Patent ID: 8295589

Claim:
A method of registering a three dimensional (3D) representation of an object with an oriented view of the object on a computer comprising: providing the 3D representation of the object generated at least in part from a plurality of photographs of the object, each of the plurality of photographs having a respective camera location calculated relative to the 3D representation of the object; providing a generally overhead view of the object; orienting the 3D representation to have an approximately equal elevation angle as the generally overhead view; scaling the 3D representation to approximately match a size of the object in the generally overhead view of the object; rotating the 3D representation to approximately align with an orientation of the object in the generally overhead view of the object; aligning the 3D representation with the object in the generally overhead view of the object; registering each of the respective camera locations with the generally overhead view of the object; and storing registration data for the 3D representation of the object corresponding to at least one of a location relative to the object, an earth coordinate location, an earth coordinate orientation, and a magnetic coordinate orientation of the 3D representation, wherein the 3D representation of the object is a point cloud being a set of points in 3D space that collectively make up the 3D representation, the method further comprising providing a tool for performing the scaling and rotating of the 3D representation, the tool having at least one of a first control for scaling the 3D representation, a second control for rotating the 3D representation, and a third control for resizing the tool, wherein providing the 3D representation of the object comprises creating a flattened view of the point cloud perpendicularly to the approximately equal elevation angle.