Last Updated: April, 2016 Version: Fusion 3.50 EXERCISE 1 Download and Install the Fusion Program and Data Objectives In this exercise you will begin creating a file structure to download the Fusion program and lidar data as well as create shortcuts for Fusion and other tools. You will also edit the environment variables of your computer to allow an easier workflow in subsequent exercises. Prerequisites A connection to the internet. Remote Sensing Applications Center EXERCISE 1 1
Table of Contents Part 1: Download and Install Fusion Software... 3 Part 2: Download LAStools... 3 Part 3: Add Shortcuts... 4 Part 4: Add Fusion.exe to the Environment Variables... 4 Part 5: Download the Example Data... 5 Part 6: Setup and Example Folder... 6 Remote Sensing Applications Center EXERCISE 1 2
Part 1: Download and Install Fusion Software A. Open a Browser 1. Connect to: http://forsys.sefs.uw.edu/fusion/fusionlatest.html to open The Latest Version Fusion webpage. 2. Click the Install File hyperlink to open the File Download dialog for Fusion_Install.exe. 3. Click the Save button to open the Save As dialog. 4. Navigate to a location of your choosing (one that you will remember) and/or create a new folder and click Save. The file (Fusion_Install.exe) will download. B. When the download is complete, Open (or Run) Fusion_Install.exe. 1. The first screen of the Fusion Setup dialog will display. 2. Keep the default installation Components and click Next >. 3. Keep the default Install Location and click Next >. 4. And, keep the defaults for the Start Menu Folder and click Install. 5. After the installation completes, click Close. Part 2: Download LAStools Fusion version 3.40 was an important upgrade that added support for compressed LAS data files by linking to Martin Isenburg's LASzip tool. To take advantage of this capability, you will also need to download LAStools and manually copy the LASzip.dll file into FUSION's install folder. A. Open a Browser 1. Connect to the LAStools site: https://rapidlasso.com. 2. On the main menu, click LAStools download (see following graphic). 3. Unzip the downloaded file and navigate to LAStools LASzip dll. 4. Copy the LASzip.dll file. Remote Sensing Applications Center EXERCISE 1 3
5. Navigate to the Fusion install folder and paste the LASzip.dll file in there. Part 3: Add Shortcuts A. Create a desktop shortcut 1. Right Click on your desktop. Select New Shortcut from the drop down menus. 2. In the Create Shortcut Wizard, click the Browse... button. 3. Navigate thru the following directory structure: My Computer C:\ WINDOWS system32 cmd.exe. 4. Click Next in the Create Shortcut Wizard and then click Finish (see following graphic). B. Create a desktop shortcut to the main Fusion program 1. Right Click on your desktop. Select New Shortcut from the drop down menus. 2. In the Create Shortcut Wizard, click the Browse button. 3. Navigate thru the following directory structure: C:\Fusion. 4. Select Fusion.exe and click OK. 5. Click Next in the Create Shortcut Wizard and then click Finish (see following graphic). C. Repeat the above steps to create a desktop shortcut for Fusion s PDQ Viewer 1. The executable is C:\Fusion\pdq.exe 2. Add a shortcut for the Fusion Manual located at C:\FUSION\doc\FUSION_manual.pdf. 3. Add a shortcut for Notepad text editor located at My Computer C:\ WINDOWS System32 notepad.exe. 4. You may want to eventually add shortcuts to working folders and to your folder that will hold your batch files. Part 4: Add Fusion.exe to the Environment Variables We need to make some adjustments to our computer that will make it easier to run Fusion utilities in subsequent exercises. In this step, we will add the FUSION install directory to the search path for your computer. When you have completed this step, you will be able to run FUSION command line utilities from any directory on your computer. This is a huge advantage when processing large lidar acquisitions (see warning below). Exercise 3 will give you a more in-depth explanation of why and how to use command line functions. Note: Instructions only apply to Windows Operating Systems. Remote Sensing Applications Center EXERCISE 1 4
1. Open the Start Menu and Right-Click on My Computer. 2. Select Properties from the drop down menu and then click Adavanced system settings in the left sidebar. 3. In the System Properties dialog box select the Advanced tab. 4. Under the Advanced tab click the Environment Variables button at the bottom. 5. In the Environmental Variables dialog box, under User variables for (your username) (see following graphic), if there is a path variable click Edit. If not, click New and call the Variable name: path. 6. For Variable value, enter the directory for Fusion.exe, (ideally c:\fusion) and click OK. 7. Click OK in the remaining dialog boxes to close them and retain the edit. Now let s quickly test the new environmental variable. 8. Open a Command Prompt by clicking Start Programs Accessories Command Prompt and type catalog and press Enter. You should now see a description of the Fusion command line executable catalog.exe. 9. If the command prompt did not recognize catalog as a command, the edits you made to the path environmental variable were not successful. If this is the case, you can repeat the above steps and try again, ask the course instructor, or contact your IT support for further assistance. Without Admin. Privileges you will only be able to edit your (the user) Environmental Variables and not the System variables. If you want the environmental variable edit to be applied to the system for any user you must make the edits with admin. privileges in the system variables section. In this case, add c:\fusion to the end of the path list separated from the other paths by a semicolon (;). Part 5: Download the Example Data A. Select the State Plane, WA south zone (124 Mb) as the example data to use in this portion of the course. Remote Sensing Applications Center EXERCISE 1 5
1. On the FUSION webpage you will notice there are two options of example data to choose from. Within the FUSION web page, click the Example data (State Plane, WA south zone) (124 Mb) hyperlink to open the File Download dialog for Fusion_ExampleData.exe. 2. Click the Save button and save the file in the same location as the Fusion_Install file. B. Open (or Run) Fusion_ExampleData.exe 1. Screen 1: keep the default for installing all the data (both components). 2. Screen 2: do NOT accept the default destination. Click the Browse button to open the Browse for Folder dialog: 3. Navigate to the root of the C: drive (C:\) and click the Make New Folder button. 4. Name this new folder lidar. 5. Double-click the new C:\lidar folder to open it and Click the Make New Folder button again. 6. Name this new folder SampleData. It is important to use the suggested path (C:\lidar\SampleData\) to store the example data. This specified file location will be referred to throughout the Fusion tutorial. 7. Click OK to close the Browse for Folder dialog and return to the wizard Destination screen. 8. You will now see that a folder named FUSION has been added to your designated path. Leave the folder for now. 9. Click the Install button. 10. Once the installation finishes successfully, click the close button. Part 6: Setup and Example Folder A. Start Windows Explorer 1. Navigate to C:\lidar\SampleData. You ll notice there is no data in this folder, but that two new sub-folders called FUSION and Example were automatically created. The example data can be found within the Example folder. 2. Open the Example folder and move all of the data up to the 2nd parent folder SampleData. 3. Delete the FUSION and Example folders. Note: you can install the data anywhere you wish (or copy and move this data to a different location). However, for the subsequent exercises, we ll assume that the data is in C:\lidar\SampleData\. Remote Sensing Applications Center EXERCISE 1 6
Click on the Fusion Manual shortcut. Please take a moment to review the manual, which you will find to be an essential resource as you start working with FUSION! Remote Sensing Applications Center EXERCISE 1 7