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3D LiDAR Models

  • Updated
Trailforks has a cool feature where you can view POIs with 3D models. This can be a valuable new tool for trail builders to see how other trail features are built. It's also a pretty cool trail preview feature for riders! 
 
You can search for 3D scans by visiting view POIs with 3D models, and refining your search via Activity Type, or you can also look at the varying points of interest and riding areas listed in the table. 

To view a 3D model: 

1. Click & hold the left mouse button to rotate the 3D model.
2. Use the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in on the 3D model.
3. Hold the CTRL key while holding down the left mouse button to pan the model.
4. Right-click the model to re-center while panning the model.

On touch devices, you can rotate the 3D model by moving your finger on the model itself. Use 2 fingers to pinch and zoom into the map. 

On Android devices, there is an "Artificial Reality" button shown in the bottom right of the model view. Using that button, you can view the 3D model in the real world using your phone's camera. 

Creating 3D LiDAR Models

There are a number of ways to create 3D scans. Here are a couple of examples of how to create a 3D LiDAR model using your iOS app: 

1. 3D Scanner App 

2. Polycam 3D Scanner, LiDAR, 360

Export your scan as a .GLB file for upload to a Trailforks point of interest. 

When scanning a trail feature, it's best to scan a bit of the trail before and after the feature as well. 

With the 3D Scanner app, we've found that scanning in the normal "low res" mode is best for trail features. After scanning, you may want to keep the file size down by choosing the "Simplify Mesh" option (doing this changed a scan from 50MB to 9MB GLB export). 

You can also download the GLB file from Trailforks, and view the file with a desktop app such as the free Windows Paint 3D app. 

Here is a demo video of @BCPov scanning a trail feature with iPhone 12 Pro. 

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