AdTree implements the tree reconstruction method described in the following paper:

Shenglan Du, Roderik Lindenbergh, Hugo Ledoux, Jantien Stoter, and Liangliang Nan.
AdTree: Accurate, Detailed, and Automatic Modelling of Laser-Scanned Trees.
Remote Sensing. 2019, 11(18), 2074.

3D tree models reconstructed from point clouds

Build and Run AdTree

Prebuilt executables (for macOS, Linux, and Windows) can be downloaded here.

AdTree depends on some third-party libraries and most dependencies are included in the distribution except Boost. So you will need to have Boost installed first.

Note: AdTree uses a stripped earlier version of Easy3D, which is not compatible with the latest version.

You need CMake and of course a compiler to build AdTree:

• CMake >= 3.1
• a compiler that supports >= C++11

AdTree has been tested on macOS (Xcode >= 8), Windows (MSVC >=2015), and Linux (GCC >= 4.8, Clang >= 3.3). Machines nowadays typically provide higher support, so you should be able to build AdTree on almost all platforms.

There are many options to build AdTree. Choose one of the following (or whatever you are familiar with):

• Option 1: Use any IDE that can directly handle CMakeLists files to open the CMakeLists.txt in the root directory of AdTree. Then you should have obtained a usable project and just build. I recommend using CLion or QtCreator. For Windows users: your IDE must be set for x64.

• Option 2: Use CMake to generate project files for your IDE. Then load the project to your IDE and build. For Windows users: your IDE must be set for x64.

• Option 3: Use CMake to generate Makefiles and then build (purely command line).

  • on Linux or macOS:

    $ cd path-to-root-dir-of-AdTree 
    $ mkdir Release
    $ cd Release
    $ cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
    $ make
    

  • on Windows with Microsoft Visual Studio, use the x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS XXXX (don't use the x86 one), then

    $ cd path-to-root-dir-of-AdTree 
    $ mkdir Release
    $ cd Release
    $ cmake -G "NMake Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
    $ nmake
    

Don't have any experience with C/C++ programming? Have a look at How to build AdTree step by step.

After obtaining the executable, AdTree can be run in three modes, which can be selected based on arguments.

• GUI mode. It provides a user interface with menus. You can double-click the app or run it from the commandline

  ./AdTree
  

• Commandline single processing mode (i.e., processing a single point cloud file).

  ./AdTree  <xyz_file_path>  <output_directory>  [-s|-skeleton]
  

  • <xyz_file_path>: a mandatory argument specifying the path to the input point cloud file
  • <output_directory>: a mandatory argument specifying where to save the results
  • [-s] or [-skeleton]: also export the skeletons (omit this argument it if you don't need skeletons)

• Commandline batch processing mode (i.e., all *.xyz files in an input directory will be processed).

  ./AdTree  <xyz_files_directory>  <output_directory>  [-s|-skeleton]
  

  • <xyz_files_directory>: a mandatory argument specifying the directory containing the input point cloud files
  • <output_directory>: a mandatory argument specifying where to save the results
  • [-s] or [-skeleton]: also export the skeletons (omit this argument it if you don't need skeletons)

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Data

Some test tree point clouds are provided in the 'data' folder.

Note: When testing on your point clouds, please make sure that:

• your point cloud represents a single tree (i.e., the tree is segmented out from the background; no ground, no fence...);
• the tree has an upright orientation (i.e., with Z-axis pointing up).

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About the output

AdTree outputs 3D models of the reconstructed branches (and also leaves) as triangle meshes in the OBJ format.

It also supports to output the reconstructed skeletons as generalized cylinders (i.e., the two endpoints of an edge have different radii) in the PLY format. In this format, each branch is represented by a sequence of generalized cylinders, and each vertex is associated with a `radius' property. Please note that most tools (like CloudCompare and MeshLab) do not support this format. You can use Mapple (or one of the example viewers in Easy3D) to visualize the exported skeletons (see an example visualization here).

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Citation

If you use the code/program (or part) of AdTree in scientific work, please cite our paper:

@article{du2019adtree,
  title={AdTree: Accurate, detailed, and automatic modelling of laser-scanned trees},
  author={Du, Shenglan and Lindenbergh, Roderik and Ledoux, Hugo and Stoter, Jantien and Nan, Liangliang},
  journal={Remote Sensing},
  volume={11},
  number={18},
  pages={2074},
  year={2019}
}

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License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License or (at your option) any later version. The full text of the license can be found in the accompanying LICENSE file.

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Should you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact us at liangliang.nan@tudelft.nl

3D Geoinformation Research Group, TU Delft,

https://3d.bk.tudelft.nl,

Dec. 1, 2019