libE57 News

January 30, 2012
We have received some new test data from Trimble RealWorks V7.2 product.

January 18, 2012
We welcome Maptek Pty Ltd and Point Cloud Library (PCL) to our Supporting Partners List.

December 13, 2011
Zoller+Fröhlich has just announced that the new features presented at INTERGEO like the cloud-to-cloud registration and support for ASTM E57 are now implemented in the latest version of LaserControl V8.2. See Z+F support for e57 standard

November 23, 2011
MicroStation V8i SS3 has added support for the E57 standard. With Cyclone support combined with MicroStation import capabilities of E57 enables faster conversion of data from Cyclone to MicroStation. See MicroStation V8i importing Point Cloud with e57 standard.

November 9, 2011
Leica Geosystems announces that Leica Cyclone V7.3.2 will fully supports the ASTM E57 standard. See LiDAR News item Leica Geosystems announces ASTM E57 Support and Leica's news release.

More test data has been added from a Riegl's V-Line instrument and converted to E57 using the RiScanPro exporter.

November 3, 2011
More test data is available. We have a large scan taken with the new Faro's Focus 3D scanner and a parking lot scene scanned with the Leica's ScanStation 2 and converted to E57 using Leica's next software release.

October 31, 2011
The ASTM E57.04 sub-committee has approved the extension listing process. One of the greatest strengths of E57 is that it was designed to be readily extensible to accommodate new hardware innovations. This will allow extensions to be listed and documented for all E57 users. See the Extensions page. See LiDAR News item ASTM E57 Data Interoperability Update

September 14, 2011
There are a couple of positive developments on the adoption front that have happened this week – very exciting. Pointools has announced that they have implemented an ASTM E57 read capability in their POD Creator software and Riegl is looking at a November time frame for their ability to write the E57 format. In the case of Pointools this will also provide Microstation users with the ability to read E57 files as they are the Microstation point cloud engine. The momentum is starting to build for the use of the E57 data exchange format. Please continue to ask your vendors for their support. See LiDAR News item ASTM E57 Data Exchange Format Update.

September 8, 2011
The final release of libE57 V1.0.224 is now available for download. We would like to thank all the members of the ASTM E57.04 Data Interoperability Committee for a job well done.

August 24, 2011
We have just added a new best practices page to the documentation page where users can see code examples of implementing different E57 features. This will help users intergrate the library into their applications.

The committee has also agreed to end the beta testing soon and to release the final libE57 V1.0. Watch for a new release.

August 9, 2011
In order to remain more open with the lidar community and get more people involved, we have added all of the ASTM E57 sub-committee information to our home page. Here is the ASTM E57 information:

To post to the working ASTM E57 sub-committee, send email to astm-e57-data-interoperability@googlegroups.com.
To subscribe to this group, send email to astm-e57-data-interoperability+subscribe@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to astm-e57-data-interoperability+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

To see all the documents, meeting notes, and discussions of the ASTM E57 sub-committee visit http://groups.google.com/group/astm-e57-data-interoperability?hl=en. or e57-shared on Google Docs

August 5, 2011
We have just added a new supporting products page to the web site where each product's E57 features capabilities are listed. This will help users choose the right applications for their projects.

July 20, 2011
We have set up an ASTM E57 Data Exchange Format group on LinkedIn to encourage the exchange of ideas and information as well as answer question about the E57 format and libE57 library. See our "E57 User Group" on our menu.

We welcome Safe Software Inc. and Virtual Geomatics, Inc. to our Supporting Partners List.

July 6, 2011
The specification of the E57 file format for 3D data exchange includes a variety of capabilities that may not be relevant to every software package or hardware device that intends to write or read E57 files. The ASTM E57-04 sub-committee on Data Interoperability has divided the capabilities of the E57 format into a small set of disjoint features that a software package may choose to implement or not implement as needed. To maintain consistency across software vendors and to minimize confusion by customers and users, we recommend that every vendor use this naming convention to report whether their software supports each feature. See Feature Categories.

June 2, 2011
Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) introduced today Trimble® RealWorks version 7.0, the first commercially available software suite that incorporates the newly approved ASTM International E57 E2807 data exchange standard for 3D imaging systems. Here is the article.

Intelisum has released their product LD3 Studio version 5.1 which also supports the E57 E2807 standard.

May 26, 2011
An updated release of the libE57 (version 0.3.173) is now available to download. This release has a bug fix to the validation tool (e57validate.exe) to verify E57 files. It has more bugs' fixes to the SimpleAPI. See our SourceForge's bugs list for details.

Also note that the "Test Data" page has more test E57 data files to be used to test your implementations. Please submit bugs if you find any issues with these files. Please submit your E57 data files to be posted on this page to scoleby@intelisum.com so that other implementations can help verify your implementation.

May 5, 2011
The ASTM International has just issued a news release announcing the availability of the new E2807 standard. See ASTM 3D Data Imaging Systems Committee Approves New Data Exchange Standard

March 16, 2011
The SPIE Electronic Imaging Science and Technology conference has just published a newsroom article describing the design and implementation of the E57 file format.

March 14, 2011
An updated release of the libE57 (version 0.3.154) is now available to download. This release has a new validation tool (e57validate.exe) to verify E57 files. It has a few bugs' fixes to the SimpleAPI. See our SourceForge's bugs list for details.

The download page has a new link for the latest MinGW V4.5 compiler.

Also note that a new "Test Data" page has been added with the first of many E57 data files to be used to test the implementations. If you can submit an E57 data file for this page then everyone else can help verify your file. This will help in finding bugs and verifying the implementations. Send E57 data files to scoleby@intelisum.com to be posted.

March 10, 2011
ASTM E57 3D imaging committee will have a table at the main SPAR conference on March 21-24 in Houston. Come and talk to us about your concerns. Also come join us on Thursday morning for the session called "Standardizing Data Formats" where the E57 standard and LibE57 implementation will be discuss.

March 1, 2011
Reported in the LiDAR News on February 27, 2011: "There is good news to report concerning the recently approved ASTM E57 3D imaging data exchange standard. First the actual standard itself will soon be available from ASTM – the American Society of Testing Materials. I believe the standard is No. E2807, but check the website to be be sure.

Just as importantly, I am pleased to report that a number of major vendors including Intelisum, Trimble, Leica, Optech, Faro and Pointools have all confirmed that they are in the process of implementing support for E57. For those interested in learning more about the reference implementations being supported by the E57.04 subcommittee.

In addition, both the GSA and Fiatech are considering adopting the use of E57 as the required data deliverable format. This will certainly be a major step forward for the industry."

Feburary 1, 2011
A new release of the libE57 (version 0.3.123) is now available to download. This version will generate the V1.0 E57 file format as approved by the ASTM standard E2807.

January 13, 2011
The revised E57.04 Data Exchange Format Ballot has closed with no negatives. This means that the ASTM standard E2807 is now approved. The standard should be published in the next 2-3 months. Again let's thank all the folks who have helped this process along the way.

January 5, 2011
We have written a paper describing the design and implementation of the E57 file format, which will be presented at the upcoming SPIE Electronic Imaging Science and Technology conference (IS&T) on January 24th.

January 5, 2011
The revised E57.04 Data Exchange Format Ballot is again posted on the ASTM web site. The ballot will be open and available on the web until January 10, 2011. Please Vote.

November 3, 2010
The ASTM E57.04 Data Interoperability Committee has found a fundamental flaw in the storing of the intensities and color information. The standard needs to be modified to add two new structures for the bounds on intensities and color values. Hopefully, this can be corrected before the ASTM E2761 standard is published. Look for an update in the libE57 library shortly.

August 31, 2010
The E57.04 Data Exchange Format has received official approval as a standard (known as ASTM E2761). The ASTM E57.04 Data Interoperability Committee has worked more than three years to get to this point. Let us thank all the folks who have helped this process along the way.

July 21, 2010
The E57.04 Data Exchange Format Ballot is now posted on the ASTM web site. The ballot will be open and available on the web from July 21, 2010 to August 20, 2010. Please Vote.

July 9, 2010
Beta testing has started. Please read the beta testing instructions to find out how to get involved.