# Desktop viewer: measure distances, areas, heights and volumes

> Click on the survey to measure; right-click to finish.

Page: https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/learn/desktop-measure

Video: https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/learn/desktop-measure-en.mp4 — A tennis club in Geneva, from swisstopo's open data: the court's side line against its reference length, the court's area, and the height of the stand above the court — measured on the orthophoto.

## The tools

1. Distance, Height, Area, Volume, Angle, Azimuth, Circle and Profile. Choose one, click points on the cloud or the map, right-click to finish, Esc to cancel.
2. Snap to a point, a surface, a plane or a vertex so clicks land on real geometry. The settings are in the Measure panel, under Snap.
3. Volume gives cut and fill against a base you choose; Profile draws the cross-section and can export sections at an interval.

Measurements are shared with the web Results page for everyone on your account, and export as CSV, DXF or LandXML.

## Snap: where a click lands

1. Target — Point latches onto the nearest LiDAR or photogrammetry point; Surface onto the triangulated surface (build one in Process first); Plane onto a small plane fitted to the points around the click, steady on roofs and walls; Vertex onto a corner of a 3D model.
2. Radius — how far from the pointer, in screen pixels, a click looks for something to latch onto. Larger forgives a shaky hand; smaller picks exactly among close points.
3. Dense searches more candidate points (slower, better where points are sparse). Refine takes a second, closer look after the first hit. Depth moves a click that lands on a surface to the nearest real point. Ground allows snapping onto ground points (class 2) — off, a click on a wall or roof is not pulled down to the ground behind it.

On the map view a click lands on the orthophoto or elevation model you see, not on a nearby LiDAR point, so lines painted on the ground measure true.

## More about CloudODM

- [CloudODM: photogrammetry and LiDAR in the cloud](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/)
- [Cloud photogrammetry](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/fotogrametria-en-la-nube)
- [LiDAR classification](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/clasificacion-lidar)
- [Point cloud viewer](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/visor-nube-de-puntos)
- [Pricing](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/pricing)
- [Features](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/features)
- [Measured accuracy](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/accuracy)
- [Demonstration: a finished survey](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/demo)
- [How it works](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/how)
- [Tutorials](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/learn)
- [ODMDisplay, the desktop application](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/viewer)
- [Contact](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/contact)
- [Terms and privacy](https://cloudodm.stellaris.cl/terms)