Release Notes for FARO Zone 2D

Eagle View

Eagle View -   Previously called Pictometry can be found under Import on the Home ribbon.

For more information click - Eagle View

Workflows

Workflows and cheat sheets are continually be added to the Zone Help system. Access a “cheat sheet” as a quick reminder of how to use a particular feature in the program. The cheat sheets will link to the manual and movie if available as well. Workflows could be as simple as using a feature like the color picker or pano images with point clouds to going from the scanner to Zone to deliverables. See attached workflows and check out the Workflow/Cheat Sheet section in Help.

Check out the complete set of workflows for Smart Roads! For more information click -  Workflows and Cheat Sheets

Other Updates

• FZ3-9962    Print - Esc key to close Print form
• FZ3-9961    Print - scrollable report fields
• FZ3-9957    CDT - Grid Color Bug Fix.
• FZ3-9922    CZD load issues - not matching PDFs
• FZ3-9901    T intersection not working
• FZ3-9443    Custom Symbols path - add to prefs
• FZ3-9442    Forms Folder - add to prefs Japan request
• FZ3-9869    Zone 2D Enterprise - Admin - need Save White Background checkbox for PNGs - Forsyth
• FZ3-9802    CDT auto linework, connecting using descriptions
• FZ3-9756    Multiselect Move - Put a limit on the potential snap points tested
• FZ3-9729    Road Symbol - stacking
• FZ3-9179    FZ Custom Signs - Categories for importing custom signs in drop down
• FZ3-9812    Lake City FL PD - get Zone2D working with SmartCop
• FZ3-9154    CDT - Auto detect GPS and pick correct format
• FZ3-9734    Assets... Zone 2d symbol updates.
• FZ3-9732    Assets... Updated model. Fixed entries for French signs in 2d.
• FZ3-9742    Translations - update ResourcesUI and Process
• FZ3-9721    Loggly - add Workflow Loggly

Help Box

The Help ribbon icons have been removed and replaced with a Help Box that pops up when you click on the Help ribbon tab.

Picture Sign Maker

Use this feature to open an image as a sign. Previously you would place an existing sign and change its texture (image) or browse.

Search Bar (new look and location)

The Search bar has been moved it to the left side of the Quickbar. We also removed the FARO Assist icon. Click in the Search bar to go the manual, FARO Assist, or FAQ’s directly. Type in a key word into the Search bar to pull up links to information in both places.

Quick Ribbon Tab

A Quick menu has been added to the ribbon. This menu is great for creating a crash diagram without having to switch between too many menus. This menu was originally developed for the Virginia DMV. We are making it public and will modify and perfect with user input.

This movie was recorded to show the full functionality of the Quick menu. It’s a comprehensive video that shows the full workflow of a crash diagram. There’s something in here for everyone!

Color Picker Dropper

The color picker tool has been rebuilt for a better look, easier use and with added functionality.

1. Old (classic) color picker simple dialog opens first for quick color picking.
2. Old (classic) color picker expanded menu for defining custom colors. NOTE: Custom Colors were not saved in the “classic” color picker and are lost when the program is closed and re-opened.
   
3. New color picker simple dialog. NOTE: Custom Colors are saved from drawing to drawing in the new color picker.
   1. Eye Dropper - dynamic color picker used to select any color on the screen.
   2. Click on “Advanced” to open the full color picker dialog.
      

New Color Picker Advanced Dialog

1. Default color palette.
2. Eye Dropper - dynamic color picker used to select any color on the screen.
3. Custom colors (saved between drawings). Right click on a custom color to remove it from the palette.
4. Color Preview and “Save Color” to Custom Colors palette.
5. Set RGB; enter in number boxes or use sliders.
6. Alpha channel (transparency) value. All the way to the right (255), opaque.
7. Brightness channel.
8. Hex color code of the current R,G,B values.

Using the Eye Dropper to select and change the color of a selected vehicle from a photo imported into Zone.

First select the vehicle and then open the Color Picker dialog from the properties panel.

1. Click on the Eye Dropper
2. Hover over anything on the Zone screen. As you hover over the photo the color of the vehicle will dynamically change to match whatever color pixel the cursor is over. Click your mouse button to select the desired color.
3. The color of the vehicle will be set to the color clicked on and shown in the color preview of the color picker dialog. This color can be saved.

Bi-Fold Door Option

Two new bi-fold door options have been added to the “Door Type” drop down menu.

NOTE: You can place a door on any line or Wall Structure. If you place a door or window on an ordinary line, the line will be converted to a Wall Structure object.

The Structure tools (1) are on the Power Tools ribbon.
Draw a wall from the Structure tools (2).
Place a Door (3) or Window (4) on the Wall.

Once the door is placed and selected open the “Door Type” pulldown menu and pick the “Bi- Fold” (2) or “Double Bi-Fold” (3) door type.
 

Polygon Tool – Set Number of Sides

The Numbered Sides Polygon tool has two options: Draw from a “side” or from the “center”.
Each option lets create a regular polygon based on the number of sides entered.

(1) On the Draw/Edit menu pick the polygon tool from the Rectangles menu.
(2) Polygon drawn from a side.
(3) Polygon drawn from the center.

NOTE: Once created, the polygon is converted to a continuous line and is no longer a “regular polygon” object.

(1) Drawn on side. (2) Drawn from center. While drawing the polygon you can set, number of sides, radius, side length, yaw, fill, and outline colors. Once a polygon is placed you can convert it to a polyline. Once it’s a polyline it can be modified at every node point.

Performance Tools

The Performance Diagnostic tool helps to identify the problem areas in the project that could be slowing down overall performance and causing lag when navigating, snapping to, and moving objects.

This diagnostics tool is an ongoing effort to improve the overall performance of the program. This system is designed to help your and FARO Support to get the best performance out of Zone.

Tip – make sure your video drivers are up to date.

Open the diagnostics tool from the Performance settings under Preferences.

1. Start Diagnostics – scans and does a speed analysis of the drawing. By default, all of the performance options are ON. The option to turn OFF is there in case there is a conflict with a particular project and the performance tool.
   TIP – always keep the performance options ON unless there’s an issue with the project. You can experiment by turning all of the performance options OFF and then turn them on individually.
2. Performance Boost – Check the “Performance Boost” box to improve overall performance in the project. This will improve your fps (frames per second rate).
3. Use Object Clipping -
   • • Objects off screen and too small to display are removed from the Render Object List.tu
   • • Key objects such as Point Clouds, Animations, CDTs are cached for quick access eliminating many complete data base searches per render and mouse events.
   • • Best performance boost in drawings with high object counts.
   • • 3-5X improvement in fps (Frames Per Second) rendering.
   • • Much less mouse movement lag.
4. Hide Shadows (Global) – turns shadowing off for all objects in the project. Shadows can cause a strain on performance.
   TIP – turn off shadows when editing the project and then turn ON when the project is finalized and you’re creating animations and reports.
5. Cache Objects – caching will store objects to be used later when rendering; greatly improving performance.
6. Advanced Diagnostics – for a deeper dive by the development team.

Performance Tool Dashboard

1. This section is a dashboard for overall performance.
2. List of layers in the project in order of slowest first.
3. List of objects in each layer. Open by clicking on expand arrow next to the layer.
4. Turn layers on and off to test for performance changes.

CDT GPS Import and Auto Align to a Google Map

Import GPS data into the CDT (Coordinate Data Table) tool and place in the diagram. Open Google Maps and click on “Align to GPS”. This will auto place the Google Map relative to the GPS data.

1. Open GPS data in CDT and select the correct GPS format from the CDT list.
   
2. Place the GPS data into the diagram.
   
3. Open Google Maps and click on “Align to GPS”.
   
   

Road Tools – Sidewalks

The Road Tools have option to include a sidewalk on the outer perimeter of the roadway line, arc, and intersections. Sidewalk settings allow for width, color, texture, and thickness.

CDT (Coordinate Data Table) DXF Import

Import a DXF file into the CDT (Coordinate Data Table) to separate out all labels and geometry onto their own separate layers. This allows for point numbers, descriptions, and line work to be turned on/off and labels text size globally editable.

From the “hamburger” menu on the CDT pick “Import DWG/DXF Points”. This will bring up the file open
dialog for DXF and DWG files.

Once loaded you can use the CDT tools to make the same adjustments as you would with any other imported point data.

Start Page – Release Notes (What’s New)

An overview of the latest release notes has been added to the Start Page.

1. Click here to get the latest release (if available).
2. Close the release notes, giving more space for project thumbnails.
3. Click here to see the full set of release notes.
4. Clicking on the Release Notes icon will open the Knowledge Base page to the latest release notes if the “What’s New” dialog is showing. If the “What’s New” dialog has been turned OFF then clicking on the “Release Notes” icon will bring it back.
   

Print Dialog Rotate

A diagram can be rotated inside the print dialog tool before printing. You have the option to do a quick rotation in 90° increments or entering a specific value.

NOTE: This will not change the actual rotation of the drawing in Zone.

Area/Polygon Tool with Add Walls Option

A new polygon tool using the Measure Area tool functionality was added with the ability to convert the perimeter to our Wall Structure.

1. Select the Area/Polygon tool from the rectangle tools menu.
2. Draw the area.
3. Click on “Add Walls”
   

Zone2go Updates

Simple Annotation - Add annotations to the Zone 2go project (For example, look for “Fountain” in the Zone 2go browser).

Textures

Object fills can be converted to textures.

1. Click on “Object Fill”
   
2. Turn “Texture” ON
   

Road Intersection Median Texture

Change the Intersection Median’s color or texture.

Road Tool Median and Texture

Add a median to the Road Tool and change the Median’s color or texture.

Dimension Text Override

1. Open the “Text” options in the Dimension Line panel.
2. Turn the “Override Text” switch ON.
3. Type in the new dimension text.
   

Zone2go

The new Zone2go Logo:

Please note Zone 2go Viewer uses this logo to cover the hole under the 3D Scanner. If the drawing does not have SCENE Point Cloud, Zone 2go won’t show the logo since there is nothing to cover.

.FML file format

What is FML?

It’s a file containing geometric objects that can be imported into Floorplanner.com. Floorplanner is a lightweight online room designer for the real estate and home decorating market. This is an ideal platform for the ScanPlan and FARO Zone data.

NOTE: you can try out Floorplanner at www.floorplanner.com

Why?

There’s opportunity in real estate to use ScanPlan and Zone. Import ScanPlan projects into FZ2, clean up, add geometry (lines, walls, and areas). Export the finished drawing to the .fml format.

Overview?

Both Zone 2D/3D products can now export to .fml thru the file menu> Save/Export options. Exported objects include -

• Area object with label
• Lines, Polylines
• Poly Curves
• Rectangles
• Arcs
• Wall structures

NOTE: Wall height is applied to all non-Area objects in Floorplanner.

Workflow -

1. Scan area with ScanPlan
2. While scanning, use Room Planner to add rooms for FML export

   Screen 1	Screen 2

    

3. Import into FARO Zone
   
4. Export FML file
   
5. Go to floorplanner.com and select the FML file to create a project
   
   

Dirt Road Edge Feature

Covert a Road Tool straight and arc type to a dirt road. Use the Dirt Road Edge line type to convert any line type to a “rough” road edge.

Watch the video >>>

• Street Tool – Straight
• Street Tool – Arc
• Line Type – Properties

Use the road tools to create straight or arc roadway sections.

(1) Road Tool Straight (2) Road Tool Arc

Convert the selected straight or arc road section to a dirt road.

Select the road section and turn fill OFF.

Convert any line geometry to the dirt road edge line type.

FAQ – link to Zone 2D and 3D frequently asked questions

Click in the Search bar to open the pull-down menu. Click on FAQ to open the Zone FAQ section in FARO’s Knowledge Base.

Zone2go

Zone2go allows the user to export and share FZ projects to the storage media of your choice. The Zoone2go viewer is portable and does not require an Internet connection.

The Zone2go viewer and FZ projects are meant to be saved on a USB stick or other storage device and used on a Windows or MacOS device. You can also export to a folder and then copy the folder to a Windows or MacOS tablet or burn on a DVD.

The Zone2go Viewer will Capture and Display:

• Works with or without SCENE Point Cloud
• Automatically generates an intuitive Overview Map
• Panoramic Views are generated for each scan position
• All FARO Zone diagram geometry and annotations will be displayed
• 3D View for each scan for best understanding of spatial details
• Measurements in SCENE point cloud Panoramic View and 3D View
• No installation required. You can launch the Viewer directly from the USB stick

Basic Workflow

• Open/Create FZ3 project (with or without SCENE Point Cloud)
• Add Witness feature in the drawing (optional)
• Add annotations/File References (optional)

You can add the following Zone 2go annotations:

• Images
• Animations (using File reference)
• Report (.pdf)
• 360 Image
• 360 animation (using File reference)
• Dimension, Label and other FZ items
• Hyperlink (using File reference)

How to use:

Click on Zone2go Launchpad

What makes a Zone2go project? Here are the basics:

• With no annotations or pano views you will only generate a top down overview map of your scene.
• With no annotations or pano views, but you have a SCENE point cloud project, you will create an overview map and be able to view the point cloud from each scan position.
• To create a project that will let you view points of interest you will need to use the Total View tool to setup a 360 pano view at each position.
• You can also setup point of interest locations from the Zone2go launch pad by navigation to the desired position and clicking on the camera icon.
• You can use the Witness tool, placed at a point of interest, and that will automatically create a pano view that will appear in the Zone2go launch pad.
• All snapshots, Witness Views, and Total View snapshots are automatically converted to panoramic images when you export the project from Zone2go.

Let’s Step Through It

All snapshots and referenced files will be displayed on the Zone2go launch pad. This will include everything you already added to your diagram. All snapshots, Witness Views, and Total View snapshots are automatically converted to panoramic images when you export the project from Zone2go.

Once in the Zone2go launch pad you can continue to add file references and 360 degreee panoramic images.

1. Add a file reference.
2. Add a panoramic snapshot. Move to the position you want a new snapshot before clicking.
3. Exporet your Zone2go project.
   
4. Select Zone2go export folder.
   
5. A confirmation dialog box shows up after Zone 2go project is successfully exported
6. Click on “Launch Zone 2go” button to launch the Zone 2go Viewer, or “Open Export Folder” to open the Export folder.
   

Layer Report Tool

Use the Layer Report to create a PDF document that includes the overall diagram on the first page and then puts each layer and sub-layer on their own page. This is very useful especially with ScanPlan data. In this example the ScanPlan layers are on separate pages. All file links such as the panoramic photos in this case are listed on pages as well.

Layer Manager and Pages in Report

Line Work and File References

Vehicle Database – Expert AutoStats

We’ve added an option for Expert AutoStats data in the Vehicle Database tool. This is provided by our good friends at www.4n6Xprt.com

1. Open the Vehicle Specs database tool.
2. Choose between the CVS (Canadian Vehicle Specs) or AutoStats database.
3. If there is data missing such as “overhang” the model row will be highlighted orange.
   
4. Not enough data to calculate front and rear overhang data. When this occurs the outline of the vehicle will not include the wheel positions. Try the other database and compare.
   
   

(1) 2D top down contoured outline display

(2) Outline pull down options

Road Tools

Updates to the Road Tools.

• Easier road arm and individual lane selection
• Improved properties panel interface
• Median Length Option
  

(1) Add Median
(2) Median Length grip
(3) Median Position grip

• Turn Lane Grips
  
• Create Tangent Arc Road
  

(1) Select road arm, click to add a tangent road arc
(2) Road arc settings

• Arc road lane data in HUD
  
• Convert line or arc to road
   
  
  
• Road Markings built into road system
  

(1) Pull down list of road markings – you can place multiple markings on the same lane by placing one, deselecting the lane, reselecting, and placing another mark.
(2) Mark settings. The markers can also be moved and rotated with the selection grips.

• Road tool (Fill Mode On/OFF) – turn the road fill on or off. Change the global color of all the lines.
  

Vector Signs

Option to create and save vector (true geometry) as a sign accessible from the Signs tool.

• Draw your sign design using any of the program geometry; lines, arcs, curves, circles, fills, etc…
• Select it
• Click on “Create Sign” in the multi-select properties panel.
  

Saving the New Vector Sign to Custom Signs

1. Select the newly created sign.
2. Click on Save
3. Give the new Sign a name.
4. Open the Custom Signs menu
   
   
   
   

Rounded Rectangles

Round of the corners of a rectangle simply by drawing or selecting a rectangle and turning the “Rounded” option ON. Adjust the rounded corner by changing the radius value.

Parking Lot Lines

Convert a line into a modifiable parking lot stall line type. You can set all the stall dimensions and whether stalls are displayed on both sides of the center line. Extend the line to add more stalls.