Same-location search
Click a point in an image to find every image that shows that spot
What is same-location search?
Same-location search finds every image in the project that shows the exact spot you clicked, and lists them for you.
Hunting through hundreds of drone images by eye to find "the photo that shows this delamination" is slow. Same-location search turns that into a single click:
- Compare an anomaly you found against shots taken from a different angle or distance
- Find an image that captured the same spot closer up (at higher resolution)
- Cross-check whether a thermal anomaly is really heat, and not dirt or a reflection
- Pick the single best shot for your report
Launching
Turn on the Same-location search button in the tool icon bar at the left edge of the window.
Same-location search is a PRO plan feature. See Plans and features for details.
Prerequisites
The project must have SfM (3D reconstruction) already run, because the feature resolves the 3D position of the pixel you clicked and reprojects it into every other image.
SfM runs as part of image linking / orthomosaic generation or 3D mesh generation. If you click an image in a project where it has not been run, the results area tells you so.
How to use
- Turn on the Same-location search button
- Click the spot you want to investigate in the image
- The images showing that spot appear in a single column on the left of the window
A marker is drawn on the spot you clicked. Click somewhere else to search again.
To finish, press the button again or right-click on the image.
While the mode is on, zooming with the wheel and panning with a left drag work as usual. Dragging to move the view does not register as picking a spot.
Reading the list
| Item | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Order | Sorted by how well the spot is captured. The higher an image is, the more head-on, larger, and closer to the center the spot appears |
| Number | The same image number as in the image list — not a rank |
| Marker | The thumbnails also mark the spot with a corner bracket |
| Highlighted frame | The image currently shown in the viewer |
The order combines three terms: how head-on the surface is viewed, how many pixels the spot occupies (resolution), and how far it sits from the edge of the frame. Every image that meets the conditions is listed — the count is not truncated.
Switching images
Click a thumbnail to switch to that image. The display mode (infrared, overlay, and so on) is restored from whatever was saved for that image.
The marker keeps pointing at the same 3D spot as you switch images, and the results stay on screen, so you can work down the list and compare candidates.
Using it alongside measurement
You can keep the results on screen while using the measurement tools. While a measurement tool is selected, clicks go to the measurement instead, so spot picking pauses; it resumes once you finish the measurement or right-click to release the tool.
Why an image may be excluded
If you wonder why an image is missing — or why an unrelated one shows up — these are the filters that apply.
| Condition | Detail |
|---|---|
| Outside the field of view | Images where the spot falls outside the camera frame are excluded |
| Back of the surface | Images taken from behind the wall plane or cylinder are excluded |
| Occlusion | When a 3D mesh exists, images where another structure hides the spot are excluded |
| Infrared coverage | An infrared camera has a narrower field of view than the visible one, so images that show the spot in visible light but carry no temperature there are excluded |
| Feature correspondence | Images where SfM matched no feature points near the spot are excluded |
These filters only remove images that clearly do not show the spot. When the information needed to judge (a 3D mesh, a target plane, the infrared alignment conditions) is not available, the image is deliberately kept in the list rather than risk dropping a valid candidate.
When nothing is found
| Message | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| Run SfM (3D reconstruction) to search for images showing this spot | SfM has not been run. Run image linking / orthomosaic generation first |
| Could not determine the 3D position of this spot. Try another location. | The depth cannot be resolved — sky, a mirror surface, and the like. Click somewhere with texture, such as a patterned wall |
| No image shows this spot | No image met the conditions above. Try a different spot |
Related
- Set link — pairs up different sets (a previous inspection, another time of day) for comparison. Same-location search works within the images registered in the SfM reconstruction
- Measurement tools — a measurement made on the image you found is reprojected onto the other images as well