NavVis Mapping Changelog history

The following sections show the changelog history of our mapping technology

Version 2.22.7

Release Date: December 20th, 2023

New

• The processing software supports Ubuntu 22.04.

Version 2.22.6

Release Date: November 28th, 2023

Improved

• Captured images can now be browsed from the preview screen.

Fixed

• The auto-triggering mechanism now stops while the scan is paused.

• When attempting to upgrade the software on devices, checking for an available internet connection now also checks if Nexus Repository Manager is available, which allows devices to be updated on a restricted network.

Version 2.22.5

Release Date: November 9th, 2023

New

• navvis-webprocessing stops generating the pointcloud-pcs.ply pointcloud file which results in a lower memory usage and faster processing time.

Version 2.22.4

Release Date: October 16th, 2023

Improved

• The image quality was significantly improved, now yielding crisper images with sharper details and lower noise.

• Improved the speed and thread utilization of the panorama rendering process.

• NavVis VLX: The image quality was significantly improved, now yielding crisper images with sharper details and lower noise.

• NavVis M6 and NavVis VLX: Improved the speed and thread utilization of the panorama rendering process.

Version 2.22.3

Release Date: September 21st, 2023

Improved

• Introduced the Save button to the control point renaming function.

• Internal optimizations improved the mapping performance.

Fixed

• Users will only be warned once when they reach the maximum recommended scanning time.

Improved

• Significantly faster point cloud processing due to internal improvements and better thread utilization.

• Reduced memory consumption during processing of large datasets during colorization of the point cloud.

Fixed

• Desktop Processing: Resolved an issue where a configuration parameter in SiteMaker that should have only impacted NavVis M6 processing was leading to processing failures for NavVis VLX 3 data.

• NavVis IVION Processing: The archive of downloaded panoramic images (pano.zip) is no longer generated when no panoramic images are available.

Version 2.22.2

Release Date: August 24th, 2023

Improved

• Increased the range for the colorization of the point cloud e.g. for outdoor presets where the color needed to be extrapolated to improve the colored texturing of the different regions in the point cloud.

• Improved the performance of point cloud processing and coloring in terms of runtime and memory usage.

Fixed

• Fixed the origin x, y, z coordinates for the xray maps.

Version 2.22.1

Release Date: August 8th, 2023

Improved

• Significantly reduced visually noticeable drift during mapping (NavVis VLX 3 only).

• Control points are now listed from most recently recorded to oldest.

• The display now enters energy saving mode after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Fixed

• Resolved a timing issue that could lead to mismatching textures in the colored point cloud.

Improved

• Improved quality map by removing points caused by reflections.

Fixed

• Resolved a timing issue that could lead to mismatching textures in the colored point cloud.

• Recorded control points that are not part of the survey coordinates file now appear in the anchor_poses_out.txt file after processing.

Version 2.22.0

Release Date: June 20th, 2023

New

• The live visualization can now be controlled intuitively via touch gestures to zoom, pan, and rotate the map.

Improved

• NavVis VLX now calculates and displays area according to the same metric as NavVis IVION Processing for billing purposes.

Fixed

• The virtual keyboard no longer hides the currently selected control point input screen.

New

• Panoramic images have been improved in terms of effective resolution, increased sharpness, and fewer compression artifacts.

Improved

• Optimized runtime performance of panorama rendering.

• The robustness of SLAM has been improved.

Version 2.21.1

Release date: April 26th, 2023

Improved

• An issue that caused minor inaccuracies when transforming camera image pixel coordinates into panorama image pixel coordinates has been resolved.

Fixed

• Fixed an issue that caused nv_cut-dataset to fail and display an import error when running on a freshly installed version.

Version 2.21.0

Release Date: April 12th, 2023

New

• Users can now change dataset names directly on the device.

• When taking control points, users now receive live feedback if the minimum required number of control points is not met.

Improved

• Total processing time has been decreased due to the improved performance of the panorama rendering and image processing components.

Fixed

• Some datasets could cause the SLAM system to crash. This issue has been resolved.

• Deactivated control points are no longer used during the alignment phase (part of the registration with control points).

Breaking

• The navvis-postprocessing command line argument --num-panos-parallel is now --num-threads-panos. This is only relevant for terminal users.

Version 2.20.0

Release Date: March 7th, 2023

New

• Users can now zoom and pan when previewing datasets on the device.

Improved

• A redesign of the icons makes the control point screen easier to use.

Fixed

• Connectivity issues that prevented some NavVis VLX devices from connecting to the internet have been resolved.

• The SLAM now waits for data from the Lidar before starting initialization to prevent crashes after startup.

Fixed

• .bag files are now automatically repaired.

• The point cloud coloring component now reports missing arguments before starting.

Version 2.19.0

Release date: January 17th, 2023

Improved

• Improved performance and reduced lags when working with large datasets.

• When a mapping is finished, the finalization step has been improved for greater robustness and reduced time.

• When entering dataset names, the screen now remembers the custom naming or naming assistant used last time and uses it by default.

Fixed

• In some extremely rare circumstances there was data loss if the internal clock was not correctly set up, but this issue has been solved.

• An issue occurred where images shown on the preview screen during mapping did not appear in the correct order.

Improved

• Various improvements for faster processing.

• Added a verification step that provides diagnostics in case of corrupt files.

Version 2.18.2

Release Date: November 17th, 2022

Fixed

• The shutdown of a mapping has been revised to correctly store the relevant statistics for long and large datasets.

Version 2.18.1

Release date: November 14th, 2022

Fixed

• Fixed an issue that prevented the user to start Sitemaker on a freshly installed system.

Version 2.18.0

Release Date: October 12th, 2022

New

• Improved performance of SLAM for significantly reduced latency during mapping.

• The shutdown of a mapping has been revised to correctly store the relevant metadata for long and large datasets.

Fixed

• Under certain specific circumstances, the user interface could display incorrectly.

• Fixed a problem that could cause the mapping duration to be missing in the meta-information of the dataset, which could cause problems during post-processing.

• An issue causing trajectory information to not be captured correctly has been resolved.

• An issue causing the deletion of a dataset in the user interface to fail has been resolved.

• The initialization procedure of internal components has been improved to prevent issues when starting the mapping.

New

• NavVis IVION Processing: Positions and orientations ("poses") of panoramas are now available for download from the Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IVION as .CSV file in the pano.zip archive. If the dataset was processed with control points, the positions are in the same coordinate system as the point cloud.

Improved

• SiteMaker: Online documentation is now displayed in the default browser.

• SiteMaker: An alert message is displayed that the dataset has been skipped if it has been processed before.

Fixed

• SiteMaker: The version information now displays correctly.

• SiteMaker: The broken German translation has been removed.

Breaking

• NavVis Desktop Processing Software: since this is a major release, datasets recorded with System Software 2.18.0 must be processed with Desktop Processing 2.18.0 or greater.

Version 2.17.0

Fixed

• The mapping device will no longer shut down if the batteries do not return status updates.

Improved

• The internal scan names of e57 point cloud files are changed to facilitate import of .e57 files into 3rd party applications.

Fixed

• Empty quality maps will no longer trigger crashes during processing

Version 2.16.0

Release Date: 27th June 2022Note

To process datasets captured with the NavVis VLX on NavVis System Software 2.16.0, you require NavVis Desktop Processing Software 2.16.0 (or newer). Processing with earlier versions will fail. Cloud Processing supports the processing of datasets captured with 2.16.0.

NavVis VLX & M6 System Software

Fixed:

• We removed the ability to view application logs from the user interface.

NavVis VLX System Software

New:

• A new safety mechanism will warn you before the device overheats and shuts it down if necessary.

Improved:

• We significantly improved the capturing of panoramic images while scanning in low-light conditions.

• We improved the brightness of captured panoramic images in cloudy outdoor conditions.

• The frame rate of the real-time quality map is now dynamically adjusted, leading to fewer lags, which results in a more responsive user interface.

• The camera now takes less time to initialize on startup.

• We introduced the capture version in metadata of images to make it easier for the post-processing software to apply the correct image processing techniques based on the version.

Fixed:

• The dashboard state is now saved and restored when the user interface crashes and restarts.

NavVis M6 System Software

Fixed:

• The quality map and the laser scans are now aligned correctly during scanning.

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IVIONNote

To process datasets captured with the NavVis VLX on NavVis System Software 2.16.0, you require NavVis Desktop Processing Software 2.16.0 (or newer). Processing with earlier versions will fail. Cloud Processing supports the processing of datasets captured with 2.16.0.

Improved:

• We introduced limits on automatic white balancing to deal with extreme conditions such as colored lighting.

• To reduce visual artifacts, we improved floor-filling wrap-around at the lowest and highest position in panoramas .

Version 2.15.2

Release Date: 19th May 2022

NavVis VLX System Software

New:

• We added audio feedback for important events and time-consuming tasks.

Fixed:

• We fixed a user interface rendering issue that can cause weaker performance during scanning.

• We fixed an issue that can cause a misalignment between the quality map and the laser scans during scanning.

Version 2.15.1

Release Date: 5th April 2022

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IVION

Fixed:

• We fixed an issue where a trail of points was visible in the point cloud for some devices.

Version 2.15.0.1

Release Date: 18th March 2022

NavVis VLX System Software

Fixed:

• We fixed an issue that prevented the saving of Panoramic images during the mapping completion.

Version 2.15.0

Release Date: 10th March 2022

NavVis VLX & M6 System Software

Improved:

• When naming a dataset, you can no longer enter invalid characters that cause post-processing errors.

Fixed:

• We made minor reliability improvements.

NavVis VLX System Software

New:

• NavVis VLX user interface:

  • You can now toggle between automatic and manual camera triggering from the top bar without accessing the Settings menu.

  • After you capture an image, a thumbnail of that image is displayed in the user interface, and you can preview the image by tapping the thumbnail.

  • You can now check captured images during and after a scan and delete them right from the device.

Improved:

• The small preview images stored in the recorded datasets now have orientation information in their exchangeable image file format (EXIF) header.

Fixed:

• We fixed rendering issues that caused the user interface to behave unexpectedly during scanning.

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IVION

Fixed:

• We fixed various crashes during post-processing.

• We improved normal estimation in sparse areas of a point cloud.

• Additional meta-information, such as the vendor, is now written to the E57 file header to support 3rd party applications.

• Timestamps in E57 files are now written as Global Positioning System (GPS) time to comply with the standard.

Version 2.14.1

Release Date: 13th December 2021

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing

Improved:

• The generated quality map now shows better defined structures and details.

• A warning is now displayed if you post-process data with an older version of the NavVis Desktop Processing Software than the NavVis System Software version used to record the datasets.

Fixed:

• We improved the compatibility of e57 files with 3rd party applications.

NavVis VLX & M6 System Software

Fixed:

• The sensor initialization is now more reliable after device startup.

NavVis VLX System Software

Improved:

• We improved the preservation of highlights for preview images.

• When the device is not connected to the internet, the screen with the message to connect now automatically proceeds to the next screen when you connect an Ethernet cable to the device.

Fixed:

• If the cameras are triggered automatically and manually at the same time, only one image is now captured.

• We fixed the capture of images when triggering the cameras fast.

• We fixed a crash of the camera drivers.

• We improved internal error handling of the user interface.

• We fixed a problem preventing a full re-installation of packages on the device.

Version 2.14.0

Release Date: 23rd November 2021

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IVION

New:

• License files for NavVis Desktop Processing Software can now be stored in the directory “~/NavVis/Licenses/” for all language settings. The current directory ~/Documents/NavVis/Licences” is still supported.

NavVis VLX & M6 System Software

Fixed:

• The camera trigger distance you set from the user interface is remembered after reboots and consecutive scans.

• We improved the logging of errors, warnings, and information for support and diagnosis purposes.

NavVis VLX System Software

Improved:

• We prevented occasional software driver crashes. This improved reliability of image capturing by limiting the capture rate.

• Cameras that trigger manually and automatically at the same time, now capture only one image.

Version 2.13.1

Release Date: 19th October 2021Important

When you upgrade the NavVis System Software to version 2.13.1, you must also upgrade the NavVis Desktop Processing Software to version 2.13.1. If you do not upgrade both software, processing your data will fail. You need to upgrade both software because captured panoramic images now contain orientation information, which will make some scanning workflows easier.

NavVis VLX & M6 System Software

Fixed:

• Camera triggering is now more responsive.

NavVis VLX System Software

Improved:

• We added notifications to make it easier for you to tell when the scanning is paused.

• Panoramic images now contain orientation information.

Fixed:

• We fixed issues that occasionally occurred during the initialization of the cameras on startup on all versions of the NavVis VLX.

• The Exit button on the Settings screen now displays as expected on all versions of the NavVis VLX.

• We fixed the sound output on the NavVis VLX 2nd generation.

• We fixed issues with the power management unit on the NavVis VLX 2nd generation.

• We fixed a bug that allowed you to change the hook size while scanning on the NavVis VLX 2nd generation.

NavVis M6 System Software

Fixed

• We fixed notifications that were incorrectly hiding the lower button panel.

Version 2.13.0.1

Release Date: 28th September 2021

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IVION

Fixed:

• Location markers in datasets recorded by the NavVis VLX are now displayed on the floor as expected in NavVis IVION.

Version 2.13.0

Release Date: 20th September 2021Important

To continue receiving NavVis software updates after October 10, 2021, you must:

1. Upgrade your NavVis VLX/M6 devices and NavVis Desktop Processing Software workstation to version 2.11.0 or higher.

• If you have not upgraded your software to version 2.11.0 or higher, then you will not be able to download future software updates after October 10, 2021.

2. Make sure you have a valid license. You can see the overview of your active licenses at System Software licenses.

• If you do not have a valid license, contact your technical account manager.

NavVis VLX & M6 System Software

Improved:

• We have improved SLAM speed for a smoother live mapping experience.

NavVis VLX System Software

New:

• While using the NavVis VLX, you can now take tutorials from the help section that explain scanning best practices. The tutorials are on the device and do not need an online connection.

Fixed:

• We fixed a rare issue that could cause the NavVis VLX to become unresponsive after triggering a panorama.

• We adjusted the trigger sound volume in the NavVis VLX 2nd generation.

• The SSD is now detected when the NavVis VLX is on.

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IVION

Improved

• We have improved SLAM speed for faster processing times.

Version 2.12.1

Release Date: 30th August 2021

NavVis VLX & M6 System Software

Improved:

• We have improved the performance of the live map. This results in a smoother scanning experience, even in large environments.

Version 2.12.0

Release Date: 16th August 2021

NavVis VLX System Software

New:

• We now provide full support for the NavVis VLX 2nd generation.

• We completely redesigned the NavVis VLX user interface with enhance the usability of the device and the overall scanning experience.

• You can now browse vertically through your dataset while your mapping is paused.

Fixed:

• We fixed frequent collision warning false alarms.

• We upgraded internal components for improved stability of the camera drivers.

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IndoorViewer

Breaking:

• For the NavVis VLX, the “raw” point cloud is no longer stored as an output artifact after processing (both for NavVis Desktop Processing Software and the NavVis Cloud Processing Add-on). Only the “normal” point cloud is retained.

New:

• Intensity values and RGB values will now be stored in the filtered point cloud if coloring mode is selected for processing.

• NavVis SiteMaker: The NavVis VLX “point cloud presets”, already available in the Cloud Processing Add-on, are now accessible from NavVis SiteMaker to let you tune the point cloud generation to the desired use case (“Standard”, “High-confidence”, “Outdoor”).

• Cloud Processing Add-on: We now support the processing of control points with large coordinates and geo-referencing of control points with EPSG codes.

Version 2.11.0

Release Date: 20th July 2021

NavVis VLX & M6 System Software

Improved:

• We reconfigured the NavVis VLX and M6 to automatically receive updates from the new software repository.

• There is a new release signing key for future software releases.

NavVis M6 System Software

Fixed:

• The SSD storage indicator now shows the correct value.

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IndoorViewer

Improved:

• We improved SLAM for the NavVis VLX to better handle outdoor environments with plants and trees while maintaining its high accuracy. This change only applies during post-processing.

• When processing datasets with control points, we now support coordinates consistent with NavVis IVION’s site definition of +-20 km.

• We revised the installation scripts for NavVis Desktop Processing software and the system will now receive updates from the new software repository once you have reconfigured your workstation.

• There is a new release signing key for future software releases.

• The on-premise NavVis IndoorViewer (version 2.8) is no longer installed as a dependency of NavVis Desktop Processing.

Fixed:

• We fixed the HDR imaging that sometimes generated overexposed images when there was little texture in the image. This issue occasionally caused very dark areas in colored point clouds.

• We improved the speed of point cloud coloring for datasets that have many points without color.

Version 2.10.1

Release Date: 26th May 2021

M6 System Software

Fixed:

• We fixed a rare but critical issue that could prevent the recorded dataset from storing some images after scanning, resulting in the loss of those images. If the issue persists, the NavVis M6 displays a message to reboot. If needed, you can now format the built-in camera storage to reset the NavVis M6.

Version 2.10.0

Release Date: 4th May 2021

NavVis VLX & M6 System Software

Improved:

• We improved the rendering performance of the live map. As a result, live mapping is faster and slowdowns or lags in large outdoor areas reduce significantly particularly when zooming out.

NavVis VLX System Software

New

• You can now pan the map during scanning and navigate on the live map to check what you have scanned so far. From the interface, you can pan, rotate, zoom, and recenter the view on the NavVis VLX and the operator.

Fixed:

• It is now easier to detect missing images or images with errors in the image preview.

NavVis M6 System Software

Fixed:

• We fixed an issue that could repeatedly cause an error during application startup.

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IndoorViewer

Improved:

• We significantly improved the runtime point cloud coloring in particular on point clouds with a large portion of the point cloud coloring.

• The results of multiple SLAM runs on the exact same data does not greatly differ anymore.

Version 2.9.1

Release Date: 20th April 2021

NavVis Desktop Processing Software

Fixed:

• We fixed a critical issue that prevented NavVis SiteMaker from using control points when processing datasets. Datasets were processed successfully but without taking control points into account.

We recommend that all users upgrade to NavVis Processing Software version 2.9.1. If you used NavVis SiteMaker to process datasets with NavVis Processing Software version 2.9.0, you should reprocess those datasets with version 2.9.1.

Version 2.9.0

Release Date: 8th April 2021

NavVis VLX & M6 System Software

Fixed:

• We fixed an issue that could lead to incorrect dataset metadata and prevent the dataset cropping in cloud processing from working.

• We fixed the handling of certain message types that could cause unnecessary shutdowns while mapping.

NavVis VLX System Software

New

• We improved the automatic white balance for the images displayed on the NavVis VLX. This is a faster version of the new automatic white balance employed in post-processing.

Fixed:

• We adjusted the width of the input fields in the dataset naming assistant to correctly show double digit floor numbers and negative values.

• Bluetooth device handling is now more reliable.

NavVis M6 System Software

Fixed:

• We improved the handling of “low Hokuyo rate” error detections to avoid false detections and unnecessary shutdowns while mapping.

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IndoorViewer mportant

From release 2.9.0 on, NavVis Desktop Processing from the current “navvis-stable” software repository no longer supports the processing of NavVis M3 data. As announced earlier, NavVis M3 users are instructed to use software from a dedicated repository. Follow the instructions at (doc installation section) or contact Home · NavVis Portal for further help.

New:

• NavVis Desktop Processing: When processing with control points, the registered point clouds are generated at the end of processing without further manual steps. These point clouds are named the same as the dataset name to give them a descriptive and unique name for easy handling.

Fixed:

• We updated the SiteMaker settings screen and removed re-processing options that were not working.

Version 2.8.2

Release Date: 9th March 2021

NavVis VLX & M6 System Software

Improved:

• We improved live SLAM performance so mapping large environments will be smoother and more responsive, and it is now better at tracking your motion.

• If you have not updated your System Software in three months, you are now reminded to update the NavVis VLX/M6 System Software.

• For the NavVis M6, we replaced the current panorama preview to enable you to preview individual images.

Fixed:

• To avoid an immediate shutdown of the NavVis VLX/M6, you can no longer start a mapping if the batteries are almost empty.

NavVis VLX System Software

Fixed:

• We fixed unexpected collision warnings on the NavVis VLX.

NavVis M6 System Software

Improved:

• The NavVis M6 now automatically and safely shuts down a mapping before the batteries are empty to avoid data corruption.

Fixed:

• We fixed the handling of image files after mapping on some NavVis M6 models when the external SSD was using the exFat format.

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IndoorViewerImportant

From release 2.9.0 on, NavVis Desktop Processing from the current “navvis-stable” software repository will no longer support the processing of NavVis M3 data. NavVis will contact NavVis M3 customers with instructions on how to migrate their software when the processing of the M3 data is required.

Improved:

• We significantly improved automatic white balance for challenging lighting conditions, such as images captured in direct sunlight or dark environments. The automatic white balance is now applied during the post-processing, so it also works for previous datasets.

Fixed:

• We have reduced the memory consumption of the point cloud coloring to fix certain crashes.

• We fixed package dependencies that prevented the correct installation under certain conditions.

Version 2.8.1

Release Date: 27th January 2021

NavVis VLX & M6 System Software

Improved:

• We improved the exFAT formatting script error handling and explanation when the external SSD is not mounted.

• If necessary, bag files are now automatically repaired during post-processing.

• The data recording now mitigates data loss in case of an unexpected shutdown due to power loss.

Fixed:

• We fixed a rare issue with some Velodyne laser scanners that did not spin-up correctly after the NavVis M6 or VLX was powered up.

• We fixed a rare issue with some Velodyne scanners that did not deliver data after the NavVis M6 or VLX was powered up.

• The initial IMU self-calibration now prompts you to self-calibrate the device again, instead of sometimes incorrectly indicating the self-calibration was successful.

NavVis VLX System Software

New:

• The battery management system now notifies you early before the batteries run out. If you do not replace the batteries, then the NavVis VLX saves the recording dataset and initiates a safe shutdown before running out of power.

Improved:

• We updated the camera driver with various improvements to camera reliability.

NavVis M6 System Software

Improved:

• The NavVis M6 now safely shuts down the mapping in case of errors to minimize subsequent errors.

NavVis Desktop Processing & Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IndoorViewer

Fixed:

• NavVis M6/VLX: We fixed the issue causing control point residual files to be written incorrectly when using control point IDs with greatly different lengths.

• NavVis M6/VLX: We resolved the issue causing processing to crash under rare conditions when writing position information for capture locations.

• NavVis M3/M6/VLX: The “navvis-postprocessing” help argument (-h, –help) no longer displays all the help at once, which was confusing.

• NavVis M3/M6/VLX: We resolved the issue causing point clouds to be recreated when processing a dataset that was previously processed.

• SiteMaker: We resolved the issue preventing the processing of a point cloud when you did not select the “Generate point clouds” option.

• For the tool “nv_cut-dataset”, we fixed the issue causing the incorrect association of images when a timestamp was specified very close to an image capture event.

• For the tool “nv_anchor-dataset-alignment”, we corrected an error message stating an invalid argument name.

Version 2.8.0

Release Date: 8th December 2020Important

NavVis Mapping Software is now NavVis System Software, and is split into NavVis VLX System Software and NavVis M6 System Software.

NavVis Post-Processing Software is now NavVis Processing Software, and is split into NavVis Desktop Processing Software and Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IndoorViewer.

NavVis VLX System Software

Improved:

• The image quality via HDR imaging has been improved: Bright highlights are no longer overexposed, and darker areas are brighter with more detail. Images captured outdoors, especially on sunny days, look more natural. To see this improvement, update both the VLX System software and the NavVis Desktop Processing Software to version 2.8.0.

• In case of an unexpected error, the device now shuts down the active mapping automatically and safely to avoid corrupted datasets.

• The size of recorded datasets has been reduced by compressing laser scan data.

Fixed:

• In rare cases, the camera triggering shuts down the mapping.

• When unplugging the batteries, the battery indicator did not work.

• The UI did not remember the number of panoramas, control points, and mapping duration after restarting due to a failure.

• The frequency of laser scan messages during mapping was not being monitored.

NavVis M6 System Software

Improved:

• In case of an unexpected error, the device now shuts down the active mapping automatically and safely to avoid corrupted datasets.

• The size of recorded datasets has been reduced by compressing laser scan data.

NavVis Desktop Processing and Cloud Processing Add-on for NavVis IndoorViewer

Fixed:

• M3/M6/VLX: The tool nv_cloudtransform did not retain color when merging point clouds with and without the color.

• M3/M6/VLX: There was excessive memory consumption of the point cloud coloring on machines with many CPU cores.

• M3/M6/VLX: For a Web-processed dataset, there was a rare issue that could cause certain panorama tiles to be grayscale images.

Version 2.7.1

Release Date: 9th November 2020

VLX/M6 Mapping Software

Fixed:

• M6/VLX: During startup, the clock is now set to the correct time when the mapping device is connected to the internet.

• M6: A rare issue has been fixed that prevented the association of images to the corresponding dataset.

• M6/VLX: The instructions on how to contact support have been corrected.

Post-Processing Software on Prem.

Fixed:

• M6/VLX: A crash during post-processing for very large datasets has been fixed.

• M6/VLX: SiteMaker no longer comes with outdated instruction videos.

Version 2.7

Release Date: 14th October 2020

Highlights:

• M3/M6: The panorama rendering has received a major rework for better panorama quality. Several components have been improved to significantly reduce visual artifacts in panoramas. In addition, the floor filling has been extended to colored areas of the floor that were previously left black.

• M6/VLX: The user can now delete and edit control points in the UI while mapping.

Improved:

• M6/VLX: Control point IDs may contain all printable ASCII characters (decimal code 33 to 126) except ” ‘ | , and #.

• M6/VLX: The dataset preview in the UI now displays the number of captured controls points.

• VLX: The area estimate of a dataset in the UI preview now accounts for multiple floors.

• VLX: Updating the software is now more robust.

Fixed:

• M6/VLX: The battery status now works as expected.

• M6: Cameras are no longer triggered by auto-trigger while capturing a control point.

• M6/VLX: Control point files that contain a UTF-8 BOM symbol are now handled correctly.

• VLX: The blue map that visualizes the scanned area in the live view is now centered correctly.

• VLX: A crash in processing multi-floor datasets, which occurred under certain conditions, has now been fixed.

Version 2.6

Release Date: 31st August 2020

Improved:

• VLX: When scanning a multi-floor environment, the UI now only displays information about the floor being scanned (such as control points, capture locations, trajectory) in the live quality map. This is achieved by fading in and out the quality map in real-time when walking up/down stairs and ramps.

• VLX: Improved auto-whitebalancing to yield better image quality especially in outdoor environments.

• VLX: The stability and robustness of the cameras has been improved.

• VLX: The UI backend now actively observes the camera connectivity status. A safe mapping shutdown will be initiated if an connectivity error is detected.

• VLX: The UI now informs the user to put the device onto the ground during device initialization and imu self-calibration.

• VLX: There are performance improvements in point cloud processing. Overall processing time is reduced by approximately 10%.

• VLX/M6: The UI now restricts names of control points to letters, numbers, “-” and “_” to avoid issues in post-processing due to special characters.

• M3/M6/VLX: Sitemaker now supports csv files for GCP processing in file explorer.

Fixed:

• VLX: The Ubuntu software updater is now raised on top of the UI when updating the mapping software via the UI .

• VLX: The UI now displays the correct image timestamps in the dataset preview.

• VLX: An issue in the UI when scrolling down in the settings menu has been fixed.

• VLX: An issue when shutting down the cameras that prevented the mapping UI from finishing a dataset has been fixed.

• VLX: The UI now displays available hotfix updates, for example 2.5.5.1. Previously, only major, minor and patch releases were supported, for example 2.5.5.

• M6/VLX: An issue when the mapping was in pause mode after returning from the “Finish” screen has been fixed.

• M6: The UI now opens the file explorer again when the user clicks on the quality map or dataset path in the dataset preview.

• M6: The self-calibration of the IMU is now more robust.

Version 2.5.5

Release Date: 29th July 2020

Improved:

• M3/M6/VLX: Point cloud coloring consumes less memory and is now faster.

• M6/VLX: Control point coordinates can now be entered in CSV format when processing datasets. This format is easily to create and handle for simplified control point workflow with third party applications. The documentation will provide you with a description of the format. The former format continues to be supported.

• VLX: Additional quality maps are now generated during the post-processing of multi-floor datasets with one map per floor level.

• VLX: The user interface now displays information about the device and the installed software in the help section.

• VLX: The user interface is now able to launch the remote support application.

Fixed:

• M3/M6/VLX: Post-processing no longer runs twice when using SiteMaker.

• M6: The user interface now displays a warning when the height-adjustment lever is not closed properly.

• VLX: In multi-floor datasets, area estimates of each floor are now correctly accounted for after post-processing.

• VLX: The self-calibration of the IMU is now more robust.

• There are various minor stability improvements.

Version 2.5.4

Release Date: 30th June 2020

• Improved: VLX and M6: To avoid interruptions when processing with control points, a set of sanity checks that catch typical issues are now performed before processing.

• Improved: M6: To remain consistent, the term “SLAM Anchors” has been changed to “control points” in the user interface.

• Improved: VLX: Before shutting down a mapping, the user is now prompted with a confirmation screen.

• Improved: VLX: Manual triggering is now disabled in pause mode when the user is not on the main dashboard screen to prevent issues with panorama generation in non-scanned areas.

• Improved: VLX: A screen saver now activates after one hour without user interaction.

• Improved: VLX: Location markers now display correctly on the floor and their orientation now adapts to stairs.

• Fixed: M6 and VLX: Fixed an issue that prevented processing from running on machines with certain non-standard network configurations.

• Fixed: M3 and M6 and VLX: Fixed missing dependencies which, under certain conditions, caused problems during installation of the post-processing software.

• Fixed: Added various minor fixes and stability improvements.

Version 2.5.3

Important

NavVis is no longer providing software updates for Ubuntu 14.04.

• Improved: VLX and M6: Settings on the device such as the automatic/manual triggering mode and the distance between trigger attempts are now saved and restored after reboots.

• Improved: VLX and M6: The scanning of WiFi access points has significantly improved to record a better coverage of Wifi signals. Therefore, active WiFi connections are now disconnected during mapping and are re-enabled afterwards.

• Improved: M6: The user interface application has been modernized. The screens have been updated, the user experience is now more responsive when switching screens, and it further facilitates future upgrades.

• Improved: VLX: Automatic white balancing of panoramas at the first capture location has been improved and a few minor issues in the automatic white balancing procedure have also been resolved.

• Improved: VLX: Minor improvements to the filtering of false points in laser beams

• Fixed: VLX and M6: Fixed multi-touch zoom in the user interface.

• Fixed: VLX: Fixed minor blending issues for improved panorama quality in VLX datasets.

• Fixed: VLX: The quality map displayed during mapping no longer appears tilted under certain conditions.

• Fixed: VLX: An issue with the sound configuration has been resolved.

• Fixed: VLX: Various issues and glitches in the user interface have been fixed.

• Changed: Post-processing: Removed the commands navvis-start-postprocessing.sh and navvis-start-webprocessing.sh that have been deprecated since version 2.3.0. Please use navvis-postprocessing and navvis-webprocessing instead.

Version 2.5.2

• Improved: Las point cloud files generated by NavVis now carry an identifier so that 3rd party software can recognize and fully support the point clouds upon import.

• Fixed: Resolved hardware-related error handling in case of hardware-related errors in the UI and internal components.

• Fixed: Crashes no longer occur when handling device-internal components during the shutdown of a mapping.

• Fixed: The rtl8812au Wifi driver now works correctly on newer Ubuntu 18.04 kernels.

• Fixed: Various stability bug fixes and improvements.

Version 2.5.1

• Improved: Depth map generation has been updated to enable more accurate measurements.

• Improved: Bug fixes and stability enhancements.

Version 2.5

• Improved: The nv_cloudtransform tool retains pointcloud channels (intensities, colors, normals) when you use it with multiple input clouds.

• Improved: The accuracy of depth maps written to the <dataset>/pano_depth folder has been improved. This change does not affect generated panoramas and point clouds.

• Fixed: The quality map incorrectly showed areas as blue and covered when the mapping was paused.

Version 2.4.1

• Improved: When the nv_cloudtransform or nv_pcp tools are used to manipulate raw point clouds the intensity values are retained.

• Fixed: All point cloud formats are colored as expected after post-processing.

• Fixed: .bag files are always signed when a mapping is finalized.

• Fixed: When the site name ends with a number assisted naming behaves as expected.

Version 2.4

Important

Since 10.10.19, the NavVis software signing key has expired and software updates will not work. To get the latest software updates, update the NavVis software signing key by running the following commands:

• Improved: Significant improvements to the robustness and accuracy of SLAM. Improved accuracy: Extensive tests show that the anchor residuals are reduced by 25% on average, and individual anchors show a reduction of SLAM drift by between 10% and 50%.Improved robustness of SLAM under multiple conditions, especially when mapping small rooms and narrow environments.

• Improved: Better performance when writing E57 and NFS shares.

• Fixed: Corrected check for valid anchor pose coordinate values: Coordinate values for Anchors or ground control points must be smaller than 10000m. Anchors equal to or greater than 10000m cannot be processed causing numerical issues. You need to provide anchors in a coordinate system approximately centered on the mapping site.

Version 2.3

• New: The scripts for post- and web-processing have been replaced by more stable ones. Please use navvis-postprocessing instead of navvis-start-postprocessing and navvis-webprocessing instead of navvis-start-webprocessing. The old commands will be removed in the near future.

• Improved: The computation of quality maps after a mapping is now faster.

Version 2.2.3

• Fixed: An issue that could result in tilted rooms or collapsed walls when mapping small or narrow environments.

• Fixed: Very small datasets mapped with SLAM anchors could crash during post-processing under certain conditions.

• Fixed: An issue with recording laser scan data under certain conditions, which could result in SLAM crashing during post-processing.

Version 2.2.2.1

• Fixed: Processing of datasets with SLAM anchors recorded with software version 2.2.2 failed.

• Fixed: The Finish button on the mapping UI was not visible after mappings that lasted longer than 45 minutes.

Version 2.2.2

• Fixed: Under certain conditions SLAM could crash during post-processing.

• Fixed: Web-processing and the tool nv_cut-dataset now work properly when executed on certain network storage such as TrueNAS.

• Fixed: The calibration version is now correctly written to the dataset.json file.

Version 2.2.1

• Improved: The performance of panorama rendering has been improved by up to 15% on Ubuntu 18.04.

• Fixed: The mapping start time, end time and duration in the statistics file for a recorded dataset was incorrect.

• Fixed: Under certain conditions panorama rendering could run out of memory.

Version 2.2

• New: Lags and slow-downs of the live visualization in the Mapping UI have been fixed.

• New: SLAM is now up to 30% faster during post-processing. The degree of acceleration is dependent on the conditions of the mapped environment.

• Improved: nv_anchor-dataset-alignment now allows the creation of bundle files containing only one dataset.

Version 2.1.3

• Fixed: A rare driver freeze that made the touchscreen unresponsive has been resolved.

• Fixed: An issue in the Velodyne driver that sometimes prevented mapping on the M6 has been resolved.

Version 2.1.2

• New: Converted .e57 clouds are now assigned a unique ID.

• Fixed: The response of the power management unit is now read correctly.

Version 2.1.1

• New: NavVis software can now be installed on Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 14.04 (64-bit only).

• New: An installation script is now available for easier and faster installation of NavVis software on your Ubuntu machine.

• Improved: The resolution of our 2D x-ray maps has been increased from 10 cm / pixel to 5 cm / pixel. This means that mapped buildings and interior structures are now shown in much sharper detail (M6 only).

• Improved: To ensure consistently high data quality, the user is now prompted to repeat accelerometer calibration if necessary (M6 only).

• Improved: The nv_cut-dataset tool now also supports use of the --start-time option without other options.

• Fixed: The mapping UI no longer freezes when setting the system sound (M6 only).

Version 2.1

• New: Point cloud filtering now removes fringe points and mixed-pixel artifacts. For complex geometries, this means cleaner point cloud data and clearer object outlines.

• New: Removal of dynamic objects (e.g. artifacts caused by people walking by during scanning) has been enhanced, and is now applied by default.

• Improved: The performance of 6D SLAM (M6 only) with large datasets has been improved by up to 30%.

• Fixed: In rare instances, the M3 SLAM crashed when using nv_cut-dataset.

Version 2.0.3

• New: Raw point clouds are now colored with laser intensity values.

• Fixed: Full functionality restored for nv_cut-dataset.

• Fixed: M3 only - In rare cases, the camera trigger locations were not displayed correctly on the trajectory during live mapping.

Version 2.0.2

• New: Mapping UI 2.0 now includes a Save Logs feature so that users can easily zip log files for support requests.

• Improved: Collision detection now uses all four scanners and adapts to speed to warn users of potential collisions.

• Improved: All mapping software packages are now available in a single repository.

Version 2.0.1

• Fixed: nv_cut-dataset works with signed bag files.

• Fixed: Post-processing works even if dataset recording did not finish properly, e.g. due to power loss.

Version 2.0

Breaking Changes:

• Datasets recorded using the Mapping 2.0 software can only be used with IndoorViewer 2.2 or later.

• Post-processing on the M6 mobile mapping system is no longer supported.

New UI design (M6 only):

The M6 IMMS comes with a new user interface that offers a better user experience.

Highlights include:

• New: Datasets can be deleted in the application if no longer required.

• New: The UI displays the current battery level.

• New: The user can switch between automatic and manual triggering without switching to the settings screen by long-pressing the trigger button.

• New: The user can position the laser cross for SLAM anchors first and add the IDs later.

• Improved: The EULA is now shown when the application starts instead of during installation.

• Improved: Pop-up bubble messages are no longer used to attract the user’s attention. Instead the UI gives continuous feedback on speed and rotation velocity.

• Improved: The indicator for disk usage starts to blink once the storage reaches 95% of capacity.

• Improved: The selection of the geographic location is now divided into country and capital city and has more (>10K+) entries.

For more information, see Start Mapping.

General changes:

• New: Users can insert the SSD after booting the trolley.

• New: The global application log file up to the current day is copied into the dataset. Log files are now copied twice: Once after the mapping has finished and once after the image download, sorting and formatting of the cameras has finished.

• New: New dataset folder and file layout.

• Improved: Fine-tuning of SLAM parameters for more robust mapping results.

• Improved: The IndoorViewer installation on the trolley no longer points to data/log/upload directories that are stored on the SSD.

• Improved: The SSD is automatically set up with the correct permissions and folders.

• Fixed: The application performs a self-test at startup to verify the existence of a ~/Pictures folder.

• Known issue: A license error message is shown when previewing your dataset in IndoorViewer. You can ignore this message as it does not affect the preview function.

Version 1.9

• Fixed: Processing aborts without error if anchor poses file does not exist.

• Improved: Several improvements and fixes for SLAM.

Version 1.8.3

• New: The pose of each individual image is now stored in the XXXXX-info.json file after post-processing.

• Improved: More robust initialization of the SLAM algorithm (M6 only)

Version 1.8.2

• New: Support for processing M3 and M6 data on the same machine

• Improved: More robust sensor time synchronization (M6 only)

Version 1.8.1

• Improved: Handling of cameras during initialization which makes camera time synchronization more reliable.

• Improved: Simplified the process for setting up an SSD and improved the documentation.

• Fixed: A rare crash in the panorama renderer.

• Fixed: nv_cloudtransform exits with a proper error message instead of crashing if bundle file does not exist.

• Fixed: Updated nv_pcp support for reading from e57, las, pts, xyz.

Version 1.8.0

• New: The new Precision SLAM technology improves SLAM and the accuracy of resulting maps and point clouds by reducing the drift on long corridors. This is especially helpful in environments where loop closures are not possible.

Important

Update your trolley and workstation to start benefiting from Precision SLAM technology.

• New: The point cloud filtering mode smooth-surfaces has been reworked and is much faster now.

• Improved: The user interface for adding a new anchor point now clarifies that the orientation of the laser cross does not matter; only its position needs to match the cross on the sticker.

• Fixed: Post-processing sometimes failed because it tried to run on a port that was already in use by other applications.

• Fixed a rare failure of associating images to their datasets.

• Fixed: The watchdog no longer warns about high CPU loads with an invalid percentage.

Version 1.7.1

Big Point Cloud Update

• New: The filtering and reconstruction of point clouds have been fully reworked to produce sharper edges, preserve more details, and deal better with noisy measurements. As a result, edges and complex objects appear more distinct, and the point clouds better resemble the mapped environment.

• New: The raw point clouds are now more accurate and contain fewer artifacts.

• New: Three point cloud modes now allow the user to choose their preferred filtering type based on the trade-off between sharp edges and smooth planes.

• New: The point cloud coloring now features global exposure correction which deals much better with difficult brightness conditions. The new coloring performs dynamic range optimization and smart contrast enhancement so that the point clouds look more realistic and capture every detail.

• Changed: The default point cloud resolution is now 1cm.

Version 1.6.8.1

• Fixed: Issue during installation of navvis-remote-support.

Version 1.6.8

M3 Trolley

• New: Integrated TeamViewer for remote support on the Trolley. In cases where your Technical Account Manager asks you to share the Trolley screen, you can start the application via the unity launcher to show them.

• Fixed: Collision detection now gives fewer false positive warnings.

SLAM Anchors

• Changed: Simplified the command line arguments for nv_anchor-dataset-alignment (the options --mode and --datasets_web-dir can now be omitted).

• Changed: The “Add Anchor” dialog now prompts the user to enter the anchor ID instead of displaying a default anchor ID.

• Fixed: All paths for processing and alignment with SLAM Anchors can now be specified relative to the working directory.

SiteMaker

• New: Added an option to specify an anchor poses file when creating a new project.

• New: Added a refresh option to the dataset list.

• Changed: extended the post-processing settings for a more granular configuration, and added tooltips with brief explanations.

Version 1.6.7

• New: Added support for changing the IP address ranges of the ethernet laser scanners. Using this option will fix a problem that some customers had with connecting the Trolley to the internet. If you’ve been affected, the NavVis technical support can help you do this.

• Fixed: Collision detection now works again for Trolleys with older device configurations.

• Fixed: Fixed a bug where the panorama renderer would crash if it encountered a corrupt camera image.

Version 1.6.6

• Changed: The software now writes the estimated SLAM Anchor poses to anchor_poses_recorded.txt instead of anchor_poses.txt while recording a dataset.

• Changed: The magnetometer calibration step is now more clearly marked as optional.

• Changed: nv_cut-dataset now supports relative timestamps (in seconds since the start of recording).

• Changed: Reduced the memory consumption of the panorama renderer (Rendering of one panoramic image now uses only ~2.5GB instead of 5.8GB of RAM).

• Changed: Made a minor change to the time visualization in qualitymap.vis.big.png.

• Changed: Improved error handling in the tool nv_anchor-dataset-alignment.

• Fixed: Output point cloud of post-processing was not colored when using --cloud-format

• Fixed: Increased the numeric precision of the dataset poses written by nv_anchor-dataset-alignment

• Fixed: nv_colorcloud crashed in some cases where it was not possible to extract color from an image.

Version 1.6.5.1

Data and Processing

• Fixed: SLAM Anchors on the quality maps in datasets_rec are shown in the correct position again.

• Fixed: Issue with copying anchor poses files to datasets_web.

Version 1.6.5

• New: Thanks to a new method of synchronizing the Trolley cameras and sorting the pictures, it is no longer a problem if the cameras lose their internal clock time.Important

Make sure you’ve downloaded and sorted any pictures from the cameras before updating the Trolley software.

Trolley User Interface

• New: Clicking “Launch Viewer” now opens IndoorViewer in full-screen mode. Added a large blue “Close” button to the interface.

• Changed: Additionally, this now uses the Chromium browser instead of Google Chrome.

• Changed: Increased the font size and size of menu items for easier interaction.

• Changed: Removed the “Help” button from the mapping GUI and moved its functionality to the “Support” entry under the “Help” menu.

• Fixed: When opening IndoorViewer on the Trolley, you will no longer be asked to enter a password for the Ubuntu keyring manager.

• Fixed: Fixed an issue which led to the dashboard responding very slowly.

• Updated German translation of the Mapping dashboard.

Data and Processing

• New: navvis-start-webprocessing.sh now shows a summary at the end.

• New: navvis-start-postprocessing.sh now lists the total processing time in the final summary. Additionally, the processing time for each single dataset is recorded in the dataset’s log file.

• New: The large quality map (qualitymap.vis.big.png) now displays the capture location index and elapsed time at regular intervals.

• Changed: The automatically generated entries in anchor_poses.txt (in datasets_rec/<dataset>) are now commented out by default in order to protect against accidentally using placeholder values for processing. Remove the # at the start of each line after filling it out with real measured values.

• Fixed: nv_pcp and nv_cloud-builder now properly use the provided sensor_frame.xml file (–sensor-frame) and alternatively detect the sensor_frame.xml file

Version 1.6.4

• New: Improved magnetic field calibration and the quality of magnetic field data

• New: Reintroduced pointcloud-raw.ply, found in datasets_proc/pointclouds

• Changed: User Interface for sensor calibration now more intuitive

• Changed: The most important binaries are now sym-linked from /usr/bin for easier system setup

• Changed: Default anchor ID in the anchor dialog is now the name of the last added anchor

• Fixed: On-screen keyboard now opens automatically when a text entry field is selected

• Several minor improvements

Version 1.6.3

• Fixed: Logging issue while post-processing multiple datasets.

• Fixed: Point cloud coloring now uses all available CPU cores.

Version 1.6.2

• New: Added the tool nv_cut-dataset for simple cutting / splitting of dataset recording folders.

• Changed: Camera triggering is slightly more responsive (decreased wait time).

• Fixed: A bug which resulted in phantom points at the maximum laser range in the point cloud and caused sphere-like artifacts.

• Fixed: A bug in panorama floor filling where the floor filling step sometimes introduced image artifacts or the floor filling step was skipped entirely.

• Fixed: An issue where in some cases SLAM Anchors were not used when --start-time was given to navvis-start-postprocessing.

Version 1.6.1

• Fixed: An issue with SLAM Anchor optimization which could in rare cases lead to minor errors and misalignments of the 2D maps and point clouds.

Version 1.6.0

• Changed/Breaking: The intermediate point cloud pointcloud-raw.ply will no longer be available after the post-processing step.

• New: Added a new directory pointclouds/ in the datasets_proc directory, which is for internal use only.

• New: NavVis SiteMaker - Graphical User Interface for our data processing tools and scripts

• New: Scalable Point Cloud Processing

  • processing large datasets with high resolution point clouds (e.g. 5mm) is now possible on machines with lower RAM (e.g., RAM < 32GB)

  • Point Cloud Coloring still might have problems on machines with low RAM. Coloring can be disabled with the argument --no-color-cloud when calling navvis-start-postprocessing.sh)

• New: Support for E57 Point Cloud Format - convert the output pointcloud to e57 using nv_pcp (for instance, nv_pcp pointcloud.ply pointcloud.e57)

• New: Option --cloud-format=<format> when calling the post-processing script, e.g. navvis-start-postprocessing.sh ... --cloud-format=e57

  • Creates, in addition to pointcloud.ply, a point cloud in the provided format, e.g. pointcloud.e57

• Fixed: Post-processing sometimes crashed during saving the point cloud to disk when a large dataset was processed on a machine with low RAM (fixed by new scalable point cloud processing pipeline)

Version 1.5.1

• New: navvis-start-postprocessing now supports the option --num-panos-parallel=<num>, which lets users define the number of panoramic images rendered in parallel. For more information refer to Setting the Number of Panoramas Rendered in Parallel.

• New: The panorama renderer now writes a file pano-poses.csv with the poses of the panoramas in the reference frame of the dataset. Find more information in the dataset description

• Fixed: navvis-start-postprocessing argument --bagplayer-args now supports multiple arguments.

• Various bug fixes and improvements.

Version 1.5.0

• Command line changes:

  In order to unify the naming of our tools, we changed the name of cloudmaps to navvis-cloudmaps and navgraph to navvis-navgraph.

• New: Full SLAM Anchor support for mapping, postprocessing and IndoorViewer

  • SLAM Anchors allow both for automatic dataset alignment and for increasing the accuracy of mapping results.

  • This feature requires a SLAM Anchor equipped trolley.

• New: Improved panorama stitching pipeline:

  • This update brings a fundamental overhaul of our panorama stitching pipeline.

  • It introduces a new way of calculating depth maps, which removes one of the most memory intensive steps in the post-processing, and should give more accurate results.

  • The panorama renderer now optimizes the alignment between neighbouring camera images. Both changes should result in higher panorama quality.

• New: Better IMU calibration, fixing constant velocity issues with the IMU.

• New: Improved performance of navvis-cloudmaps on multi-core processors

• Fixed: Watchdog CPU load decreased.

Version 1.4.2

• New: Minor performance optimizations for point cloud coloring.

• New: Logging of IMU serial number and firmware version.

• New: Menu option to collect log files on the trolley.

• New: Syslog messages that occurred during mapping are stored in the logs.

• Fixed: Fixed help message display in point cloud coloring.

• Fixed: Occasional crashes in point cloud coloring.

• Fixed: Post-processing of datasets that were recorded with an X4 configuration.

• Fixed: Fixed logging during post-processing.

• Fixed: Version display in version info dialog.

• Fixed: Depth map rendering with invalid pose.

• Various bugfixes and improvements.

Version 1.4.1

• New: Multi-echo scans are recorded during mapping (X6 series and upwards).

• New: RAM usage is monitored during mapping and post-processing.

• Changed: EULA updated to v1.1.

• Changed: The maps with 50cm and 1m resolution are not generated anymore.

• Changed: Button and Dialog texts to new product language.

• Fixed: Master-GUI: Fixed disabling of buttons (e.g. ‘Record Dataset’) during camera synchronization.

• Fixed: Live-Mapping: Fixed occasional errors during startup.

• Fixed: Post-Processing: Fixed occasional crashes when replay-step2 was starting.

• Fixed: Hector-Mapping: Fixed crashes of node when large odometry jumps happen.

• Fixed: Point Cloud Coloring: Fixed occasional crashes of “nv_colorcloud”.

• Fixed: Point Cloud Coloring: Fixed extraction of invalid colors under certain circumstances.

• Fixed: Point Cloud Coloring: Slightly improved performance.

Version 1.4.0

• New: Support for high-resolution point clouds. This includes various improvements and optimizations of the filtering algorithms as well as an improved coloring scheme yielding faster processing times and sharper textures. The increased spatial resolution results in a dense and realistic representation of the environment. To obtain them see the section Setting the Point Cloud Resolution; for further details on the technical background please refer to the section on High-Resolution Point Clouds.

1. Colored point cloud with a spatial resolution of 2cm.Colored point cloud with a spatial resolution of 5mm.

2. Cut of a point cloud with 2cm spatial resolution.Cut of a point cloud with 1cm spatial resolution.Cut of a point cloud with 5mm spatial resolution.

• New: Improved point cloud coloring with faster processing and sharper textures.

• New: Improved robustness of SLAM, especially addressing issues due to fast motion.

• New: Improved normal and curvature estimation during point cloud processing.

• New: Introduced nv_pcp as replacement for the obsolete pcp point cloud processing tool. The pcp is still supported but will be removed soon.

• New: Added an option to allow user-defined operator masks in the stitching pipeline. See Operator Mask for Panorama Images for more information.

• Fixed: Reworked the Mapping Dashboard for upcoming redesign.

• Fixed: Reworked misleading error messages as well as the error diagnosis.

• Several minor changes and improvements

Version 1.3.4

• New: Switched to software rendering of depth maps for panoramic images. Addresses issues with certain GPU/driver combinations. In addition it also allows to run the whole post-processing pipeline including panorama stitching in virtual machines.

• New: Integrate self checks to test for a correct environment setup.

• New: Users have to confirm the EULA when installing.

• New: Upon startup of the mapping application tutorial videos are shown when the package navvis-docs-videos is installed.

• New: Panoramic image floor filling can be disabled in the post-processing pipeline.

• Fixed: Downloader dialog can hide behind the main window.

• Fixed: The z values for the magnetic field in the trace.csv files were wrong.

Version 1.3.3

Breaking Changes

• Command line change: navvis-start-postprocessing now does panorama stitching by default. The argument --pano is obsolete. To skip the panorama generation use --no-pano.

• Renamed nv_tree.py to nv_tree.

Changes

• New: Added capability to record Bluetooth beacon data (free beta).

• New: Added the nv_cloudtransform tool. This tool transforms and merges point clouds listed in an alignment .xml file to a common coordinate system. See nv_cloudtransform for more information.

• New: Added the package navvis-docs containing the documentation for offline use.

• New: Panoramic image floor filling takes all the nearby capture locations into account.

• New: Logging odometry jumps to facilitate debugging of mapping problems.

• New: Images that were associated to a dataset are moved to the corresponding folder.

• New: The point cloud server does not load any clouds on trolleys.

• Fixed: Fixed UI freezes caused by Signal/Slots.

• Fixed: Preventing the notification bubbles in the top right corner of the screen from queuing up.

• Fixed: Fixed harmless but annoying warnings during startup/shutdown of the mapper stack.

• Fixed: Drivers might take a long time to connect to laser scanners.

• Fixed: Drawing of trajectory and location markers when the coordinates are > 32768.

• Fixed: Prevent that ntp updates render the camera-system time synchronization invalid.

• Fixed: Fixed non-existing images being added to IndoorViewer in preview mode.

• Several minor changes and improvements.

Version 1.3.2

We are pleased to announce the availability of the release v1.3.2 of the NavVis Mapping Software Suite. This is a bugfix release with minor changes: It especially focuses on better performance on large maps, improved filtering algorithms and stability fixes. We also significantly improved the online documentation. You can obtain the updates through our apt repositories.

We encourage all users to upgrade their servers, workstations and trolleys.

Breaking Changes

• Command line change: The tools ‘navgraph’ and ‘cloudmaps’ do not accept the ‘–sensor-frame’ argument anymore. This has been removed.

• Command line change: The tool ‘pcp’ automatically picks the file ‘sensor_frame.xml’ from the directory where the input cloud is stored. In this case the argument ‘–sensor-frame’ can be omitted.

Changes

• New: Copy cam_blurred folder from datasets_rec to datasets_proc in postprocessing step.

• New: Logging to syslog on/before hardware-related actions.

• New: Logging time in CET instead of UTC when starting mapping/-postprocessing.

• New: Automatically configuring the ROS environment via source ros-setup.sh if ROS_PACKAGE_PATH is not set yet.

• New: Only publish point cloud if really needed.

• New: Point Cloud: Tuned parameters for outlier filtering to preserve walls and objects with low scan density.

• New: nv_tree: add argument to show disk usage.

• New: Added script that sets up an external SSD for being used in the trolley.

• Fixed: UI : Dataset title cannot contain characters outside the ASCII set.

• Fixed: UI: Failed time synchronization might have been shown as successful.

• Fixed: UI: Potential fix for UI freezes.

• Fixed: Filter laser ranges in all configurations.

• Fixed: Point Cloud: Do not normalize viewpoints.

• Fixed: Point Cloud: Points without color information are not discarded but colored as grey.

• Fixed: Quality map is missing vertical scans at the end of the trajectory of large datasets.

• Fixed: Quality map: Fixed case if the height is modified in the mapper GUI.

• Fixed: world_builder: Fixed saving of large point clouds that led to extremly long-lasting filtering processes

• Fixed: world_builder: Location markers and path are now visible when entering a negative height adjustment in the GUI.

• Fixed: world_builder: Resolved potential problems with very large maps when computing the mapped area.

• Fixed: world_builder: Reworked world_builder and quality map estimator for better performance on large maps.

• Fixed: Properly prevent the point cloud server from running.

• Fixed: Navgraph accepts an absolute path via –output-dir.

• Various other bugfixes and improvements

Version 1.3.1

We are pleased to announce the availability of the release v1.3.1 of the NavVis Mapping Software Suite. This is the first public release of the v1.3 series. It contains many major changes and improvements. The new features include:

• Hardware support for new internal devices in the Trolley.

• Several improvements on sensor data processing and the mapping component. This makes mapping in difficult environments significantly more robust.

• Much faster data post-processing.

• Significantly improved UI.

• Easier trolley control when mapping as well as post-processing

• Showing dataset previews (map thumbnails)

• Computing statistics of datasets

• The UI now also support the German language

• Improved point cloud filtering algorithms yielding smoother and cleaner clouds.

• Point clouds are now colored by default.

• Initial watermarking support

• Improved error handling, better handling of support requests.

• Numerous improvements and bug fixes.