Virtual Surveyor upgrades UAV surveying software

Photo: Virtual Surveyor

Virtual Surveyor has enhanced its smart UAV surveying software with new planimetric survey capabilities. The Virtual Surveyor version 9.5  allows users to quickly and accurately survey 2D features from UAV orthophotos and add them to the 3D topographic model generated from the same data set.

True 2D features, for example, include the paint striping that delineates parking lot spaces and road lanes. Other objects that exist in 3D on the ground but can be surveyed in two dimensions for many applications are building footprints and tree canopies. These features are designed to offer a new level of efficiency to the UAV surveying process in Virtual Surveyor.

Virtual Surveyor provides users with an end-to-end workflow to conduct 3D surveys from UAV imagery. The integrated Terrain Creator app photogrammetrically processes UAV photos to build survey-grade digital surface models (DSMs) and orthomosaics. These transfer seamlessly to the traditional Virtual Surveyor app where users perform the real survey work — generating CAD models, creating cut-and-fill maps, calculating soil volumes and deriving other 3D topographic information.

No third-party software is needed to create surveys from drone data. The system ideal for users in construction, surface mining and excavation projects.

These new functions include:

• Move/copy – Once the feature, such as a paint stripe, has been surveyed, it can be copied and moved to delineate the next stripe. If the stripe bends along a turn in a road, this function lets the user rotate the feature to follow the curve. When multiple nearly identical objects, such as parking space stripes, have been surveyed, they can be moved to survey another group of stripes.
• Diagonal first rectangle drawing – Users can simply click on diagonal corners, and the object is delineated and surveyed.
• Edit side –As features are being copied, this tool allows the user to edit the feature sides.
• Mini toolbars – Users can right-click on a feature, and a mini toolbar with the relevant tools pops open next to it for easy capture or editing.

Current subscribers to Virtual Surveyor Ridge and Peak editions will see their software updated automatically to Version 9.5 with the planimetric tools and other new functionality. Click here to learn more and download the software.