences

These are not linked to a specific project:

• Show the coordinate grid in the 3D view.



• Distance and area units: used to report measurements.
• Background, selection and position marker colors to customize the views.
• Number of decimal digits to use when showing coordinate and property values.

Overwriting the default project configuration

Each new user (or a public user accessing a shared project) see the project with a default configuration (including layer styles and user project preferences).

Users with administrative privileges can overwrite at any time this default project configuration by using the button at the bottom of the Preferences tab:

A dialog will popup to make sure you want to overwrite the default configuration: