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Align a Sheet to a Point Cloud

Learn more about how to manually align a sheet to a point cloud

Anna-Azize Adami avatar
Written by Anna-Azize Adami
Updated over 2 weeks ago

You can align a sheet to a point cloud.

It is recommended to align the sheet to the point cloud or a 3D model and not vice versa, because a sheet generally has an arbitrary coordinate system. If you need to align the point cloud to the sheet, the workflow is sightly different, see explanations in Align a Point Cloud to a Sheet below.

You should only align a sheet to a point cloud if you have imported a floorplan separately, for example in .pdf format. For projects which already contain an overview map, this alignment step is not recommended.

  1. Click the three-dots icon of the sheet to open the context menu.

  2. Select menu entry Align .
    The alignment tool is displayed.

  3. Select the reference element.

  4. Click Align in the top right corner to open the alignment tool.

Set the Point Cloud Elevation

  1. Click and hold anywhere in the view and rotate it to a side, front or back view, i.e., any view that provides a good sight at height differences between the floor plan(sheet) and the point cloud.

  2. Click anywhere in the point cloud to move the sheet to this position.

You can also click and hold any point on the green arrow and then drag to adjust the point cloud elevation.

Adjusting sheet elevation using vertical handles
  1. Click Next in the top right corner to go to the alignment window.

Perform Horizontal Alignment

The horizontal alignment can be determined using either point pairs, or an overlay mode. You can also use both methods in the order described below.

For a better visibility, you can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel.

Method 1: Point Pairs in Sheet and Point Cloud

  1. Click a location in the sheet model, for example a corner.

  2. Then find and click the same location in the point cloud.

You can move a marker by clicking and then dragging it.

Aligning sheet to point cloud using corner markers

If the sheet is rotated with respect to the point cloud, repeat steps above a second time to lock the rotation.

To remove a marker, right-click it.

Method 2: Overlay Point Cloud and Sheet

In the top right of the screen, click the Overlay button.

You can preview the result of the point-pair alignment described above using the overlay mode.

You can also refine the alignment in this mode, by following the steps below:

  1. Click the sheet to set the anchor point.

  2. Click and drag that anchor point to move the sheet around.

  3. Click and drag away from the anchor point to rotate the sheet.

  4. To resize the sheet to the size of the point cloud: Set a second anchor point, then click and hold one of the anchor points to resize the sheet.

You can zoom in and out using the mouse wheel to check the alignment.

To remove the anchor point, right-click it.

Example of a sheet overlaid on a point cloud

Confirm Alignment

If you want to make more changes to the elevation or the alignment, click the Back button in the top right corner of the screen.

When you are satisfied with the elevation and alignment, click Confirm Alignment in the top right corner of the screen.

You are redirected to the Sphere XG Viewer.

For more details, see our Sphere XG User Manual.

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