Workspace and More

Artec Studio User Interface

Windows, Panels and Bars

When you launch Artec Studio, you will see the main application window, which allows you to perform all operations on scans and models.

_images/1_main_window.png

The main window is divided into several sections:

Section

Intent and other information

  1. 3D View

Display all 3D data.

  1. Navigation cube

Quickly orient objects.

  1. 3D toolbar

Alter 3D-data appearance and toggle display of coordinate grid.

  1. Workspace panel

List and manage 3D objects as well as toggle their display and availability for tools.

  1. Properties panel / Features panel

Displays detailed information for 3D objects. / Displays information about captured targets for scans with global registration applied.

  1. Log window

Store records of any executed commands, specifying the time and details of each operation (error and troubleshooting messages).

  1. Status bar

Contains information on memory availability and current usage by Artec Studio. It also has a progress indicator for any currently running task, such as algorithm execution, model and scan exporting, and so on.

  1. Left panel

Accommodate panels for various application modes, including Scan, Autopilot, Editor, Tools, Align, Fix holes, Texture, Construct, Measures, Settings, History and Feedback.

  1. Left toolbar

Toolbar to start the above mentioned modes.

  1. Menu bar

Dropdown menus with various commands.

If any of the panels are hidden, go to the Window menu on the Menu bar, and select the panel to display it.

You can also quickly show or hide some of the panels/toolbars (namely, Left toolbar, Workspace panel and Log window) by clicking on the special bars marked with double arrows: dl_arrow, dr_arrow, dd_arrow, du_arrow. These bars are located along one of the borders of the corresponding panel or toolbar.

You can minimize or maximize the right-side panels by clicking on the (-) or (+) icons on the upper right corners, respectively.

Note

The Workspace, Features, and Properties panels are detachable, and can be moved around and placed anywhere on the window. Simply drag-and drop, or click on the det_panel on the upper right corner of the panel, and drag.

Primary Settings

To access the settings dialog, select Settings… in the File menu. The settings window has several tabs for various groups of application settings. To switch between the tabs, click the icon at the top of the dialog. For a detailed description of the tabs, see Settings.

To change the language, select the Miscellaneous tab (Figure 171) and then the required language from the list and click OK. You will be asked to confirm the operation and restart the application. Once you agree, Artec Studio will automatically restart using the new interface language. If you choose not to restart, the changes will be applied the next time you start the application.

Important

By default, the 3D view window functions in the normal camera mode. However, you can switch to Orbit camera mode by selecting the Orbit Camera option in the View menu.

Workspace Panel

Object Types

After each scanning iteration, Artec Studio saves a separate scan. The list of all scans for a given project appears in the Workspace panel (see Figure 62). Afterwards, the algorithms, primarily fusion, yield models.

Artec Studio can accommodate the following types of objects in Workspace:

Table 4 Object types in Artec Studio.

Type

Icon

Content

Origin

Scan

eva_scan

Set of frames

From scanners Eva, Spider, Leo, and Micro

HD raw data

rawdata

Set of HD frames

From Eva scanner

Point-cloud scan

ray_scan

Point cloud

From Ray scanner

Model

model

Polygonal mesh

Algorithm output (fusion) or imported mesh

CAD model

cad_model

CAD model

Imported

Cylinder

cylinder

CAD primitive

Created in Artec Studio (see Constructing CAD Primitives)

Cone

cone

CAD primitive

Created in Artec Studio

Plane

plane

CAD primitive

Created in Artec Studio

Sphere

sphere

CAD primitive

Created in Artec Studio

Torus

torus

CAD primitive

Created in Artec Studio

Freeform

freeform

CAD primitive

Created in Artec Studio

Targets cloud

targets_cloud

Targets cloud

Imported

Group

group

Group of objects

Grouping of objects listed above

See also

all_objects.

Object Columns

Object data in the Workspace panel is arranged in several columns:

eye

Scans marked with eye in this column will appear in the 3D View window and will undergo processing by all Artec Studio algorithms and tools.

Icon

Each type of objects has a specific icon (see Table 4). This icon is always displayed to the left of the object or group name for improved visual perception of information in the Workspace panel.

Name

When a scan is created, Artec Studio automatically assigns it a name, such as Eva Scan 1, Eva Scan 2 and so on, according to the values in the Scan name and Start with fields as well as the state of the Add scanner type in prefix checkbox in the Scan panel. To rename some object, follow these instructions.

Color

In this column, each object has a colored square (for example, loaded) next to it for clarity and quick visual search. You can change the color by clicking on the corresponding square and selecting the desired color from the palette.

Type

The type of an object. See here for details.

Error

The largest registration-error value among all frames in the scan. More information.

Frames

The total number of frames constituting the scan.

Scanner type

The type of the scanner that created the object.

Texture frames

The number of captured texture frames. See Texturing for details.

Polygons

The number of polygons constituting the object.

padlock

Algorithms will not reposition the frames of the scans marked with lock, nor will they move the scans and other objects marked with anchor.

Scan and surface lists in Workspace

Figure 62 Workspace panel and respective context menus: object list on left and surface list on right.

Use the tlb_settings button at the top left to select the columns to be displayed or to hide the panel. Change the column order by drag-and-dropping their headers.

Note

The column marked with padlock appears automatically if you set the Lock registration or Lock position status for one or more objects using the context menu (see Operations with Objects for details on the context menu operations).

Selecting columns to be displayed, and filtering objects

Figure 63 Selecting columns to be displayed, and filtering objects.

Operations with Objects

In the Workspace panel, you can perform various types of operations with objects. All types of operations are available through the context menu called by clicking RMB on some object.

Menu Item

Description

ALL OBJECTS filter

Instruct Workspace to display only particular types of the objects or all of them (see all_objects).

Select all

Select (highlight) all objects for further operations on them. If only one or several objects of one group are selected in Workspace, the first run of this command will select all group objects, the second – all Workspace objects.

Deselect all

Reset any selection

Invert selection

Reset the current selection and select all other objects.

Group / Ungroup

You can group a few objects in the workspace according to some feature. Select required objects, call the context menu by clicking RMB and select Group. You will see that the objects are wrapped with a common header (for example, Group 1), which can be changed as well as the object names (see below). It is possible to create subgroups within groups. Resumed scans are also grouped automatically during scanning. Each scan imported from Leo will be included in a separate group inside the project group. See also Actions with Groups.

Rename

Select an object by clicking LMB on its name, hit F2 and specify a new object name in the opened dialog window. You can also rename many objects at once: select multiple objects (as described above) and then use F2 or RMB to rename them.

Duplicate

To make a complete duplicate of an object in the Workspace, right-click on the object and then select Duplicate. A copy of the object will be created with the name like Copy of Fusion 1.

Show

Display the selected objects in the 3D View section. See Selecting Scans and Models for details.

Hide

Do not display an object in the 3D View section (cancel the Show operation).

Lock registration

Set the Locked registration status (lock) to a scan, which blocks the reposition of the scan frames during Global Registration. See Locking Object’s Reposition for details.

Lock position

Set the Locked position status (anchor) to a scan, which blocks its reposition in some algorithms. See Locking Object’s Reposition for details.

Unlock

Remove the Locked registration and Locked position statuses from an object.

Change color

Call the color palette to change the color of an object or a group. See also Actions with Groups.

Copy transformations

Save the transformations of a scan and its frames for their further transfer to another scan. See Transferring Transformations for details.

Unregister

Reset the positions of individual frames in a scan computed during its registration. See Separating Scans for a use case.

Delete

Delete objects from your project.

Upload to Cloud

Upload fusions and models to cloud directly from Artec Studio. See export_to_cloud for more information.

Any column header

Sort the objects by either of their properties. Clicks: ascending order → descending → initial.

Actions with Groups

In the Workspace panel you can perform the following actions with the groups of objects using the elements of the group header row:

Table 5 Actions with groups in the Workspace panel.

Action

How to perform

Select/Deselect

To select or deselect all objects in a group, click the group row in the column marked with eye.

Set/Change group color

By default, the group color is not set (no_color). To set or change the color of a group, click the group row in the Color column area and select the desired color from the palette. When the group color is set and the group is collapsed in the Workspace panel, then all objects in the group are painted in the group color. Otherwise, each object is painted in its own color.

Unset group color

To cancel the color setting for a group, right-click the group row in the Color column area.

Lock

To lock or unlock all objects in a group, click the group row in the Lock column area (padlock). See Locking Object’s Reposition for details.

Selecting Scans and Models

To view a scan or model in the 3D View window or to process it, you need to mark it with the eye icon in the Workspace panel. To navigate scans and models, use keys and or click an arbitrary area except those in eye, padlock or color column (loaded).

Purpose

Method

Alternate Method

Highlight an object in Workspace to view its properties or run a command from the context menu

Left-click on the scan name

Toggle visibility and availability for processing (flag eye)

Left-click in the eye column

  • Use the Show or Hide context-menu commands

  • Select the object name using Ctrl+Alt+LMB.

Batch selection (deselection) of objects for display and processing

Click eye in the rows of the required objects one by one

  • Hit Ctrl+A (Ctrl+D) to select (deselect) all objects

  • Click LMB while holding Ctrl (Shift) to highlight a few objects and then hit Space

  • Click LMB on one of the eye flags and while holding down LMB, move the cursor through the other flags.

Select a single object for processing and deselect others

Select the object name using Ctrl+Alt+LMB

Use Ctrl+LMB in the empty area of the eye column

In addition to the methods in the table above, you can use commands from the context menu by clicking RMB on the objects.

See also

The full list of hot keys in workspace.

Selecting Frames

Double-clicking the scan name (or using the View frames command in the context menu, or clicking the fr_arrow button near the scan name) opens the surface list, revealing all frames in that scan (see Figure 62, right).

Highlighting specific frames will make them (and only them) appear in the 3D View window.

You can select frames in a number of ways:

  • Click LMB on the frame name to select it while clearing other selections.

  • Click LMB while holding the Ctrl key to select several frames at once.

  • Click LMB while holding the Shift key to select a sequence of frames in the specified range.

  • Click Ctrl+A/Ctrl+D to select/deselect all frames.

To start a sequential frame demonstration, use the play button at the upper right of the Surface list. To stop the demonstration, click pause.

Object Properties

At the bottom of the Workspace panel, you can see a Properties panel. Click on it to expand it. Then select any object to display its properties. If no object is selected, the global settings of the project will be displayed in the Properties panel.

Properties without a selected object.

Figure 64 Properties without a selected object.

Features

By default the Features panel is located at the bottom of the Workspace panel near the Properties panel. Click on it to expand it. Then select one or more scans with the global registration applied and/or a reference target cloud to display the features of the captured targets.

See Features Panel for details. If no object is selected, the Features panel will be empty.

Features without a selected object.

Figure 65 Features without a selected object.

Selecting a Point-Cloud Scan

Point-cloud scans contain only one surface. Click LMB on a point-cloud scan and look at the Properties section:

Properties of the point-cloud scan

Figure 66 Properties of the point-cloud scan.

Parameter

Description

Global registration

Shows whether the global registration procedure has been performed.

Mesh polygons

Since Artec Studio doesn’t display all the points constituting the scan, you can only see a mesh obtained from a simplified copy of the actual point cloud.

Points

Total number of points in the point cloud.

Sections

When you scan with Ray, you may select particular regions (sections) to narrow down the actual scene. This parameter stands for the number of these regions.

Memory Management: Smart RAM Usage

Working with a large data set requires a huge amount of RAM and you might often find it necessary to free up RAM without deleting any of the project data. While the previous versions of Artec Studio tackled this by making it possible for you to load or unload scans manually, the new Artec Studio 16 automatically optimizes RAM usage through smart memory management.

When you open a project, all the scans are preloaded into the RAM and displayed in the Workspace, which enables you to start working with them immediately. When you select one or more scans in the Workspace, Artec Studio will automatically load only the selected scans. If a particular algorithm or action requires any scans, the application will automatically load them into RAM too. Likewise, Artec Studio will automatically unload unnecessary scans, frames, textures or a combination thereof. This selective loading and unloading of data frees up extra RAM automatically.

Note

In addition to 3D data, the change history can also consume a large portion of memory. For information on how to control the history size as well as how to clear it, consult History of Project Changes.