Issue in using measurement tools

[Rishabh_11]

Hi, I am a new user to WebODM. I installed it a few days back and I am trying to upload some projects and testing the results. They are pretty good.
I am also trying different measurement tools. In the 3D view of my maps, I am not able to use some specific measurement tools. Not sure whether I am using it incorrectly or if there is a bug.

Issues:

1. Volume measurement (sphere) - not showing the value
2. Height Profile- as seen in a tutorial video, when the tool is used a separate tab opens at the bottom of the map which shows the height at different points on the height profile line
3. Annotations- I am able to add annotation, but can’t edit the title or description
4. 6th tool in 1st row (left to right) (N*) - That icon doesn’t show the name of the tool, and when I use that tool and place the point on the map, it just freezes the view. I have to delete it in order to move the map again.

It would be great if anyone can help me out. Thanks in advance

[shaneqt]

I’m having the same sort of problems. No fixes yet?

[Bob_Staff]

I have been learning by trial-and-error for most of the functions in the left hand panel. There’s not a lot, if any, tutorials or documentation on these functions.
There is a book available on line that apparently explains everything about ODM, but it appears to be very theory oriented. If I knew it answer all of my user questions I’d buy it.
It’s " OpenDroneMap: The Missing Guide". in the WebODM Documentation area.

[smathermather]

Happy to take edits / additions at docs.opendronemap.org. It’d be great to have a section on using the 3D measurement tools. They come from potree, but as far as I can see, they aren’t documented in that project either.

Would you be able to write a couple paragraphs with screen shots, Bob?

[Bob_Staff]

If I was more confident in what I am saying I would be happy to. But I keeping running across things that make me go “hmmmm”.
For example…I did a volume calculation using the “cube” measurement for an area that’s basically a ditch. This shows over 2million cubic meters of area.

However when I go to the ortho and calculate the volume by outlining the same area, it calculates the volume as about 300k cubic meters.

So without understanding which is right, and why, I can’t really comment. What’s worse is that I can’t say to someone “if you want to fill in that hole, you will need between 300k and 2.6 million cubic meters of dirt.”

[smathermather]

I don’t think those two processes are meant to measure the same thing. Also, neither tool is likely to be meant to measure the volume of a hole, if that’s your objective.

But, if you are willing to document tools that are consistent for you and understandable (profile tool, distance tool, and similar) that would go a long way toward helping others in the project.

Cheers

[israelbar]

I have seen the differences in these tools but they measure different things.

Lets take this small pile as an example. It has a volume of about 30 cubic meters.

Qgis and the 2D tool measured 31.48 and 31.22m3, respectively. While the 3D tool indicated a volume of 232.52m3, as it is measuring the whole 3d solid shape volume.

In the near future @ulimaps and me, will write documentation for these measurement tools. We are glad of having this great opportunity to contribute.

[smathermather]

Perfect! Thank you both.

[Bob_Staff]

So apparently the 2D volume calculation gets it’s “Z” info from the contour differences IF you ran DTM in the processing. So it shouldn’t matter if it’s hole or a pile. (I better update the images in my website!)
Sidebar…it would be SO nice if the developers would supply at least basic usage instructions on new features. I love the product and all the work that is put in to this, but some of the documentation that I read in github is clearly meant for people with more coding skills than the average drone pilot.

[smathermather]

It’s a heavy lift for the devs to also be the sole sources of documentation. That’s why we ask other community members to help too. Unlike a closed source project, or even an open sourced project that really originates from a single organization, we don’t have a body of staff dedicated to building these things. We have each other.

Understand that efforts such as starting to document the 3D tools are often a seed: if you documented functions you understand well, others can fill in other pieces that they know well, and the burden is lighter for everyone.

The GitHub repos are developer centric by design. We keep the developer centric info there, and focus on the user oriented documentation at docs.opendronemap.org.

[pierotofy]

Can confirm, you can measure holes as well as piles

[smathermather]

That’s awesome. Do you have to be careful not to measure both at the same time?

[pierotofy]

Well, if you measure a hole and a pile the final volume value will be volume of pile - volume of hole (in absolute values, so no negative numbers allowed).

[smathermather]

That’s what I was guessing. Cool, thanks.