The LGT Photogrammetry Engine Is Here

I have been working around the clock to bring this new exciting update.

I'm pleased to announce the first version (4.0.0) of the new photogrammetry engine, LGT, which is now deployed network-wide on Lightning. The new engine has been rewritten to bring even more accurate results as well as tons of smaller improvements and fixes which are difficult to summarize in a quick blog post.

Accuracy Improvements

Without getting into the nitty-gritty details, the big change is that internally the engine performs calculations in a different coordinate space than before, which allows it to better project the results in a geographical reference frame. You should notice accuracy improvements especially when mapping with GCPs or RTK over large areas.

Vertical Datums and Geoids Support for GCPs

Surveying equipment often outputs elevation values in a specific vertical datum and it's now possible to import GCPs with that specific datum. It's also possible to select a specific geoid. No need to manually convert values to/from ellipsoidal heights.

A new update to the GCP interface also allows direct import of CSV files exported from surveying software like Emlid Flow, without needing to create a separate CSV file.

Minor Breaking Change

When using GCPs, for elevation values, the program will now use the units specified by the coordinate system, even if the coordinate reference system is 2D. Before this change the program expected ellipsoidal heights in meters.

Enjoy!

-Piero