You can adjust the display and appearance of point cloud scene layers on the Point Cloud Layer tab. Select a point cloud layer in the Contents pane to access the contextual Point Cloud Layer tab.
Visibility range
Use the In Beyond 
and Out Beyond 
settings to limit the visibility of a layer to be between specific scales. Choose one of the preset options in the drop-down menu or enter a scale in the text box. Use the Clear Limits button 
to remove the visibility settings.
Effects
Use the Swipe tool 
to compare two overlapping layers — Peel back the layer on top, revealing the layer that's under it. To deactivate Swipe, on the Home tab, click the Explore button 
.
Symbology
You have several options available in terms of how you display or symbolize a point cloud layer. You can quickly change the display of a point cloud layer with the Symbology drop-down menu or the Symbology pane.
There are four symbology renderers to symbolize a point cloud scene layer: Stretch, Classify, Unique Values, and RGB. Detailed information for each renderer type is provided below.
The Symbology options for a point cloud scene layer honor any applied point filters. Only one renderer can be drawn at a time.
When a point cloud scene layer is added to a 3D scene in Drone2Map, the points are drawn with an elevation renderer, by default.
Use the symbology drop-down menu
Use the Symbology drop-down menu to quickly change the symbology of an LAS dataset between common point and surface symbology renderers. The appearance of the LAS dataset automatically changes with each selection from the Symbology drop-down menu.
Follow these steps to access the Symbology drop-down menu:
- Select a point cloud scene layer in the Contents pane and click the Appearance tab.
- On the Appearance tab, in the Drawing group, click the Symbology drop-down arrow.
- Select the applicable symbology for the selected LAS dataset layer.
The choice of point-based symbology renderers will vary depending on the source data, and can include the following:
| Point symbology attribute | Description |
|---|---|
Elevation | Symbolize LAS points based on elevation. |
Class | Symbolize the LAS dataset points by the LAS classification code. |
Return | Symbolize the LAS dataset points by the lidar pulse return number. |
RGB | Symbolize the LAS dataset points by RGB values assigned to each point. |
Intensity | Symbolize the LAS dataset points by intensity values assigned to each point. |
| Point Renderer | Description |
|---|---|
Stretch | Stretch values along a color ramp. |
Classify | Assigns a color for a group of values. |
Unique Values | Assigns a color to each value. |
Use the symbology pane
There are four options available to symbolize a point cloud scene layer using the Symbology pane: Stretch, Classify, Unique Values, and RGB. Details of each renderer are provided below.
- Select a point cloud scene layer in the Contents pane, and click the Point Cloud Layer tab.
- From the Point Cloud Layer tab, in the Drawing group, click the Symbology button.
Stretch
Stretch allows you to define how the values will be stretched between a minimum and maximum value that is associated by a color ramp for either the Elevation or Intensity values.
- Symbol Size increases or decreases the size of the points based on a percentage.
- Draw allows you to change between Elevation and Intensity values.
- Modulate using intensity darkens the base color computed by the renderer based on the intensity value for each point. High-intensity values leave the base color unchanged while low intensity may darken the base color. The amount of modulation is proportional to the intensity value within an intensity range representative of the dataset where extreme intensity values (low/high) have been excluded.
- Color scheme sets the color scheme.
- Stretch defines the range of values to display.
Classify
Classify allows you to group points together in a specified number of classes when displaying either Elevation or Intensity values.
- Symbol Size increases or decreases the size of the points based on a percentage.
- Draw allows you to change between Elevation and Intensity values.
- Modulate using intensity darkens the base color computed by the renderer based on the intensity value for each point. High-intensity values leave the base color unchanged while low intensity may darken the base color. The amount of modulation is proportional to the intensity value within an intensity range representative of the dataset where extreme intensity values (low/high) have been excluded.
- Edit color scheme allows the modification to the default color scheme used. You can change the Method, Classes, and Color scheme used to classify the points.
- Class Breaks defines the range of values to display.
Unique Values
Unique Values assigns a color to each value in your dataset. LAS files of a point cloud scene layer may be attributed with additional information. The Unique Values renderer allows the points to be rendered with individual colors for point attributes such as Class Codes, Number of Returns, Return Number, or other modeled attributes.
- Symbol Size increases or decreases the size of the points based on a percentage.
- Draw allows you to symbolize the points using either Class Codes, Number of Returns, Return Number
or other modeled attributes.
- Modulate using intensity darkens the base color computed by the renderer based on the intensity value for each point. High-intensity values leave the base color unchanged while low intensity may darken the base color. The amount of modulation is proportional to the intensity value within an intensity range representative of the dataset where extreme intensity values (low/high) have been excluded.
- Edit color scheme allows the modification to the current color scheme.
- Values defines the range of values to display.
RGB
A point cloud sourced from lidar can be attributed with RGB (red, green, and blue) bands. This attribution often comes from imagery collected at the same time as the data survey. If the data does not have RGB attribution, a warning appears, indicating that the renderer could not be opened.
Point Display
The Point Display group on the Point Cloud Layer tab controls the resolution of the point cloud layer. The Point Display group is available in a 2D or 3D map.
- Display Limit—Applying a point limit sets a size limit to the number of points used in the triangulation of the point cloud layer surface. The default value is 800,000. If, for a given display extent, use of the settings results in a surface that exceeds the specified point count, the layer switches to be more generalized.
- Density—The density of points enforced by the point cloud layer. This is set interactively by using the slider bar. Move the slider to the left for a coarse surface and to the right for a more fine or full-surface resolution. As you move the slider bar, the density of the points on-screen changes from Min to Max.