Global Settings

These settings allow you to open and save files, open and save projects, set global preferences for viewing your point clouds, and capture screenshots. The following options are available.

Click the Project Menu icon on the top-left portion to access the following menu options.

Project Menu Settings

Menu	Description
Open	Opens a file and displays it in the viewport.
Open project	Opens a previously saved .aura project file.
Save	Saves the changes made to the current file.
Save as	Creates a copy of your current file with a different name, location, or file format.
Save project	Saves your current work for future modifications. The .aura project file serves as a starting point that can be reopened and edited whenever needed, allowing you to continue working on the project from where you left off.
Export reprojection	Reprojects a previously processed/reprojected point cloud into a new coordinate reference system and GEOID model.

Preferences

Click Preferences to see the global settings. Once you have configured the settings, click Save to apply the settings or Close to exit without saving. You can also click Reset Preferences to restore your preferences to their default settings.

The following options are available.

Preferences Settings

Field	Data
Rendering
Point Budget	The total number of points allowed in the Viewport. The upper limit can change, depending on the number of points available in your point cloud. With a large point cloud, you may not see every point on your screen unless you expand this setting to its upper limit. Default setting: 7 million (for performance purposes)
Camera Type	Perspective: Objects that are far away appear smaller than those that are closer. The Perspective view is easier on the eye because you use it in real life. Orthographic: All objects appear at the same scale, giving a clearer measure of distances between objects and their relative size. Default setting: Perspective
Near Clipping Plane	Removes points from the Viewport that are closest to the camera. These points are not deleted, just not visible. This distance is configurable. This feature is useful if you want to look at a cross-section of your point cloud or look through a wall.
Eye Dome Lighting (EDL)	Enabled: Toggle on to enable eye dome lighting. This improves depth perception by shading the outline of points, accentuating the shape of each object. The point cloud can look a bit flat without this enabled. Radius: The distance/thickness from the point being outlined. Setting the value to 1 outlines the pixels directly adjacent to the point, setting the value to 2 outlines the pixels 2 pixels away from the point and so on. Bias: Controls the minimum depth difference between the points to be outlined. Setting the value to 0 means that any difference in depth will get outlined, while a higher bias value (e.g. 1) means that only points that are at least 1 world space units apart will be outlined. Strength: Changes the strength of the outline. A higher strength setting makes the outlines darker, mostly noticeable on surfaces.
Multi-Frame Rendering (MFR)	Enabled: Toggle on to enable multi-frame rendering screenshots, as well as the option to turn on live build-up. Default setting: Enabled It will take a few seconds to create the screenshot with multi-frame rendering enabled. Live Build-up: Toggle on to enable the live build-up of the full point cloud in the viewport. This setting allows you to navigate a dense point cloud more easily. MFR uses a lower point budget while navigating, but once you stop, it builds up to the full point budget available. This prevents lag and allows you to view your point cloud in detail. Default setting: Enabled MFR works best with the point size set to 0. Setting the point budget too high with MFR enabled can result in poor responsiveness. The default value with MFR enabled is 3 million. Consider disabling MFR and increasing the point budget to 5 or 10 million when using point selection and measurement tools. There are a number of triggers that initiate re-rendering, including translate/rotate, camera zoom/pan, undo/redo, and changes to file attributes (such as point shape, color scale, or point size).Your content goes here
	You can only enable this setting if Multi-Frame Rendering has been turned on. We recommend that you don’t use MFR when using selection or measurement tools when aligning point clouds using translate/rotate tools or during the GCP constellation matching stage.
View Defaults
Zoom Speed	Fast: Good for wide, open scans. Medium: Good for underground scans. Slow: Good for close inspection.
Selection Outline Color	Allows you to choose the color of the selection box using either the color picker or RGBA/HEX color codes.

Appearance
Background	Allows you to configure the background color of the viewport. The standard black background means that you can miss a lot of detail, especially when viewing colorized point clouds. You can now change the background color to make this detail more visible. None: No color selected. The background will be a standard black. Solid: Allows you to choose a solid background color using either the color picker or RGBA/HEX color codes. Gradient Linear: Click the color at each end of the Gradient scale to choose a start and an end color. The gradient will be between these two colors. Move the Angle dial to change the angle of the gradient. Corner: Allows you to specify individual colors for the top left, top right, bottom left, and bottom right of the Viewport.
Reset Preferences	Reset all settings to the default.

Capture Screenshot

Select Capture Screenshot to generate a screenshot of your current view. Your screenshot will be automatically saved in the Documents\Emesent\Aura\Screenshots folder.

If you have Multi-Frame Rendering enabled, a high-quality screenshot will be produced. All settings, such as GCP landmarks, will appear in the screenshot.

Click Open to open the folder containing your screenshot.