Building Tool Settings Dialog
The Building Tool Settings dialog is used to configure auto-split, reshape and reorient, and courtyard cleanup tools. These options are organized one three separate tabs.
Access Location:
LIDAR Analyst
Toolbar: LIDAR Analyst Building Edit
Commands: Building Edit Tool Options, Building Auto-Split, Building Reshape, Courtyard Cleanup. and Building Reorient.
186 | Building Edit Tools Appendix C
Building Tool Settings Options
Bare earth
Sets the path to bare earth image.
Building layer
Displays the name of the selected building layer.
Refresh Layers
Refreshes all images and layers displayed to reflect the selected images and layers.
Show Settings
Expands to displays settings.
Single/last return
Displays the name of the selected single/last return image.
First return
Displays the name of the selected first return image.
Building Auto-Split Tool Tab - Building Tool Settings
Figure 122: Building Auto-Split Tool Tab
Building Auto-Split Tab Options
Height Sensitivity - Enter a value between 1 and 100. Height sensitivity affects building
differentiation based on roof line height differences. Increasing the sensitivity can help with classifying alleyways and courtyards, but it can also result in a single building being classified as two or more separate buildings. The default is 25.
Minimum Building Height - Minimum height in meters. The default is 2.2 meters. Minimum Building Area - Minimum building aggregate in square meters. The default is
50 square meters.
Slope Threshold - Enter a value between 0 and 90 degrees. Helps determine the edge of
individual buildings. Lowering the threshold can help separate rows or clusters of buildings, but can also cause poor results for buildings with curved or pitched roofs. The default is 80 degrees.
LIDAR Analyst 5.1.x Tutorial | 187 Reference - Building Edit Tools
Automatically Square-up Buildings - Select this option to automatically square up
features when using the Building Auto-Split Tool. Selected by default.
Smoothing Tolerance - Enter the number of meters a building vertex is allowed to move
to smooth the building edges. Tolerance defines the maximum distance a point can move in relation to its neighboring vertices. Smoothing is accomplished with the Bezier
Smoothing algorithm and is performed even if the buildings are not squared up. The default is 1 meter.
Squaring Tolerance - Enter the number of meters that the vertices of an edge can move
when snapping a building edge vertical or horizontal. The default is 6 meters.
Consider adjoining features when computing orientation - Select this option to square
up buildings according to the orientations of buildings immediately adjacent to it. Each group of buildings that share common edges is squared up to match the major orientation of the group.
No z-values - Applies no z-values to the polygons vertices.
Actual z-values - Attaches actual z-values to each vertex. This can result in lopsided
polygons, if the elevation varies greatly from vertex to vertex.
Min. z-value - Takes the minimum of the pixel z-values underlying the polygon and
attaches that value to each vertex.
Max. z-value - Takes the maximum of the pixel z-values underlying the polygon and
attaches that value to each vertex.
Mean z-value - Takes the mean of the pixel z-values underlying the polygon and attaches
that value to each vertex. The default selection.
Building Reshape and Reorient Tools Tab - Building Tool Settings
188 | Building Edit Tools Appendix C
Building Reshape and Reorient Tools Options
Height Sensitivity - Enter a value between 1 and 100. Height sensitivity affects building
differentiation based on roof line height differences. Increasing the sensitivity can help with classifying alleyways and courtyards, but it can also result in a single building being classified as two or more separate buildings. The default is 25.
Minimum Building Height - Minimum height in meters. The default is 2.2 meters. Minimum Building Area - Minimum building aggregate in square meters. The default is
50 square meters.
Region Grow Window Size - Enter a value in meters to match the size of the building to
be extracted. The value entered, 100 for example, indicates a 100 meter by 100 meter window size surrounding the clicked point. If a particular building extraction is incomplete or contains artifact edges in illogical places, this is most likely due to the fact that the window size is too small. The default is 100 meters.
Grow region using existing building extent - When checked, the region grow window
size is ignored and the outline of the existing building is re-extracted by looking only within the extent of the existing building. Not selected by default.
Building reorient direction - Enter an orientation, in degrees, east of North that defines
the current major building orientation that all selected buildings will be reoriented to match. Valid values are between 0 and 180 degrees. Default value is 0.
Automatically Square up Features - Select this option to automatically square up
features when using the Building Auto-Split Tool. Not selected by default.
Smoothing Tolerance - Enter the number of meters a building vertex is allowed to move
to smooth the building edges. The tolerance defines the maximum distance a point can move in relation to its neighboring vertices. Smoothing is accomplished with the Bezier Smoothing algorithm and is performed even if the buildings are not squared up. The default is 1 meter.
Squaring Tolerance - Enter the number of meters that the vertices of an edge can move
when snapping a building edge vertical or horizontal. The default is 6 meters.
No z-values - Applies no z-values to the polygons vertices.
Actual z-values - Attaches actual z-values to each vertex. This can result in lopsided
polygons, if the elevation varies greatly from vertex to vertex.
Min. z-values - Takes the minimum of the pixel z-values underlying the polygon and
attaches that value to each vertex.
Max. z-values - Takes the maximum of the pixel z-values underlying the polygon and
attaches that value to each vertex.
Mean z-values - Takes the mean of the pixel z-values underlying the polygon and attaches
LIDAR Analyst 5.1.x Tutorial | 189 Reference - Building Edit Tools
Courtyard Cleanup Tool Tab - Building Tool Settings
Figure 124: Courtyard Cleanup Tool Tab
Courtyard Cleanup Options
Height Sensitivity - Enter a value between 1 and 100. Height sensitivity affects building
differentiation based on roof line height differences. Increasing the sensitivity can help with classifying alleyways and courtyards, but it can also result in a single building being classified as two or more separate buildings. The default is 25.
Minimum Building Height - The minimum height in meters. The default is 2.2 meters. Minimum Courtyard Area - The minimum courtyard size in square meters that should be
removed. If no courtyards are being removed from the shape, first try increasing the Height Sensitivity. If that doesn't work, then decrease the minimum courtyard area. The default is 30 square meters.
Weed out Foliage - Select to eliminate tall trees within the courtyard that will interfere with
the extraction. Use when trees can mistakenly be considered part of the building. Only available when a first return is specified, since the first return will provide the most accurate depiction of trees present. The default is selected.
Force Courtyard Removal - Select to automatically delineate courtyards. The system
uses height-clustering to determine the lowest area(s) of a building to be removed. This guarantees that a courtyard will be found and removed from any building polygon you select. The only exceptions are small courtyards that are less than the specified minimum courtyard area. The default is selected.
Texture Variety Threshold - Used in conjunction with Weed out foliage to define how
varied the height values within an area have to be before it will be classified as a tree region. The higher the threshold, the more varied an area has to be before it is classified as a tree region. The default is 80.
Automatically Square up Features - Select to automatically square up features when
using the Building Auto-Split Tool. The default is selected.
Smoothing Tolerance - Enter the number of meters a building vertex is allowed to move
to smooth the building edges. The tolerance defines the maximum distance a point can move in relation to its neighboring vertices. Smoothing is accomplished with the Bezier Smoothing algorithm and is performed even if the buildings are not squared up. The default is 1 meter.
190 | Building Edit Tools Appendix C
Squaring Tolerance - Enter the number of meters that the vertices of an edge can move
when snapping a building edge vertical or horizontal. The default is 6 meters.
No z-values - Applies no z-values to the polygons vertices.
Actual z-values - Attaches actual z-values to each vertex. This can result in lopsided
polygons, if the elevation varies greatly from vertex to vertex.
Min. z-values - Takes the minimum of the pixel z-values underlying the polygon and
attaches that value to each vertex.
Max. z-values - Takes the maximum of the pixel z-values underlying the polygon and
attaches that value to each vertex.
Mean z-values - Takes the mean of the pixel z-values underlying the polygon and attaches
LIDAR Analyst 5.1.x Tutorial | 191
Appendix D
Building Reshape Tools
In this Section
Building Reshape Tool with the SHIFT Key ... 192
Building Reshape Tool with the CTRL Key ... 194
Building Reshape Tool with the ALT Key ... 195
192 | Building Reshape Tools Appendix D