Volumetric Analysis Point Cloud Task

About Volumetric Analysis

The Volumetric Analysis point cloud task is used to compute the volume between two Triangulated Irregular Networks (TIN) defined by a circumscribing polygon and LAS points. The two surfaces are referred to as the hull and base. The equation, C = H - B, subtracts the base from the hull; the H and B surfaces can be computed from the same LAS layer in LP360 or from two different layers. A constant Z can be substituted for H or B, or a pseudo surface can be constructed from a 3D polygon. The complete Input Points Filter is available for filtering the points for H and B when these surfaces are based on a point-derived TIN.

The process can be run using one of the available macros or by creating a Volumetric task using the Add Task command.

The polygons circumscribing the Hull and Base surfaces must be 3D for the triangulation to work correctly. The hull and base polygons must also be identical in the XY dimensions to ensure that the volume of a vertical column is computed. If the Volumetric task is run by itself (not part of a macro), the polygons must come from either a 3D polygon shapefile(s) or 3D polygon layer(s).  In this case, the Project, Feature Layer, and Feature Layer Indirect Point Cloud Task tools will be enabled.  The drawn Point Cloud Task tools (i.e. envelope, polygon, circle, stamps) will be disabled, because these generate only 2D polygonal shapes. If a Volumetric task is part of a macro where the preceding task(s) in the macro are conflation tasks, the output(s) of conflation can be used as the volumetric operand circumscribing polygons. In that case, the drawn Point Cloud Task tools (i.e. envelope, polygon, circle, stamps) can be used to draw the polygon that is conflated and then passed into the Volumetric task for the circumscribing polygons.

The primary volumetric result is an attributed 2D polygon (the circumscribing polygon) persisted in a shapefile. See the Volumetric Attribute Table for more information on volumetric results.

Learn how to set up and run a Volumetric Analysis task

Learn how to compute volumetric using a predefined macro