Point Cloud and Mesh Processing Error — Error writing points, normals, colors into P4B file

While testing out Pix4Dmapper Discovery Non-Commercial, I keep running into an error at some point while executing 2. Point Cloud and Mesh.  The project has 628 calibrated and enabled photos that were shot during 9 flights over a 57 acre area for which I have over 100 surveyed ground control points.  Prior to executing this second step, I have brought in the photos and imported the GCPs, properly designated the coordinate system for both imagery and GCPs, successfully ran Step 1, marked photos for a good spread of (22) GCPs and additionally designated check points for the remaining (36) GCPs, reoptimized, saved the project, and ran a quality report. Then, I unchecked Step 1, checked Step 2, and clicked Start to initiate the Point Cloud and Mesh process. It worked away for an hour. I left the PC on overnight. In the morning, I return to the following in the Processing Bar:

Processing: Substep Dense matching started.

Processing: Dense matching

Processing: Dense Processing

Processing: Checking cameras

Processing: Processing group group1

Processing: Group group1, cluster 1 : initializing 628 cameras

Processing: Group group1, cluster 1 : initializing 244257 points

Processing: Group group1, cluster 1 : optimizing 84029976 points [1/3]

Processing: Group group1, cluster 1 : optimizing 71214947 points [2/3]

Processing: Group group1, cluster 1 : optimizing 70662133 points [3/3]

Processing: Group group1, cluster 1 : finalizing 70584162 points

Processing: Group group1, cluster 1 : checking 70584162 points

Processing: Group group1, cluster 1 : coloring 70584162 points

Processing: Group group1, cluster 1 : writing 70584162 points

[Error]: Error while writing  points, normals, colors  into P4B file <P:\UAV\Projects\CSCmerge/mergecsc/temp/dense/mergecsc_group1_raw_part_1.tmp>

[Error]: Failed to write cluster P4B file <P:\UAV\Projects\CSCmerge/mergecsc/temp/dense/mergecsc_group1_raw_part_1.tmp>

[Warning]: No dense points were created from cluster 0

Processing: Generating tiles

[Error]: Failed to create raw tile 0

[Error]: Generating tiles failed!

[Error]: >>>Generating tiles<<< failed with error (failed to run a step!)!

[Error]: >>>Generating tiles<<< failed with error (failed to run a step!)!

[Error]: Processing group group1 failed!

[Error]: >>>Processing group group1<<< failed with error (failed to run a step!)!

[Error]: >>>Processing group group1<<< failed with error (failed to run a step!)!

[Error]: Dense Processing failed!

[Error]: >>>Dense Processing<<< failed with error (failed to run a step!)!

[Error]: >>>Dense Processing<<< failed with error (failed to run a step!)!

[Error]: Dense matching failed!

[Error]: >>>Dense matching<<< failed with error (failed to run a step!)!

[Error]: >>>Dense matching<<< failed with error (failed to run a step!)!

Processing: Substep Dense matching finished.

The quality report previews of orthomosaic and DSM before densification look good, as does the overlap. The largest projection error for a GCP is 2.143 pixels, and 33 of the 36 check points have been labeled as inaccurate—only 3 of the check points have been marked, with the largest projection error being 1.2433 pixels. Do I need to reduce the number of GCPs and check points?

What should I be doing differently to get the second step to process successfully?  I will be glad to provide any additional information to troubleshoot this. Thank you.

 

I have created a new project, used only 10 GCPs, the rest of my control points are now accurate Check Points. Again, the first step completes successfully. But when I attempt to run the second step, it eventually fails to run a step…after failing at the same point, while writing the points:

[Error]: Error while writing  points, normals, colors  into P4B file <P:\UAV\Projects\CSCmerge/mergecsc/temp/dense/mergecsc_group1_raw_part_1.tmp>

And because the process always takes so many hours, the fail always occurs in the evening.  Is there something I can check/fix in my procedures, or perhaps on my network?  I know that I had something up with our network when I was testing out ESRI’s Drone2Map, which prevented Drone2Map from processing correctly, and once our computer network smart guys remedied the network protection setting, Drone2Map all the sudden began processing properly.

Hello Susan,

One thing to check is that there is enough hard drive space for the project to write to.

Are you writing to an external drive/network drive?

Which version of Pix4D are you using? 

Best Regards, 

Hello, thank you for your reply. 

The project data is written to the project folder on our server, which currently has 367GB free.  My desktop has around 30GB free right now, but I can free it up to have 150GB available.

I am using Pix4Dmapper Discovery - Non-Commercial Revision 2.2.25.

Best Regards

Do I need to process the data to my local drive?  Would upgrading to the latest version of Pix4D help?

Hello Susan,

We always recommend to use the latest versions since there are various bug fixes and improvements. 

You could also try to process the project locally in case there are connection problems with your server while the project is processing. 

 

We will also reply to you through our system. 

 

Best Regards,