The Basic License is designed to be an entry-level scanner software package for easy and simple scanning of point clouds with a handful of common post-process commands. The package itself is lightweight.
NDEVR is built on top of the Vulkan Graphics. Vulkan was first released in 2016 by Khronos Group (the same group behind the most popular graphics engine, OpenGL) at a lower-level but far more powerful API. The NDEVR graphics engine is the first commercial CAD software written from scratch atop the Vulkan API using a database-like approach for handling big data. Note that older hardware (>8 years) may have limited support for the platform without updated graphics drivers.
The raw NDEVR CAD Platform allows multiple simultaneous views, lighting, orthographic editing, and 3D selection and manipulation. The Scan Editor uses a subset of features from the base, centered around meshing and point viewing.
The engine also supports various lighting and color manipulations. For the scanner product, functions include the ability to color by various properties, attach images to scans, and edit meshes and lighting of finished models.
The standard program will support all important point and mesh commands, including those dealing with offset and coordinates.
Mesh commands, such as ensuring proper normal and winding generation, allow the generated meshes to be used across various platforms. Basic selection and cleanup commands are also supported for point clouds.
Coordinate projection is included by default and displayed when importing models. This will allow local coordinate-to-lat/lon conversions and support Google Earth™ images and complex scene placement.
The most prominent feature used by the base scan product is the real-time scan engine. This pulls the data from the scanner in real-time and logs it to the program and any output streams the program may have (files, logs, etc.).
The cloud may also be colored during the scan based on various reference channels (position, scan time, intensity, distance from scanner, etc.). When exporting to flexible file formats (such as E57), these values are preserved. Basic scans come with the base product and include horizontal, vertical, and horizontal + vertical.
The base package supports adding custom scanner models and has support for moving parts. Each scanner includes support for a two-sectional head, a base, and a tripod. These can either be custom created based on a drawing or concept art; or — if a model file already exists — can be used directly. The models are used to create a 3D visualization of what the scanner is doing in real-time.
It is assumed that most scanners implement a similar interface, or share some common commands. This interface is specified inside a config file provided to the NDEVR Scan Engine. This config specifies the input and output of each of the below commands; or, if unsupported, leaves the area blank. The engine will compensate for missing commands. However, the minimum required commands are a moveTo (or relative moveTo) and a getDistance command. Other missing commands may impact performance.
Additionally, the station creation dialogs can be customized as needed to add support for any custom station options. An example of customization can be seen here, with a scanner that supports multiple prism locations.
The basic package includes an easy importing and exporting option to popular point cloud file formats (e57, LAS, LAZ), and supports writing meshes via Collada ( .dae ) or Wavefront Object ( .obj ) files.
The customer-developed .ndv files are used to store general setup properties which can create seamless workflows and compact data storage for large or dynamic projects.
