This wizard screen is displayed when you are setting up an automated coded target project. See also Automated Coded Targets Project and Coded Target Presets.
On this screen you choose which stages you want to execute during the automation. There are two automatic marking stages, two processing stages, an automated non-coded target referencing stage and two coordinate system scale/rotate stages.
Depending on which options you choose, other valid options will become available. Also depending on which options you choose, other wizard screens will appear when you press ‘Next’, asking for the appropriate parameters for the requested stages.
The stages are described here:
“Automatic Marking Stage 1” performs coded and non-coded target marking. It is typically used to mark (and reference) some coded targets. The “Targets that are Coded in Stage 1” radio buttons control what type of target marking is done in this stage. If the ‘None’ button is selected, no coded target searching will be done (and hence no further automated processing can be done because there will be no referenced points). If the ‘Some’ button is selected, both coded and non-coded targets will be marked using the same settings. If the ‘All’ button is selected; only coded targets will be marked in this stage. The corresponding settings pane is: Project Wizard: Marking Stage 1 Settings (Automated Coded Targets Project).
“Processing Stage 1” performs a Processing (Orientation and Global Optimization) on the coded targets that have been marked and referenced in the first stage. This computes the 3D locations of the points. This option is available only if “Automatic Marking Stage 1” is chosen and one of the “Some” or “All” options is chosen.
“Automatic Marking Stage 2 (Non-coded Targets only)” performs non-coded target marking and is used only when you want to mark your coded targets and non-coded targets with different settings. This option is available only if “Automatic Marking Stage 1” and “All” options are chosen. Stage 1 Marking is used to mark the coded targets and Stage 2 Marking is used to mark the non-coded targets. The corresponding settings pane is: The corresponding settings pane is: Project Wizard: Marking Stage 2 Settings (Automated Coded Targets Project).
“Automatic Referencing” performs automated referencing on non-coded points. Available if the “Automatic Marking Stage 2” option is chosen or the “Automatic Marking Stage 1” - ‘Some’ targets option is chosen. The corresponding settings pane is: Project Wizard: AutoReferencing Settings (Automated Coded Targets Project).
“Processing Stage 2” performs a Processing (Orientation and Global Optimization) on all the points (coded and non-coded) referenced so far. Available only if the “Automatic Referencing” option is chosen.
“Setting Translate / Scale / Rotate” sets up the coordinate transformation of the coordinate system for the project based on coded targets. The corresponding settings pane is: Project Wizard: Scale/Rotation (Automated Coded Targets Project).
“Setting Distance Constraints” sets up one or more distance constraints used when one wants to achieve the highest scale accuracy. The corresponding settings pane is: Project Wizard: Distance Constraints.
One typical scenario would be a project that has just coded targets. In this case you would pick these options: “Automatic Marking Stage 1”, “Targets that are Coded in Stage 1 = All”, “Processing Stage 1”, and “Setting Translate/Scale/Rotate”.
Another project type might have a mixture of coded and non-coded targets, where the coded and non-coded targets were the same size, where there were sufficient coded targets to orient every photo, and where sufficient photos and points exist to ensure successful automatic referencing of non-coded targets. In this case you would pick these options: “Automatic Marking Stage 1”, “Targets that are Coded in Stage 1 = Some”, “Processing Stage 1”, “Automatic Referencing”, “Processing Stage 2”, and “Setting Translate/Scale/Rotate”.
Two additional controls allow you weld targets that are coded but mis-marked (e.g. due to code occlusion), and delete non-coded point marks that lie in a 3D "disk" volume around a coded target. The settings that control these are on the Coded Targets panel of the Preferences dialog - see the Coded Targets section in Preferences - Marking and Referencing.
In addition there are some hidden options to further control the processing of Coded Target Auto projects. These options can be set in an ini file (either in a Settings file or the regular PhotoModeler ini file, see below). You can control whether to delete Marked Points that appear on only one photo, add a 2nd stage of auto-referencing, add a 3rd stage of processing and add Fit NURBS Surface to points named during auto-referencing. These various options are intended to improve robustness of fully automated projects. If you are unsure when to use these to best advantage, please contact technical support.
The following are ini file strings that can be added to enable the various options. For example, the first setting could be manually added to a coded target settings ini file like this (see Application Data and File Locations for information on where the ini file is stored on disk):
[TargetStages]
RejectUnusedMark=TRUE
Marker Reject
When set to TRUE, all marked points that are not referenced (e.g., they remain on only one photo) after all auto-processing is complete, are deleted. This is a way to clean up an auto-project and leave only referenced and 3D points. You would not use this option if you intend to do any manual work (such as referencing) after the automation completes.
Coded Target Project Settings file setting: "RejectUnusedMark"
Default: FALSE
Settings file section: "TargetStages"
2nd Stage AutoReferencing
Adding the 2nd Stage Auto-Referencing and the 3rd Stage Processing stages can, in some automated projects, result in a more robust model, with a higher number of solved 3D points.
PhotoModeler ini file setting: "Do2ndStageAutoRef"
Default: FALSE
PhotoModeler ini file section: "AutoProject"
(Note you can also set the minimum number of photos used during 2nd stage Auto-referencing with "2ndStageAutoRefMinPhotos" setting [default = 3] in the same section)
3rd Stage Processing
Adding the 2nd Stage Auto-Referencing and the 3rd Stage Processing stages can, in some automated projects, result in a more robust model, with a higher number of solved 3D points.
PhotoModeler ini file setting: "Stage3Processing"
Default: FALSE
PhotoModeler ini file section: "AutoProject"
Automatic Point Cloud (Fit NURBS Surface)
When this is set to TRUE, after all the processing is complete, all points that have been named during automatic referencing (auto-reference has a point naming option), will be collected together and a Point Cloud NURBS Surface will be created from them. (Note: this ‘point cloud’ is not a DSM point cloud, it is a surface as defined by the ‘Fit NURBS Surface to selected points’ tool)
Coded Target Project Settings file setting: "DoAutoPointCloud"
Default: FALSE
Settings file section: "TargetStages"