Hello from Belgium – GeoMax Zoom3D workflow question

 Hello,

My name is Frederik and I am from Belgium. I work in electromechanics and construction, and I also do a lot of practical measuring and renovation work myself.

At the moment I am trying to build a reliable workflow with a GeoMax Zoom3D measuring device. My goal is quite simple in theory, but I am still looking for the correct practical method.

I want to measure reference points and surfaces with the GeoMax Zoom3D, export the measured points, import them into CAD, draw simple 2D geometry on top of those points, and then export only the new points back so that I can stake them out again with the Zoom3D.

Typical example:
I measure a terrace or concrete slab with the Zoom3D.
Then I want to import those measured points into LibreCAD or another CAD program.
On top of those points I want to draw a rectangle, offset, or new construction line.
After that I want to export only the corner points or intersection points, not all the lines, and use those points again for setting out on site.

The difficult part for me is the workflow between the Zoom3D export, CAD import, keeping the correct scale and coordinates, working in a flat 2D plane, and exporting clean point data again.

I have experience with AutoCAD, Inventor and Revit, but I am new to LibreCAD and I am trying to find a simple and reliable method for this specific measuring/stake-out workflow.

Has anyone here used LibreCAD together with measured point data from a device like GeoMax Zoom3D, Leica 3D Disto or a similar 3D measuring system?

Any advice about importing ASCII/DXF point data, flattening or working in 2D, drawing geometry on top of the measured points, and exporting only selected points would be very welcome.

Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,
Frederik
Belgium

Hi, and welcome!

If the GeoMax Zoom3D saves the points as x,y,z,... csv files, then the Import ASCII Points plugin will import any points and put them in a 2D plane(with optional height text)

If you also need to transpose vertical stuff to a plain 2D draw, then this could be of help:
 https://forum.librecad.org/Drawing-facades-from-topographic-points-td5718583.html

HTH
Pere

Hello Pere,

Thanks to your tip, I managed to import the GeoMax Zoom3D ASCII points into LibreCAD using the Import/Read ASCII Points plugin.

My point file now has this format:

1 0.000 0.000 0.000
2 4.670 0.000 0.000
3 0.019 -9.764 0.000

So the format is:

point number X Y Z

In LibreCAD I can now see the measured points, draw the terrace outline, and for example draw a new rectangle of 2.10 m × 0.80 m on top of it.

The next step is my problem: I want to export the corner points of that new rectangle again as ASCII points, so that I can import them back into the GeoMax Zoom3D and stake them out on site.

The desired export format would be for example:

101 3.9558 -3.4940 0.000
102 4.7559 -3.4941 0.000
103 4.7558 -5.5933 0.000
104 3.9546 -5.5913 0.000

For now, I manually read these four coordinates from the status bar, but that is not a workable method for real projects.

Is there a way in LibreCAD to automatically export selected points, or the corner/end points of selected lines, to such an ASCII point list?

Or should this be done through a script, plugin, DXF parsing, or another workflow?

The goal is:

1. Import Zoom3D points.
2. Draw new geometry in LibreCAD.
3. Export only the new corner points/intersection points as ASCII.
4. Use those points again for staking out with the Zoom3D.

I will add a few screenshots of the current test.

Thanks in advance.

Frederik

From AI (not tested) - Run Python Script

# Install once
pip install ezdxf

# In LibreCAD: File > Export > DXF
# Then run:
python3 export_ascii_points.py mydrawing.dxf zoom3d_points.txt

export_ascii_points.py

Hello Flywire,

Thank you for your reply and for the example with the Python script.

We tested this approach further with the help of AI, and the principle works: from the LibreCAD DXF we were able to read the corner points of the drawn rectangle and convert them back into an ASCII point file for the GeoMax Zoom3D.

We have now created two test files:

1. an ASCII/TXT file containing only the four corner points;
2. a simplified DXF containing only the four lines of the rectangle.

The next step is to test this on the Zoom3D and see whether the instrument can use not only points, but possibly also lines/contours for staking out.

So your suggestion of using the DXF-to-ASCII route seems to be the right direction for this workflow.

Thanks again for thinking along.

Frederik

Frederik10en wrote

Is there a way in LibreCAD to automatically export selected points, or the corner/end points of selected lines, to such an ASCII point list?

Does GeoMax Zoom3D not support DXF import? (and export BTW)

Anyway, I see you found a way to deal with ASCII points, nice :)

Best
Pere

Hello Pere,

Yes, the GeoMax Zoom3D / X-PAD does support DXF import and DXF export.

But for me the main issue is the workflow after that. I want to measure points with the Zoom3D, use those measured points in LibreCAD to draw something, for example a shape, an offset, an edge, a path, or a concrete slab, and then export the new corner points or end points again as stakeout points for the Zoom3D.

So DXF is useful to get the drawing visually into LibreCAD. But for stakeout with the Zoom3D I ultimately need a point list again, with point names and exact X/Y/Z coordinates.

For example:

P01;X;Y;Z
P02;X;Y;Z
P03;X;Y;Z

That is why ASCII seems more important for this workflow than DXF alone. What I am mainly looking for is a practical way in LibreCAD to export selected points, or the corner/end points of drawn lines, back to an ASCII point list for the Zoom3D.

The workflow I am trying to achieve is:

Zoom3D → ASCII/DXF to LibreCAD → draw or modify → export new points as ASCII → Zoom3D stakeout.

Thanks again for thinking along.

Frederik