What's New in Trimble Inpho Software Version 12
Trimble® Inpho version 12 (v12.0, September 2021; v12.1, December 2021; v12.2, March 2022) is available for all Inpho software products, including UASMaster. To meet the evolving needs of the aerial imagery market, version 12 of the Inpho software is focused on increased productivity and generation of higher quality deliverables. A new image matching engine in MATCH-AT has stronger tie point extraction capabilities, and there are also improved production engines in MATCH-3DX and UASMaster. Inpho users will observe enhanced performance and increases in the quality of block geometry. They will also be able to create final deliverables for imagery projects ranging from UAV to large and high-overlap aerial platforms. Users with a valid maintenance contract will receive a license update shortly after the release.
Stronger AT processing with the new image matching engine in MATCH-AT
Inpho version 12 offers a new image matching engine in MATCH-AT for stronger and high-performance aerial triangulation of large and high overlap imagery projects. More robustness in image orientation of challenging areas, such as forests, as well as an increased level of connectivity in tie point extraction from 99 to 999 folds, are the other highlights of this new engine. Furthermore, users can benefit from the improvements in the accessibility of the images during image matching for more productivity.
More productivity and improved usability in MATCH-AT
In the new version of MATCH-AT, users can feel the significantly higher performance of loading images during the project setup, and increase the productivity from the beginning steps.
Additionally, thanks to the automatic detection of working space and adapting during the process, users should not have concerns about the continuity of the process if the specified values are not high enough.
There are more usability features in Photo Measurement Tool (PMT) such as new shortcuts for measuring modes, new export capability of selected points, and faster start-up, improvements for better working with viewing windows.
In the new version, users can find a comprehensive description of camera parameters in the MATCH-AT report, for better quality assessment of the block adjustment.
Significantly speed up in project setup and data handling
Considering the rapid increases in project size (more projects with larger images and larger numbers of images), project managers will transfer data between storage platforms quite often to free or clean up these spaces.
In Project Editor, there has been the possibility to change the path of the images on the drive. In the new version, this change is now significantly up to even 100 times faster than before. This is very important for large and multi-head projects.
More usability improvements in project setup
There are some improvements for better and insured management of strips, while importing a GNSS/IMU file with predefined strips.
Version 12.2 can automatically assist the operator if the strips have a unique strip separator. Users can also create their own naming convention on the strips.
Better control of camera with the 3D distortion plot
In addition to the comprehensive report file, users have been enjoying the visualized 3D plot of camera distortion. In this version this 3D plot can be shown immediately and more meaningfully. Another usability feature in this version is a new slider for scaling the V- and Z- factors in the 3D Distortion Plot for easier operation.
Improved usability in MATCH-3DX
In the new version of MATCH-3DX, users can benefit from the new image checking capability at the beginning of the process and save processing time by excluding non-validated corrupted images from the process. Furthermore, automatic determination of the most suitable settings leads to ensuring the quality of deliverables for more efficiency in production. Optimized multi-threading and usage of available image pyramids are the other highlights of this product in version 12.
High quality and efficiency products with MATCH-3DX
True-orthophotos in this version can be generated with more homogeneity and balanced radiometry. The new version of MATCH-3DX delivers a cleaned-up final mosaic by automatically generating a borderline, if not pre-defined. Furthermore, the quality of true orthophotos of highly distorted images is increased, by selecting the best part of the image in orthophoto generation.
MATCH-3DX Meshing Add-On version 12 offers higher quality in 3D meshes with more sharpness on the edges, as well as enhanced texture on the model. The reduction of triangles in the multi-resolution geometry helps to produce more efficient 3D models for better streaming and optimized data storage.
Higher performance in MATCH-3DX
Beside the higher quality, faster generation of DSM and true-orthophoto and parallelization of the image rectifiers in this version, increases the level of productivity with MATCH-3DX, which is particularly important for large and high overlap imagery projects.
In version 12.2, the overall processing time in MATCH-3DX is up to 15% faster than the version before.
In this process, DSM and true-orthophoto can be generated up to 10% faster than before. In generation of meshes, users can expect up to 10% in 2.5D mesh and up to 15% for 3D meshes.
Faster streaming and more efficiency in handling of 3D meshes in MATCH-3DX
In version 12.1, the number of triangles in meshes is significantly reduced (up to 10 times) which is important for data transfer, office-based visualization, and web-based streaming purposes. In this way, the graphics memory would be efficiently used while keeping the quality of the geometry untouched.
Furthermore, due to the up to 50% reduction of the size of the texture files (texture atlases) in this version, less memory is needed to handle the 3D textured meshes for seamless representation of photo realistic models. Additionally, in this version the visualization of 3D meshes are smarter managed, as the foreground objects are loaded faster (up to 2 times). These improvements are specifically important for the users with very large projects or with weak processing units (CPU, GPU), or slow internet connection.
As the compression of the JPEG textures is optimized in this version, the obj and dae meshes are more detailed and have better quality. In this version, the Draco compression is disabled by default, which is beneficial in increasing the performance for streaming of the 3D tiles of meshes in Cesium or similar environments or for the desktop visualization on low-end hardware.
Cleaned up true orthophotos with improvements in performance in MATCH-3DX
Due to the automatic definition of the border line for the area of interest since version 12, the final true orthophotos look very clean. This improvement speeds up the processing, as the DSM and orthophoto generation won’t happen in the background or useless areas.
Usability enhancements for more GIS ready deliverables from MATCH-3DX
Another enhancement for the large projects is that the information of the stereo models is stored more efficiently from this version. This means a reduction in disk space, better data handling, and optimized usage of memories.
In this version, the users would enjoy efficient representation and usage of MATCH-3DX results, e.g. DSM and true orthophotos in GIS environments, based on the virtual raster files (VRT) that will be from now on automatically generated and delivered. Furthermore, by providing the tile shape files with ID (based on the tile coordinate), users can have a better overview of whole projects and find the position of the tile files by loading the TileShape.shp in a GIS environment like ArcGIS.
Better quality of point clouds in MATCH-T DSM
Users of the classical workflow, who employ MATCH-T for point cloud generation, will expect less noise in the final products. Furthermore, the Match.status file can be accessed easily via the user interface. For this, we recommend enjoying the consultant of our support team.
Significantly better performance in OrthoMaster and background transparency in OrthoVista
The processing time for orthophoto generation in OrthoMaster is now 2-3 times faster, which levels up the productivity for the users who are using the classical orthophoto workflow.
Additionally, transparency of background pixels can be now better handled by adding alpha channels in OrthoVista.
Usability improvements in DPMaster for distributed processing
In version 12, multiple processing jobs and their dependencies in MATCH-3DX can be organized easier in DPMaster, to better scale up the production for large projects by distributed processing.
The expanded data transfer of image files and orientation files, in addition to the basic job files in MATCH-3DX and OrthoMaster, helps better and efficient data handling from the job creation to the job termination. Another usability improvement in this version is the possibility of changing the target machines after submission of the jobs. This gives the user the freedom to trigger the job to another machine if the original target machine is busy. The structured directory in the new version of DPMaster leads to better data management which allows an easy tracking of the corresponding files.
DPMaster is available for MATCH-T DSM and OrthoMaster with favorably Distributed Processing Licenses (DPL) as well as for MATCH-3DX (with full licenses).
More usability improvements for seamless workflow
In Inpho version 12, users can enjoy more usability enhancements in ApplicationsMaster such as automatic selection of additional (stronger) graphic cards to the on-board GPU, parallelization of the Colorizer, new setup options in Camera Dialog for analog images of Wild cameras
High quality and efficiency products in UASMaster
True-orthophotos in this version can be generated in full resolution quality. The overall mosaics are with more homogeneity and balanced radiometry. The new version of UASMaster delivers a cleaned-up final mosaic by automatically generating a borderline, if not pre-defined. Furthermore, the quality of true orthophotos of highly distorted images is increased, by selecting the best part of the image in orthophoto generation.
UASMaster version 12 offers higher quality in 3D meshes with more sharpness on the edges, as well as enhanced texture on the model. Furthermore, the reduction of triangles in the multi-resolution geometry helps to produce more efficient 3D models for better streaming and optimized data storage.
Higher quality in dense matching based on SGM
In the most recent version, users can benefit from a new deliverable based on Semi Global Matching (SGM) and enjoy 3D and 2.5D dense point cloud, true-orthophotos and 3D meshes with highest quality in pixel level.
This level of quality in dense matching is very important for feature extraction applications based on true orthophotos, measurement and mapping applications based on point clouds, and 3D representation of the object based on 3D meshes with higher accuracy.
Much faster production based on SGM
The overall and combined delivery of the end products (dense point cloud, true-orthophotos, 3D meshes) based on Semi Global Matching (SGM) can reach up to 2x faster speed. For the default scenario, the significantly highest performance can be seen in the generation of 3D meshes (up to 5-7x) and texturing the meshes (up to 3-5x).
For the other products, the SGM engine can speed up your productivity in the generation of dense point clouds (up to 25%), DSM (up to 5-10%). These numbers can vary depending on the image compression and the project types (nadir, oblique).
Integration of Trimble Coordinate System
Considering the worldwide coverage of Trimble Coordinate System (TCS) with various projection and geoid, Trimble Inpho and UASMaster workflows are now empowered by TCS. As this coordinate system has been used in many hardware and software within Trimble, this integration supports our users, not only to enjoy this comprehensive coordinate system but also better handle the data within Trimble ecosystem. We highly encourage our customers to use TCS for their projects. However, for the transition time to replace the Inpho Coordinate System (ICS) with TCS, and collecting your feedback e.g., any compatibility purposes for the older projects or your wishes on completeness of TCS, we will keep the Inpho Coordinate System (ICS) in version 12.
Usability improvements for coordinate system management
In version 12.2, it is possible to search for coordinate systems by name, EPSG code or country. In addition, it can be defined where the coordinate systems are to be saved. A list of recently used coordinate systems is also added in this version. Furthermore, TCS is now updated to the recent version.
