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FARO® Knowledge Base

Sphere Viewer - Best Practice and Troubleshooting

FARO Sphere

Sphere

Sphere-bty.png

Overview

The FARO® Sphere Viewer is the new "Home" of viewing your HoloBuilder and Sphere Projects. It is built on a powerful technology stack that allows the viewing of Point Clouds, 360° Photos, and BIM Models. This article will provide general usage guidelines, best practices, and troubleshooting information.

Highlights

  • Users are able to see their HoloBuilder Projects in the Sphere Viewer. Sphere Point Cloud Projects can be connected with HoloBuilder's 360° Projects.
  • Sphere Viewer is not available yet to view all scans projects from Sphere. Only combined projects with HB will be viewable in the Sphere Viewer. WebShare projects cannot be viewed in the Sphere Viewer just yet.
  • The workflow of combining HoloBuilder Projects with Point Clouds from Sphere Projects is currently only available from HoloBuilder.
  • New functionalities within the Sphere Viewer will be available soon!

 

Best Practice

 

Prerequisites

Verify Permissions:

To connect a point cloud, you need the following permissions:

  • You need to be the Project Manager of the HoloBuilder Project
  • You need a Sphere account with a workspace, that allows you to manage projects
  • In the Sphere account, you need a WebShare project with at least viewing permissions

To see a connected project in the Sphere Viewer, you need to have access to the HoloBuilder project and:

  • Read access to the linked copy of the HoloBuilder project (called Sphere Project), that is created in your Sphere account
  • Read access to the point cloud, that the project is connected to

Tip: To view the Sphere Project, you can filter by Type (in Sphere)
SphereViewer-FilterByType.png

 

 

Walkthrough Video

Cannot view the video? Click here to download this video.

 

Point Cloud Source:

  • Point clouds need to be on FARO Sphere in order to be combined with a HB project
  • Different methods are possible for having points clouds on Sphere:
    • FARO SCENE software + FARO Sync Agent (synchonizing data between SCENE + Sphere. See Overview and Usage of FARO Sync Agent for more information.)
    • FARO SCENE Software, upload to WebShare
    • FARO Stream: When uploading a scan from a Focus scanner to Stream, the point cloud of the project is automatically generated.

Tip: Make sure to trigger the point cloud creation on WebShare or create a point cloud project in SCENE and upload it to WebShare.

  • When using devices other than FARO hardware, point clouds (ex. E57) can be imported in FARO SCENE, then uploaded with one of the methods above. Additional upload methods will be available soon.
  • Interested in getting early access? Let us know here!

 

Connect Point Cloud Workflow

  1. Open your project in HoloBuilder using the “Open in Sphere Viewer” button.
    SphereViewer-OpenSphereViewer.png
     
  2. Click on Connect Point Cloud.
    SphereViewer-ConnectPointCloud.png
    • Note: Currently, only the following HoloBuilder roles can connect a point cloud
      • Project Manager
      • Enterprise Admin
         
  3. Log in to your FARO Sphere account (where you have uploaded your scans).
    SphereViewer-LoginSphereViewer.png
     
  4. Confirm the connection of your HoloBuilder project with Sphere.
    SphereViewer-ConnectHB.png
     
  5. Select the workspace to create a Sphere copy of the HoloBuilder project in, that will synchronize automatically.
    Spehre-Viewer_SelectWorkspace.png
  6. Select your point cloud from the panel on the right. Make sure to select the correct floor plan on the left.
    SphereViewer-SelectPointCloud.png
  7. Align the point cloud using 2 points.
    SphereViewer-AlignPointCloud.png
    • Note: This does not change the point cloud scaling, this 2-point alignment method scales the floor plan to the point cloud.
       
  8. Set the height of the point cloud relative to the floor plan.
    SphereViewer-SetHeightPointCloud.png
  9. Confirm the alignment. A new linked project will now be created in your Sphere Account.

 

Current Known Limitations and Workarounds

 

Troubleshooting Guide

 

FAQ (Including Tips & Tricks)