Introduction

Within installations there can sometimes be situations where you need to adjust how cameras view the surrounding environment. Height Maps are very useful where a single camera needs to cover an region that has differing ground heights within it. Each Height Map is made up of grids, and each grid has a Height Offset option which allows you to inform the camera that when it is viewing that grid it should make tilt adjustments to account for the height difference.

Contents

Overview

This section explains the Height Map, and how to configure it to ensure cameras adjust their tilt based on the relative heights of the terrain to ensure targets always remain visible in the camera video.

Example

In the example below two Grids are compared:

Grid 1 for the flat ground marginally below but nearest the camera.

Grid 2 for the raised ground further away.

Open

When viewing object X, the camera will use Grid 1's Height Offset to tilt downward, and when viewing object Y, it will use Grid 2's Height Offset, to tilt itself upwards.

Default Height Map

The system has a single default Height Map, which can be found under the Height Maps folder. There can only be one Height Map, so the Default cannot be deleted, nor a new Height Map created. The Default is simply 'blank', without any offset(s), until configured otherwise.

To Configure the Default Height Map:

1. Enable the Config Function. In the Configuration Tree, select Height Maps and then Default Height Map. Double clicking on the Height Map icon in the Configuration Tree will toggle the Height Map overlay on and off. This is a quick way to check the map without going into Edit mode.
   
   

   Open

   

    

2. Set the Grid Size to adjust the resolution of the Height Map across the map. e.g. 25 m². This figure will vary depending on the height resolution you need on your site. The overlay will reflect your selected grid size. Once the Grid Size has been set it can be changed, but the system will have to start to average the Height Offsets where there is Grid overlap. This may not result in the desired heights but they can be easily adjusted after the grid size is changed.
   
   

    

3. Select Edit in the Configuration Panel. Once in the edit mode the Height Map grid overlay will be displayed if not already visible.
   
   

    

4. If required, set a Default Z (height) offset for the entire site. Setting this value means that all other individual height offsets will be relative to this global offset.

5. If required, assign colours to represent positive Height Offset grids and negative Height Offset grids, as well as the colour of their respective labels.
   
   

Changing Single Height Offsets

1. To change the height of a single square you can either:
   
   

    

2. Ctrl+Left Click on the square you wish to change - this will open a window allowing you to enter the required height offset.

3. Or Ctrl+Mouse Wheel with the mouse cursor over the square you want adjust. Moving the wheel will increase or decrease the offset depending on the direction.

4. Use Ctrl+Right Click in order to remove a configured offset.

Changing Multiple Height Offsets

1. To toggle the selection of multiple grid squares, hold Ctrl+Alt and Left Click on the squares.
   
   

    

2. To change the height of the selected squares, you can either:
   
   

    

3. Ctrl+Left Click on any of the selected squares to open the height offset dialog. This will apply the same height to all selected squares.

4. Or Ctrl+Mouse Wheel with the mouse cursor over any of the selected squares to adjust the height offsets of all the selected squares.

5. Use Ctrl+Right Click to clear all the selected height offsets. You will be prompted to ensure you are certain you want to delete the selected offsets.
   
   

    

6. Use Esc to clear the current selection.

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