PhotoModeler’s 3D graphics system accurately displays coordinates with values up to seven (7) significant digits. The number 123.4567 has seven significant digits, as does 1234567 or 0.1234567. If the file being imported has all coordinate values (x, y, and z) with seven significant digits or less, then the 3D points can be displayed accurately.
When importing coordinates with very large values (e.g. some geographic coordinates) with more than seven significant digits, the imported object may not display correctly (sometimes it looks like a series of rows with gaps) in 3D. This is due to the number of digits in the coordinates which can be truncated by the graphics driver.
If the imported object covers a small area but has large values (for example all x values are in the range 5,000,000 to 5,000,100 for eight significant digits), this import may display strangely. Using a translation can prevent this problem by removing the significance (for this example we can remove 5,000,000 from every x coordinate so the range becomes 0 to 100. One way to do this is ask PhotoModeler to subtract the first coordinate from all others during the import. Then all coordinates can display correctly in 3D. Note that while small values with many decimal places (e.g. 12.345678) can also have too many significant digits, the display issue is not as obvious and may not be as easy to correct. In this case an offset is usually not needed.
When importing a point cloud text file, a warning comes up suggesting to translate the import if the coordinate values have potentially too many digits to display/store properly with values larger than 999,999.
The ability of the Importer to offset the data can also be used to adjust the imported object’s origin to match the model, or to simply move a static import to a new position.