Let us get started using LidarView. In order to follow along, you will
need your own installation of LidarView. If you do not already have LidarView,
you can download the current release of LidarView.
LidarView launches like most other applications. On Windows, the
launcher is located in the start menu. On Macintosh, open the
application bundle that you installed. On Linux, execute LidarView from a
command prompt (you will need to set your path to point to where you unpacked
LidarView).
The LidarView GUI conforms to the platform on which it is running, but on
all platforms it behaves basically the same. The layout shown here is
the default layout given when LidarView is first started. The GUI
includes a Menu Bar as well as a Tool Bar that give access to the various
features of the application.
Menu Bar
This gives access to File related options like opening PCAP files and
sensor streams, a Tools and View menu, and a general Help menu.
The Tool Bar can be broked up into several separate sections described below.
Open Data Toolbar
This part of the toolbar includes buttons to manage opening PCAP files and
sensor streams, loading and saving LidarView state files, and importing
calibration files.
Shortcuts Toolbar
This section of the toolbar gives quick access to the spreadsheet view and
the python and error consoles as wells as the ability to selects points from
the current active data.
Playback Controls
These controls allow the user to temporally navigate the Lidar data. The
data can be played through, advanced one frame at a time, or a specific
time can be selected.
Color Controls
These controls allow the user to select what data field determines how the
point cloud is colored and adjust the color map used to represent the range
of the selected data field.
View Controls
These controls allow the user to set the prespective that the point cloud is
viewed from.
There are two ways to load Lidar sensor data into LidarView. You can connect
to a sensor steam or open a recorded sensor stream saved to a PCAP file. These
can both be found on the Menu Bar (File->Open) or on the Open Data Toolbar.
Exercise 1.1 (Opening a saved sensor stream)
Let’s start with opening a saved sensor stream file. If you don’t have access
to PCAP file with a saved sensor stream you can download an example:
CarLoop_VLP16. Go to the the File menu and select Open and then Capture File.
Alternatively you can click on the the Open PCAP File button in
the Open Data section of the toolbar. Select the PCAP file you wish to open
and click OK, and then select the appropriate sensor interpeter and click OK.
You should now see the first frame of the saved sensor data displayed in the
main render view.
Exercise 1.2 (Connecting to a sensor stream)
Now let’s connect LidarView to an active Lidar sensor stream. If you
don’t have accessing to a sensor stream LidarView includes a command line
tool to create one from a PCAP file described in Exercise 2.1.
Go to the the File menu and select Open and then Sensor Stream. Alternatively
you can click on the Sensor Stream button in the Open Data section
of the toolbar. Select the appropriate sensor interpeter and click OK. By
default LidarView assumes the sensor stream will be available on the network
port 2368. You should now see the streaming Lidar data in the main window.
Sometimes when opening a sensor stream needs to access options such as
specifying data origin and sensor orientation or adjusting the port number
that the data is arriving on. Follow the same steps in either
Exercise 1.1 or Exercise 1.2 till you
get to the window to select the sensor interpeter. At the bottom left of this
window there will be a check box labeled “Advanced configuration”. Check the
box and you should see several advanced options for the sensor configuration.
Now that we have loaded data into LidarView we want to explore and interact with
this data.
Exercise 1.4 (Playback Sensor Stream)
This is a continuation of Exercise 1.1. You will need to
finish that exercise before beginning this one.
Now that we have loaded a saved sensor stream we can play it back. Click
on the button in the Playback Controls to have LidarView playback the
sensor stream. The playback can be paused at any time by clicking on the
button which replaces the button while the stream is advancing.
Exercise 1.5 (Enabling Advanced Features)
There are advanced features available in LidarView that are not enabled
by default. In particular, many of the tools from ParaView can be accessed
by enabling these advanced features. To enable these features, go to the Help
menu and then select Advanced Feature. You will now see four more sections
on the Menu Bar: Sources, Filters, Views, and Advance. The image below shows
how the Menu Bar and Toolbar should appear now. You will also see a
new Toolbar at the top of the Render View. These are controls for the Render
View from ParaView.
in the Open Data section of the toolbar. Select the PCAP file you wish to open and click OK, and then select the appropriate sensor interpeter and click OK. You should now see the first frame of the saved sensor data displayed in the main render view.
in the Open Data section of the toolbar. Select the appropriate sensor interpeter and click OK. By default LidarView assumes the sensor stream will be available on the network port 2368. You should now see the streaming Lidar data in the main window.
button in the Playback Controls to have LidarView playback the sensor stream. The playback can be paused at any time by clicking on the
button which replaces the
