Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I have to download GDAL separately?

GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library) is an Open Source project by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. While the license permits its use in commercial software, we don't want to hide it in planlauf/TERRAIN. There are people putting a lot of their free time into GDAL and we believe they should get the credits

Tamas Szekeres maintains a website from which you can download the lastest GDAL builds. Go to 'Stable Releases' and click on one of the two last entries of the first table (win32 for 32-Bit- and x64 for 64-Bit-Windows). Look for the download with the description 'Generic installer for the GDAL core components'. As of December 2018, the appropriate files are 'gdal-203-1911-core.msi' (32-Bit) and 'gdal-203-1911-x64-core.msi' (64-Bit).

planlauf/TERRAIN will look for GDAL in the program folder every time you try to import a raster file via GDAL. You can also specify a folder in the Settings > GDAL.

Why do I have to download FFmpeg separately?

FFmpeg is an open-source, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video. As well as GDAL, we don't want to hide it in planlauf/TERRAIN. You can download Windows binaries from Zeranoe's website. Select the current version (e.g., 4.0), your OS architecture (32- or 64 bit), Static Linking and download it. Unzip the file and copy ffmpeg.exe from the 'bin' directory either to the planlauf/TERRAIN program folder or to another location on your harddrive. In the latter case you'll have to specify the path to ffmpeg.exe in the Settings > Video.

Why is planlaufTERRAIN2018_Setup.exe only 6.6 MB?

The setup file is packed and planlauf/TERRAIN will need 22 MB on your drive. Compared to other GIS software this is still very lightweight and it makes it possible to run planlauf/TERRAIN even on the most basic Windows tablet. We put a lot of effort into developing the core functions from scratch instead of using a heavy game engine. Yet, there are things incorporated in planlauf/TERRAIN that other libraries can do much better:

• Eyeshot by devDept Software S.a.s.: the best 3D graphics control available including great support
• AForge.Video by Andrew Kirillov: easy-to-use DirectShow control for webcams
• Bing Maps WPF control by Microsoft: with a Bing Maps key you can get access to worldwide maps
• las2las by RapidLasso GmbH: uncompress LAZ files
• cjpeg by the Independent JPEG Group: create JPG images with adjustable quality settings
• EzLAS by Esri: uncompress zLAS files
• 7-zip by Igor Pawlow: uncompress *.tar and *.gz files
• ArcShapeFileNetDLL by Ross Pickard: reading and writing of shapefiles
  

Which other software is able to display DEMs?

You can get an extensive list of GIS software at Wikipedia. From our experience the following packages are most popular:

• QGIS (free and Open Source)
• CloudCompare (free and Open Source, not a real GIS software but good with 3D data)
• Applied Imagery: Quick Terrain Viewer (free, great performance)
• Esri: ArcGIS
• Blue Marble Geographics: GlobalMapper
• Golden Software: Voxler

What are the system requirements for planlauf/TERRAIN?

planlauf/TERRAIN will run on almost any Windows device with OpenGL 4.0 and .NET-Framework 4.5. The number of vertices that can be processed depends largely on the amount of RAM that can be used. We recommend using a Desktop PC with 64-Bit Windows to import and decimate DEMs. The visualization of the decimated models should in most cases be possible on a Tablet PC with 32-Bit Windows (as long as the 32-Bit 1.2 GB memory limit for one process is not exceeded). The table shows the minimum and the recommended system requirements.

What is an XYZ-file?

An XYZ-file is a simple text file which contains X, Y and Z values (in geographic coordinates: easting, northing, elevation). Each line represents one vertex and the values can be separated by one of the following characters: space, tab, comma, semicolon. Please note that planlauf/TERRAIN works with raster data, so the X and Y values have to be on an even grid.

What is an Esri ASCII Grid- or ASC-file?

An Esri ASCII Grid-file is a text file with a simple raster format. Instead of explicit X and Y values, only the number of columns and rows, the lower left corner, the grid spacing and the elevation values are stored.

How many vertices can planlauf/TERRAIN import?

There is a limit of 1 billion vertices for a single tile file *.plftil (but you can use as many tile files as you wish in a terrain file *.plfter). The number of vertices on 32-Bit Windows will be much lower (6'000'000) because a single process can only use approximately 1.2 GB of RAM. On 64-Bit Windows the amount of available RAM will determine how many vertices you can import. The table below might give you an idea about what is currently possible. If you try to import huge models, planlauf/TERRAIN will offer the option to split the task in manageable chunks. Please let us know if you're able to import less or even more vertices on your device.

How many Frames per Second (fps) can I expect?

Why does Anti-Aliasing affect rendering performance?

Anti-Aliasing enhances the quality of the rendering because jagged and pixelated edges are removed. To get this positive effect, planlauf/TERRAIN needs to draw the scene at a higher resolution than the display itself and this will put a much higher load on the GPU. Usually, low resolutions (1280x720) benefit more from Anti-Aliasing than high resolutions (3000x2000).

Which GPS receivers does planlauf/TERRAIN support?

How can I display the on-screen keyboard in tablet mode?

The on-screen keyboard will automatically be shown if you tap on a textbox. If it doesn't, please make sure that the option 'Automatically show the touch keyboard in windowed apps when there's no keyboard attached to your device' is turned on. You can find this option under Windows > Settings > Devices > Typing > Touch Keyboard.

How can I disable the screen rotation on my tablet?

• Windows 8/8.1: Right-click on the desktop and choose "Screen resolution", uncheck "Allow the screen to auto-rotate", hit "OK"
• Windows 10: Open Action Center by swiping from the right and choose "Rotation lock"

Why does GPS logging stop when my tablet goes to sleep mode?

GPS logging requires an active Bluetooth connection between tablet and external GPS receiver. When your tablet goes to sleep, Windows will end this connection and no further data can be recorded. You can change the time until the tablet goes to sleep mode:

• Windows 8/8.1: Click the taskbars' battery symbol in desktop mode, choose "More power options", click on "Change when the computer sleeps" on the left and choose an appropriate time under "Put the computer to sleep" (e.g., "30 minutes" or "Never")
• Windows 10: Click on the taskbars' battery symbol in desktop mode, choose "Power & Sleep settings", choose an appropriate time under "On battery power, PC goes to sleep after" (e.g., "30 minutes" or "Never")

Windows goes to sleep when I accidentally press the power button on my tablet and GPS logging stops. What can I do?

You can disable the power button (holding the power button will still shut down the PC):

• Windows 8/8.1: Click the taskbars' battery symbol in desktop mode, choose "More power options", click on "Choose what the power button does" on the left and choose "Do nothing" for "When I press the power button", hit "Save changes"
• Windows 10: Click on the taskbars' battery symbol in desktop mode, choose "Power & Sleep settings", go to "Additional power settings" on the bottom of the page, click on "Choose what the power button does" on the left and choose "Do nothing" for "When I press the power button", hit "Save changes"

Which projections does planlauf/TERRAIN support?

There are thousands of projections worldwide (see EPSG.io or Spatial Reference), many are outdated and only a few are actually used for DEM datasets. planlauf/TERRAIN supports projections for which we got our hands on test data and were able to implement and verify the forward and backward transformation. At the moment, the projections listed in the table are supported directly. GeoTIFFs or IMGs with other projections might be reprojected to UTM with our GDAL-interface. Please send us an email if you'd like to see an additional projection in the next release of planlauf/TERRAIN.

Which projections are available for reprojection during point cloud import?