Pytree

A containerized Flask application serving potree to extract height profile from LiDAR data.

Credit goes to M. Schuetz for the development of CPotree.

Requirements

You will need docker and docker-compose to run the application.

Context of pytree

Installation

Clone this repository on your machine.

Then, create your .env file with a DEPLOY_ENV variable set to either DEV or PROD, a PORT variable specify which port of your host machine you want to use, and a DATA_DIR variable containing the absolute path to the directory containing your metadata.json file for your Potree LiDAR tiles (generated using PotreeConvert v2.x.x). Check .env.sample for inspiration.

Thirdly, copy example_config.yml to pytree.yml and make sure to adapt the variable to your environment. Especially adapt the following four variables:

• cpotree_executable
• pointclouds
• default_point_cloud

Finally run the 2 following commands:

docker-compose down --remove-orphans -v
docker-compose up

Update CPotree

In order to update to the last version of CPotree, you'll need to compile the new version. This is possible by building a new pytree image: docker build -t sitn/pytree:<tag_version> .

Replace <tag_version> by whatever version you want and if it's working you can push it to docker hub and update the docker-compose.yml accordingly (image with new tag you just created).

Using Windows WSL

The first time you use your Debian WSL distro:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install docker.io

Then, you will have to mount your share where metadata.json can be found. To do so, edit the fstab file:

sudo vi /etc/fstab

And add your Window share. this might look like something:

//windows_share/pointclouds                 /mnt/pointclouds  cifs    user=windows_username,password=windows_password               0       0

Then, in your mnt folder, create a pointcloud folder:

sudo mkdir pointcloud
sudo mount -a

From one time to the other, you might have to rerun sudo mount -a in order to mount the share.

All Docker cmd have to be run in sudo mode.

Usage

The application runs at http://localhost:6001/pytree

Please chek https://github.com/potree/CPotree/blob/master/README.md for a comprehensive list of valid URL parameters to get a LiDAR profile.

You can also start a shell to further explore inside the running container and play around with the executable:

docker exec -it pytree_api_1 bash

Then execute extract_profile:

extract_profile data/processed/metadata.json -o "stdout" --coordinates "{2525528.12,1185781.87},{2525989.37,1185541.87}" --width 10 --min-level 0 --max-level 5 > data/output/test.las