Viewing a model

Use the Display Settings to interact with and view your model in different ways.

Tap / Tools / Display Settings and use the checkboxes to show or hide the Display Settings tools on the main screen.

  • 2D / 3D View. When selected, the 2D / 3D View displays in the bottom right corner of the screen. Tap to switch between views.

  • Layers enable you to manage which details of the model you want to view at any given time.

    When selected, the Layers icon displays in the top right corner of the screen.

    • To show / hide any layers in your model, tap then tap the required layer(s) to show or hide them.

    • To isolate a single layer and hide all other layers, long-tap on the required layer.

    TIP – If you have a lot of layers you can turn them all on/off by tapping the model name at the top of the layer list.

    TIP – You can also hide selected data in a layer; these will show as in the Layers manager. See Interacting with a model's features.

    NOTE –When you have an active Component Placement, your isolated component will be visible under Component. All of the other model layers will be turned off when using this placement method.

    When you record measurements or designs [ in the field, SiteVision creates a layer, under a User Measurements layer, for each app that you use. Any placed PDFs and measurements from previous sessions of SiteVision— Points, Grade & Distance, Lines & Area, Volumes, Cut-Fill only—are also stored under a Prior User Measurements layer., This enables user-created data to be hidden or displayed in the 2D or 3D view of data.

    Any control points from your calibration file (JXL, CAL, DC) are also placed in their own layer.

  • Pit View is an important tool to improve the visualization of subsurface models, such as utility data, or data below the floor surface—to remove the perception of the data floating. Using Pit View you can set the Pit position to fixed or movable, change its diameter, depth, and shape, and choose options to view subsurface data (round, half round, surface only).

    By default, the Pit displays:

    • 1.5 m (5 ft) below the device camera if you do not have an antenna connected.

    • at the tip of the pole, if you have an antenna connected and the pole is not set to 0 m / ft.

    When selected, the Pit View information displays on the right side of the screen:

    TIP – Use the following gestures to adjust the diameter and depth of the Pit: pinch to expand / reduce the radius of the pit, and use a two-finger swipe up / down on the screen to change the depth of the pit.

    If you are using the HPS2 handle or the SiteVision Integrated Positioning System, for more accurate depth information, you can use EDM for placement. When using EDM with Pit View, the Pit height adjusts with the slope of ground, and lines along the wall of the Pit will be more meaningful. If EDM is not available, SiteVision reverts to the default, i.e. the Pit being 1.5 m (5 ft) below the device camera if you do not have an antenna connected, or at the tip of the pole, if you have an antenna connected and the pole is not set to 0 m / ft.

    When you use Pit View with EDM, the Pit View + EDM icon displays on the right side of the screen.

    The lines on the Pit View wall are displayed at the following distances, depending on the Distance measurements units you set:

    • Metric - thick line interval = 1 m, thin line interval = 10 cm.

    • International Feet - thick line interval = 1 ft, thin line interval = 1 in.

    • US Survey Feet - thick line interval = 1 ft, thin line interval = 0.1 ft.

  • The Transparency Slider enables you to change the opacity level of the model, allowing you to compare design to existing.

  • The Cross-section Slider enables you to section through your data from your current position, to the extents of your data. This is useful for visualizing inside of large structures such as buildings or houses, as well as comparing designs to the existing ground. The cross-section is always perpendicular to the direction in which you are looking.

  • The View Distance Slider enables you to section through your data from the furthest extent of your data, back to where you are currently standing. This is useful for visualizing large models where objects at a distance can cause confusion and it is helpful to remove those portions from view by reducing the viewing distance. Using the View Distance Slider to turn off information that is outside the area of interest can also improve the responsiveness of the system by eliminating the need to draw items that are outside of the area of interest.

  • By editing the Model Placement Methods you can control which placement methods are available in the main Place Model menu. Options include:

    • Measure

    • Manual

    • Marker

    • Component

      NOTE –By default the option for Component Placement is disabled and must be enabled via this setting.

  • Using the Overlay Lines option, you can choose None, Grid Lines, or Contours to improve the display of model objects in 3D view. The lines are displayed at the following distances, depending on the Distance measurements units you set:

    • Grid Lines:

      • Metric - grid size = 1 m.

      • International or US Survey Feet - grid size = 3 ft.

    • Contours:

      • Metric - thick line (major contours) interval = 1 m, thin line (minor contours) interval = 10 cm.

      • International Feet - thick line (major contours) interval = 3 ft, thin line (minor contours) interval = 3 in.

      • US Survey Feet - thick line (major contours) interval = 3 ft, thin line (minor contours) interval = 0.3 ft.

  • Plan View Background: You can change the Plan View (2D View) background color to either: None, Black, Grey, or White according to your preference. This can be particularly helpful if you receive a model where some data is in either black or white, and may be invisible against the background you have set.

  • Line Width: Use the Line Width tool, to choose how lines are displayed:

    • select World Scale to view a line with real-world perspective; the line thickness is adjusted as it 'moves' into the distance, by the unit value entered

    • Select Screen Size to display a line at a constant thickness (i.e. without real-world perspective) according to the Pixels value entered for the line thickness (height and width).

On the main screen, you can interact directly with a model and view the following:

  • Attributes: You can view attribute information when in 2D or 3D View, by tapping on a part of the model you are interested in. The attributes available are a function of your model and how it is prepared.

    TIP – The layer that the selected data is in is also displayed at the top of the Attributes window.

    When you tap a part of a model, it is highlighted to emphasize it . This may be useful when creating BCF Topics.

    3D View:

    • The 2D View shows attribute information, as well as Control point names and your current location and orientation.

    At the top of the Attributes window, you can use the icon to hide a selected object. This is useful to hide data to see what is behind it.

    Long-tapping will isolate the selected object. This hides all the surrounding data leaving only the selected object visible.

    When selected data is hidden within a layer, the Layers window shows the layer and the data that is partially hidden with . Use the Layers window to turn back on hidden data.

    NOTE –This is not supported for any user measurements.

  • Assemblies: If a selected object is part of an Assembly or System level hierarchy, this is indicated by the icon at the top of the Attributes window. Tapping expands the object selection to include the entire assembly or system.

    TIP – When viewing an assembly, the displayed attributes will also be updated to display the assembly or system level attributes.

  • Textures: If your data model includes textures you can visualize them in SiteVision.

    NOTE –Textures are not available for all data types. Their availability is determined by what the authoring software supports on export.

    • Data from SketchUp and Novapoint support textures.

    • Data from Trimble Business Center supports textures applied through the Site and Material Manager.

  • Draping of 2D Data: Draping is a method for visualizing 2D data in 3D by using existing terrain models. To use this functionality you must have 2D data and a Trimble Terrain Model (.TTM) located in the same folder in Trimble Connect with the same file name.

    TTM is a Trimble file format. Trimble Business Center has an export option that will create a TTM from any surface within Trimble Business Center.

    To create a TTM model from data from 3rd parties, such as data from AutoCAD or a LandXML file, import the data into Trimble Business Center, model it as necessary, and export the data as a TTM file, storing it directly into Trimble Connect in that process.

  • Thematic Maps: Thematic maps are a use case for Draping where you can drape a real surface model, for example a Cut/Fill map, over a terrain model to understand the design vs. the work completed. To use draping and thematic maps you need an image file (.PNG, .PGW) of the cut/full information and a Trimble Terrain Model (.TTM) located in the same folder in Trimble Connect with the same file name.

    There are many different uses for the thematic information. For example, you can create a project with a TTM and associate with it a georeferenced PDF, a georeferenced orthophoto, and a cut/fill map. Within the project in SiteVision these different images are managed as different layers. You can switch between a world scale PDF, orthophoto or cut/fill map by selecting a different layer. Note that only one image can be turned on at any point in time.

    NOTE –The recommended maximum resolution for an individual thematic map image is 4000 by 4000 pixels. For larger maps it may be necessary to tile multiple images.

When a model is loaded that contains a supported Alignment (see Alignments: Station and Offset) the Station and Offset display panel shows on the left of the screen.

Once you have a green position and orientation, your current position is displayed in terms of Station (the distance along the Alignment) and Offset (the perpendicular distance from the Alignment). This is a helpful way to navigate, and reference positions on linear projects such as roads and railways.

Station and Offset values are always calculated from your current position with respect to a Reference Alignment. If the model only contains a single Alignment, this is selected by default. When a model contains multiple Alignments, you are prompted to select which Alignment is to be used as the Reference Alignment.

NOTE –SiteVision also supports Station Equations defined in Alignments exported from Trimble Business Center. Station values are calculated on the basis of these Station Equations.

To select a different Reference Alignment, tap the Station and Offset display panel, then in the Station & Offset Settings dialog, select the required Reference Alignment from the Alignment dropdown.

You can also change the display Format of the Station values depending on your requirements.

TIP – Tap the arrow on the Station and Offset display panel to minimize or maximize the panel.

In the 3D view, you will see a yellow pin that is located on the currently Selected Reference Alignment at your current Station value.

In the 2D view, you will see a perpendicular line connecting your current position to the location of the pin which represents your Offset.

Station and Offset values will be included in the CSV file for any captured measurements.