[Feature request] Measurement Tools in Splat Viewer

[jacintomorostech]

Hello Team,

I am writing to express my admiration for the Splat Viewer you have developed; it's truly impressive and has been fascinating to use. The intuitive design and functionality have significantly enhanced my experience.

While exploring the viewer, I was reminded of the measurement tools available in Potree, which I found incredibly useful for detailed analysis. In this context, I would like to inquire if there are any plans to incorporate similar measurement functionalities into the Splat Viewer.

To provide a clearer idea of what I'm referring to, I have attached a screenshot showing the measurement tools in Potree. These tools allow for precise distance, area, and volume measurements within the 3D space, adding a valuable layer of interaction and data analysis.

Adding such features to Splat Viewer could greatly enhance its utility, especially for users who require detailed spatial analysis and measurements.

I am excited about the potential of integrating these functionalities and would be happy to provide more feedback or ideas if helpful.

Thank you for your time and the incredible work you are doing.

[slimbuck]

Hi @jacintomorostech ,

Thanks for the feedback. It's so nice to hear you're liking the tool!

TBH there are probably higher priority bits missing that will need adding before we consider adding measurement tools (3d transform gizmos comes to mind first!).

Given the nature of GS though, it makes sense measurement is important, but are you able to expand on your measurement analysis use case any further? I'm not super clear how this fits into the bigger picture of how splats are being used in this way.

Thanks again!

[jacintomorostech]

Hi @slimbuck!!,

Thank you for your prompt and thoughtful reply. I really appreciate you taking the time to consider my suggestion regarding measurement tools.

I understand and agree that there are other high-priority features, like 3D transform gizmos, that need attention first. It's great to hear about these developments!

Regarding the measurement analysis, my initial thought was that it could enhance the precision in our work with splats. However, I realize this might not align perfectly with the current scope and usage of the tool. It was just an idea that seemed worth exploring, but I completely understand if it doesn't fit into the broader framework at this stage.

Thanks again for your openness to feedback and for the ongoing improvements to the tool. I'm looking forward to seeing the new updates!

[TimeScience]

This would be hugely useful in research, biodivesity monitoring and potentially carbon accounting (ie measuring the size of trees). Splatting potentially provides a significantly better way to rapidly capture 3D information about the environment and the next step would be to have tools to measure stuff within the splats. Research and land managers are already trying to use iphone lidar and the like to do this but splats look like an easier and faster way and only require a camera.

[murcje]

I use supersplat a lot, thank you for this nice software!

Cleaning up splats works pretty good. But it is always hard to get scalling and orientation right. It involves a lot of finetuned looking through the pointcloud and eyeballing the angles. Scale is also not really good to judge.

Just selecting 3 points on a level surface in the splat could give you enough information to orient the splat to ground level (with the first point being set as origin). Then select 2 points of which you know the distance, and use that to set the scaling correctly.

I am not a coder, but wouldn't this be relatively easy to implement? I think it would greatly enhance the usability.

[TimeScience]

For reference, in case it is helpful for the implementation, polycam recently added a "rescale" feature. As @murcje suggested, It is very simple (at least on the UI side), you just mark a known distance and then input the length it should be. Presumably it then does a linear re-scale of the entire splat (although I haven't tested the outputs enough to vouch for how well it works).

Here's the splat for reference.
https://poly.cam/capture/05a42377-dcda-4c19-ac81-748a644f26bd (and I guessed at the rescaling because I didn't think to measure anything when I was recording it).