Level of Detail Export

Procedure and Settings

1. Have a model reconstructed
2. Click the Level of Detail button in the Export part of the MESH MODEL tab or in the Export part of the SCENE 3D/TOOLS tab.
3. In the file dialog, specify the file name and the desired file format
4. Depending on format, one of the dialogs, described below, will be displayed. Tweak the settings and click on the OK button to begin the export process.

Linear LoD Export Dialog

This dialog is shown when one of the following formats is selected: obj, ply, xyz, abc, glb, fbx, dxf, dae.

• Stopping criterion Select Model Count to export a precise number of detail levels, while Triangle Count allows you to export detail levels as long as the triangle count of the simplified model is greater than a specified value.
• Model count When Stopping criterion is set to Model Count, it specifies the number of detail levels that will be exported.
• Simplification type The simplification method that is applied to generate the next level of detail. Select Relative to reduce the triangle count by a specified percentage, while Absolute allows you to distribute triangle counts evenly across a given range. The Absolute option is available only when Stopping criterion is set to Model count.
• Relative simplification factor When Simplification Type is set to Relative, specifies the triangle count of a level of detail relative to the next higher-quality one.
• Maximal triangles Triangle count of the highest-quality exported level of detail.
• Minimal triangles Triangle count of the lowest-quality exported level of detail. Unavailable when Stopping criterion is set to Model Count and Simplification Type is set to Relative.
• File suffix By default, each exported file will have a suffix of "_LODn", where "n" is a number that specifies the level of detail. To customize the suffix, select Custom.
• Suffix Allows you to enter a custom suffix that is appended to the name of each exported file.
• Numbering start Here you customize the numbering of the exported models. By default, the first, highest-quality model has integer 0.
• Mesh settings Here you customize format-specific settings of the exported models. The options are identical to those in the Export Model dialog; please refer to Model Export for more details.

Hierarchical LoD Export Dialog

This dialog is shown when the Cesium 3D Tiles format is selected. Hierarchical level of detail splits the model into a hierarchy of so-called nodes of varying quality. When displaying the model in a compatible viewer, only some of the nodes are displayed to sustain rendering performance while showing detailed geometry. Provided that the model being exported is geo-referenced, the geospatial location of the model is preserved (see Geo-referencing a Model).

• Initial simplification This lets you simplify the model before exporting. This directly controls the maximum detail that can be found in the exported model.
  Set Type to None to omit initial simplification. Set Type to Relative in order to reduce the triangle count with respect to the original model. Set Type to Absolute to specify a custom triangle count.
• Iterative simplification This specifies the simplification step used to generate the next level of detail. Currently the only allowed setting for Type is Relative.
• Export textures This controls whether textures are exported. Please note that the exported model must have a texture in order to be able to export it. To compute a texture for a model, please see the Texturing section in Coloring and Texturing.
  Source Layer This selects which texture layer will be used for texturing.
  Texel size Specifies the best texture quality that can be found in the exported model. A lower texel size corresponds to increased quality.
  Texture Format Chooses the format for the texture, the options are .webp, .jpg or .png.
  
• Maximum node triangle count This determines the granularity of decomposition of the model into nodes. Decreasing this value results in a finer hierarchy of nodes.
• Bandwidth Scale This will give a faster streaming, lower quality model on settings below 1, and a slower streaming higher quality model on Settings above 1.
• Altitude This is used to tweak the height of the model above the terrain.