Enhance Your 3D Scans By Adding Annotations

TRI YouTube video on annotating scenes with pictures or PDF files.

Crash investigations are intended to determine the cause of an accident or crash, to identify relevant conditions surrounding the event, and to recommend corrective measures to prevent similar incidents in the future. However, investigations can become laborious if they are not handled correctly.

3D scanning is a valuable tool that significantly reduces investigation time for crashes, particularly by capturing hard-to-diagram views from a human perspective. But by relying on annotations for your 3D scans, you can achieve even better results. How so?

Annotations are a form of metadata, including posts, remarks, markups, or comments, designed to provide more information or clarification to a specific subject. As they are external remarks, annotations can be done independently, without the need to edit the document involved in the investigation process.

Annotations typically help formulate specific thoughts and questions that aid deeper understanding. They also enhance an individual’s analytical skills, encouraging them to make inferences and draw conclusions. But how can adding annotations to 3D scans help an accident investigation process?

Crash reconstruction aims to recreate scenes to ensure practical analysis of the dynamics and events surrounding the collision, to serve as evidence in a court case, and allow a manufacturer to evaluate the vehicle’s design.

However, at the crash scene, it is hardly known the exact amount of information that will be required for analysis, and in some cases, relevant data may be missing.

Annotating ensures that 3D documentation of crash scenes is conducted in a safe, flexible, and faster way.

How 3D Scan Annotation Is Done In Scenes

• The first step is to locate your pictures or PDF files on your computer, then access your scenes in a 3D view.

• Click on annotations at the top of your screen.

• Select an area you want to annotate the text in, then left-click with your mouse.

• A documentation window will pop up where you can name the text and pen down your descriptions.

• Since the naming does not allow spacing, it’ll be ideal to make use of an underscore for spaces. The name has to be continuous.

• There is a tab with three buttons at the lower end of the documentation window. Add all the pictures from the scene here, then click the “add” button next to the tab to add hyperlinks to your picture files. Detailed video located on our website homepage!

3D scanning for crash reconstruction helps to improve investigator workflow, preserve evidence digitally, and ensure transparency in courtroom verdicts.

By adding annotations to the 3D scanning of crash reconstructions, this process is made a lot easier. Since annotations focus on the major points and key ideas, they are a great way to ensure investigations are faster and more seamless.