Braunschweig/Meersburg, Germany, 16 June 2014 - Capturing and mapping the texture (colour and pattern) of a scanned object to its digital 3D representation - this is the new module Texture Mapping of Breuckmann's high-performance measuring and evaluation software OPTOCAT. This feature is particularly interesting for three-dimensional scanning projects in the field design, but also for any user who requires a high-resolution texture for his generated 3D data.

The texture mapping can be carried out both by using the internal imagery of the scanning sensor as well as using images taken with any kind of external camera. External digital data allow for a variety of possibilities of texture capturing but also provide a large degree of freedom with regard to pixel resolution, professional illumination and raw data processing with colour management. Furthermore, it is possible to complement the 3D data generated by a monochrome scanning sensor with colour imagery or with multispectral data (UV, IR, etc.). The sensor data of previous scanning projects can be also used for texturing with the new Texture Mapping module.

The workflow is easy to use and largely automated. The new algorithm maps high-resolution colour information to each triangle of the scanned object with sub pixel accuracy. The texture resolution is now independent from the resolution of the object's 3D data, allowing the creation of a reduced point cloud while maintaining a high-resolution texture. The 3D data can be opened and processed in the commonly used data export formats STL and PLY, as well as in the newly available export format Wavefront OBJ.

The Texture Mapping feature is available as an optional add-on module to OPTOCAT2013R2.

Wibke Dose, AICON 3D Systems GmbH, Germany. Email: wibke.dose@aicon.de