Veloview

Veloview - ( Developed using Paraview ) Software for view data stream from Velodyne Lidar

By Ronald Baker, updated by Gatien Ferret 

Description

VeloView performs real-time visualization and processing of live captured 3D LiDAR data from Velodyne’s HDL sensors (HDL-64E, HDL-32E, VLP-32, VLP-16, Puck, Puck Lite, Puck HiRes)

VeloView can playback pre-recorded data stored in .pcap files, and can record live stream as .pcap file. The HDL sensor sweeps an array of lasers (16, 32, or 64) 360° and a vertical field of view of 40°/20° with 5-20Hz and captures about a million points per second (HDL-32E: ~700,000pt/sec; HDL-64E: ~1.3Million pt/sec). VeloView provides tools to display, select and measure information about the points captured from the sensor. VeloView displays the distance measurements from the Lidar as point cloud data and supports custom color maps of multiple variables such as intensity-of-return, time, distance, azimuth, dual return type, and laser id. The data can be exported as XYZ data in multiple formats or screenshots of the currently displayed point cloud can be exported with the touch of a button. 

Highlights

System Requirements

Documentation

Metrics

Accessibility: The estimated time for someone to create a simple 3D scan which can be ported into a virtual reality space.

Usage:  Evaluation of software's use for the following purposes

Sources

VisIt: https://www.paraview.org/veloview/

New in 5.1 : https://www.kitware.com/veloview-5-1-released/ 

Setting up Velodyne Sensor with Veloview:

For "sensor streaming" (live display of sensor data) it is important to change the network settings of the Ethernet adapter connected to the sensor from automatic IP address to manual IP address selection and choose:

In order for sensor streaming to work properly, it is important to disable firewall restrictions for the Ethernet port. Disable the firewall completely for the ethernet device connected to the sensor or explicitly allow data from that Ethernet port of (including both public and private networks).

When opening pre-recorded data or live sensor streaming data one is prompted to choose a calibration file.

Playing .pcap recording back:

Navigate to the "File" tab and then select "Open". Once you have selected "Open", then select the "Capture File..." option. You will then be prompted with an navigation window. Navigate to the .pcap file then select. Once the file is select, you should be able to press the play button on the gui to playback the movement of the LIDAR over the time frame recorded in the .pcap file.