How to remove obstacles from the point cloud in the rayCloud using the Annotation Tool - PIX4Dmapper

If a project consists of images that are covered by a consistent obstacle, e.g. the foot of the drone, the model might be noisy. If some images of a project are covered by an obstacle seen by different angles, e.g. a scaffold, the obstacle will appear in the point cloud, the 3D textured mesh and the orthomosaic. In both cases it is possible to annotate the obstacle to not take it into account for processing so as to remove the noise introduced or totally remove it from the results.

To remove a consistent obstacle from the results:

1. Click View > rayCloud.
2. In the section Layers of the left sidebar, select one image to be annotated.

Important: It is enough to annotate only one image; the annotation is propagated to the same pixels of all the images and therefore the obstacle will be annotated in all the images.

Important: The obstacle should appear in the same position in all the images to use the Global Mask annotation since the annotation is propagated in all the images.

3. In the right sidebar, click the Annotation tool button .
4. In Annotate, select Global Mask.
5. Annotate the obstacle in the image, following How to Annotate Images in the rayCloud (steps 7-13).
6. Make sure that the Use Annotation box is selected in the Processing Options: How to Annotate Images in the rayCloud (step 14).
7. Process step 2. Point Cloud and Mesh.

To remove an obstacle that appears in some images from the results:

1. Click View > rayCloud.
2. In the section Layers of the left sidebar, select one image that the obstacle appears to be annotated.

Important: All images that are covered by the obstacle should be annotated so that the obstacle is removed from the results.

3. In the right sidebar, click the Annotation tool button .
4. In Annotate, select Mask.
5. Annotate the obstacle in the image, following How to Annotate Images in the rayCloud (steps 7-13).
6. Repeat steps 2-5 till the obstacle is annotated in all the images that it appears.
7. Make sure that the Use Annotation box is selected in the Processing Options: How to Annotate Images in the rayCloud (step 14).
8. Process step 2. Point Cloud and Mesh.