Create and edit a capture session

A capture session contains all data corresponding to a single acquisition mission and consists of one or more camera sessions. A camera session groups the data of a single camera into a single object. A camera session contains the following data:

• Images—A set of images captured by the same camera during a single mission
• Orientations—The orientation data for each image in the set of images
• Camera—A definition of the camera that captured the images

Create a capture session

The workflow for creating a capture session depends on the file format of the orientation data. The following are the supported orientation file formats:

• ASCII text files (.txt), .csv, and so on)
• Trimble Inpho project (.prj)
• HxMap orientation files (.gori)
• SURE orientation files (.ori)

  Caution:

  HxMap and SURE orientation files are supported for single-camera systems only.

• Frames and Cameras Table (.csv)

To create a capture session, refer to the section below that corresponds to your orientation file format.

Create a capture session from an ASCII text file

To create a capture session from an ASCII orientation file format, complete the following steps:

1. On the Home tab or the Landing page, click New Capture Session.

   The Capture Session pane appears.

2. In the Capture Session Name text box, type a name for the capture session.
3. In the Orientation File Format section, choose the ASCII text file option.
4. In the Orientation File Path section, browse to the location of the ASCII file you want to add, and click OK.
5. In the Spatial Reference section, click the button.

   The Spatial Reference dialog box appears.

6. Choose the correct horizontal and vertical coordinate systems for the orientation data.
   1. Click the button under Current XY and choose a horizontal coordinate system.
   2. Click the button under Current Z and choose a vertical coordinate system.

   Tip:

   • Alternatively, you can type a search term or EPSG code in the Search box to find a coordinate system.
   • Right-click a coordinate system and click Add to Favorites to add it to your favorites. Right-click either coordinate system and click Details to see how they are defined.

7. Click OK.
8. In the Data Parsing section, configure the parsing options, and use File view to review how the file should be parsed.
9. Click Next.
10. In the Data Labeling section, choose the column from the drop-down options that corresponds to each of the orientation attributes listed.

    The options in the drop-down menu have the column number followed by the first value in the column.

    Tip:

    You can define an additional column in the ASCII file containing the camera name and match it to the Camera Name attribute to automatically link orientations to their respective cameras and fill the Camera System section.

11. In the Camera System section, type a name for each individual camera and its corresponding string identifier to link the camera to its orientations.
    • Click the button to add a camera.
    • Click the button to delete the selected camera.

    The string identifier is the part of the image name that is used to identify the camera that captured the image. A string identifier is not needed if all images were captured by the same camera.

12. Alternatively, you can import an existing capture session template to automatically fill the sensor definitions of all the cameras.
    1. Click the button in the Camera System section, and click Import Template.
    2. Browse to the template file, select it, and click OK.
13. In the Capture Session Selection section, choose the camera sessions to add to the capture session.

    At least one camera session must be selected to continue.

    Tip:

    Click the capture session button to automatically select all of its camera sessions.

14. Click Next.
15. Define the parameters for each camera session.
    1. Click each camera session and view its details.
    2. Optionally, edit the camera session name or camera name values.
    3. In the Sensor Definition section, provide the information to define the camera sensor.
    4. In the Image Coordinate System section, provide the information to define the image coordinate system.
    5. In the Distortion section, choose the image distortion model used, if any, and the corresponding distortion values.
16. Click Finish.

The capture session is created and can be viewed in the Project Tree pane.

Create a capture session from a Trimble Inpho project file

To create a capture session from an Inpho project file, complete the following steps:

1. On the Home tab or the Landing page, click New Capture Session.

   The Capture Session pane appears.

2. In the Capture Session Name text box, type a name for the capture session.
3. In the Orientation File Format section, choose the Inpho project option.
4. In the Orientation File Path section, browse to the location of the Inpho project file you want to add, and click OK.
5. In the Spatial Reference section, click the button.

   The Spatial Reference dialog box appears.

6. Choose the correct horizontal and vertical coordinate systems for the orientation data.
   1. Click the button under Current XY and choose a horizontal coordinate system.
   2. Click the button under Current Z and choose a vertical coordinate system.

   Tip:

   • If the Inpho project file has a spatial reference defined, it is applied to the capture session automatically.
   • Alternatively, you can type a search term or EPSG code in the Search box to find a coordinate system.
   • Right-click a coordinate system and click Add to Favorites to add it to your favorites. Right-click either coordinate system and click Details to see how they are defined.

7. Click OK.
8. In the Capture Session Selection section, choose the camera sessions to add to the capture session.

   At least one camera session must be selected to continue. Click the capture session button to automatically select all of its camera sessions.

9. Click Next to view details about the camera sessions.

   Alternatively, click Finish and the camera sessions will be created as defined in the Inpho project file.

10. Click a camera session to view and edit its details as needed.
11. Click Finish.

The capture session is created and can be viewed in the Project Tree pane.

Create a capture session from HxMap or SURE orientation files

Caution:

Only HxMap or SURE orientation files from single camera systems are supported.

To create a capture session from HxMap or SURE orientation files, complete the following steps:

1. On the Home tab or the Landing page, click New Capture Session.

   The Capture Session pane appears.

2. In the Capture Session Name text box, type a name for the capture session.
3. In the Orientation File Format section, choose the HxMap or SURE option, depending on the file format.
4. In the Orientation File Path section, browse to and select the folder containing the orientation files you want to add, and click OK.
5. In the Spatial Reference section, click the button.

   The Spatial Reference dialog box appears.

6. Choose the correct horizontal and vertical coordinate systems for the orientation data.
   1. Click the button under Current XY and select a horizontal coordinate system.
   2. Click the button under Current Z and select a vertical coordinate system.

   Tip:

   • If the HxMap .gori files have a spatial reference defined, it is applied to the capture session automatically.
   • You can type a search term or EPSG code in the Search box to find a coordinate system.
   • Right-click a coordinate system and click Add to Favorites to add it to your favorites. Right-click either coordinate system and click Details to see how they are defined.

7. Click OK.
8. In the Capture Session Selection section, choose the camera sessions to add to the capture session.

   At least one camera session must be selected to continue.

   Tip:

   Click a capture session button to automatically select all of its camera sessions.

9. Click Next.
10. Define the parameters for each camera session.
    1. Click the camera session and view its details.
    2. Type a Camera Name value.
    3. Edit the other parameters as necessary.
11. Click Finish.

The capture session is created and can be viewed in the Project Tree pane.

Create a capture session from a frames and camera table

To create a capture session from a frames and camera table, complete the following steps:

1. On the Home tab or the Landing page, click New Capture Session.

   The Capture Session pane appears.

2. In the Capture Session Name text box, type a name for the capture session.
3. In the Orientation File Format section, choose the Frames and Cameras Table option.
4. In the Orientation File Path section, browse to the location of the frames and camera table you want to add, and click OK.
5. In the Spatial Reference section, click the button.

   The Spatial Reference dialog box appears.

6. Choose the correct horizontal and vertical coordinate systems for the orientation data.
   1. Click the button under Current XY and choose a horizontal coordinate system.
   2. Click the button under Current Z and choose a vertical coordinate system.
7. Click OK.
8. In the Capture Session Selection section, choose the camera sessions to add to the capture session.

   At least one camera session must be selected to continue. Click the capture session button to automatically select all of its camera sessions.

9. Click Next to view details about the camera sessions.

   Alternatively, click Finish, and the camera sessions will be created as defined in the frames and camera table.

10. Click a camera session to view and edit its details as needed.
11. Click Finish.

The capture session is created and can be viewed in the Project Tree pane.

Add images to a camera session

Once a capture session is created, images can be added to each camera session in the capture session. To add images to a camera session, complete the following steps:

1. In the Project Tree pane, right-click the camera session you want to add images to and click Add Images on the contextual menu.

   Alternatively, select the camera session, and on the Camera Session contextual tab, click Add Images.

   Note:

   If you are using an Inpho project file that has valid image paths, the images are automatically added.

2. Browse to the location of the images you want to add, select them, and click OK.

   Tip:

   You can specify a text file containing a list of file paths corresponding to the images you want to add. Each line in the text file should contain a single file path.

The images are added to the camera session.

Edit a capture session

To edit a capture session, complete the following steps:

1. In the Project Tree pane, right-click the capture session you want to edit and click Edit Capture Session.

   The Capture Session pane opens in edit mode.

2. In the Capture Session pane, edit the camera sessions as necessary.
3. Alternatively, you can import an existing capture session template to overwrite the sensor definition of the cameras in the capture session.
   1. Click the button in the Camera Sessions section, and click Import Template.
   2. Browse to the template file, select it, and click OK.
4. Click Finish.

The capture session is updated.

Capture session template

A capture session template is a .json file that stores all the parameters that define the cameras of a capture session. Once you created a capture session, you can export it as a template. During the creation of a new capture session, you can use a capture session template to automatically fill the camera parameters of the camera system.

Export a capture session template

To export a capture session template, complete the following steps:

1. In the Project Tree pane, right-click the capture session to export as a template.
2. On the contextual menu, click Export and click Template.
3. Browse to the desired location and name the template.
4. Click Save.

   The capture session template is exported to the specified location.

Note:

Alternatively, in the Capture Session pane, click the button. Click Export Template.

Import a capture session template

To import an existing capture session template, follow the steps in the Create a capture session from an ASCII text file or Edit a capture session sections above.