A description of the different file formats of 3DTK

3DTK supports a variety of file formats. New file formats can easily be added. Please be aware, that 3DTK uses for the internal representation a left-handed coordinate system, i.e., thumb = x-axis, index finger = y-coordinate, middle finger = z-coodinate. The z-coordinate is the depth axis. This is especially important when visualizing data with the the viewer To read a file in a specific file format, use
-f NAME
where NAME is the name of the file format without the scan_io, e.g., UOS for scan_io_uos.

The SLAM program generates files scanXXX.frames, consisting of the transformations computed from the scan matching. Each line contains a 4 × 4 OpenGL-style matrix and an integer representing the state of the scan in the according iteration. The very last matrix is the final transformation for registering the scan into the common coordinate system.

The matrix is stored in the following format:

(R[1, 1], R[1, 2], 0, R[1, 3], 0, R[2, 1], R[2, 2], R[2, 3], 0, R[3, 1], R[3, 2], R[3, 3], 0, t[1], t[2], t[3], 1), with R[x, y] the (x, y)-th entry of the rotation matrix R, and t[x] the x-th translation component of t.

Note: For visualization of data with the Show viewer the .frames files are essential. If no .frames files are given, the identity matrix will be used.

There are currently many file formats available. Please read the descriptions directly in the code.
Informatics VII - Robotics and Telematics, Prof. Dr Andreas Nüchter, andreas (at) nuechti.de, Tel. +49-177-7951270