Creating a new track

To create a new track.

1. Do one of the following:
   • Select 2D Tracking > New Track.
   • Click the New Track icon in the Toolbar.
   • Right-click in the 2D View or in the Point Tracks folder in the Project window or the Track window and select New Track from the pop-up menu.

   MatchMover creates an item in the Point Tracks sub folder in the Project window and the pointer changes to in the Workspace. Whenever the pointer has this appearance, you are in the New Track Creation mode.

2. Position the pointer where you want to create a key for this track and click.

See Magnifier window for the Magnifier configuration.

When you add a track, the following icons appear in the Project window indicating the track status.

The left part of the icon shows its calibration status:

• An empty circle indicates a track not used for 3D solving.
• 
• A single cross indicates a soft track (the engine will decide to use it or not).
• A cross in circle indicates a hard track (always fed into the engine).
• An xyz indicates a survey points (a track with known 3D coordinates).

The right part of the icon shows its 3D reconstruction status:

• An empty circle indicates a track that should not be reconstructed.
• A gray circle indicates a track that can be reconstructed by the engine.
• A green/yellow/red circle indicates a good/medium/bad reconstructed point.

In the Parameters Window, or if you right-click any point in the Point Tracks folder in the Project window or the Track window, the following options are checked by default in the pop-up menu and correspond to the icons above table.

• Use for 3D Solving, indicating that the point is to be used in the solving process.
• Reconstructed in 3D, indicating that the point will be reconstructed in 3D.
• You can access the detailed 3D information of a track in the 3D tab of its Parameters Window.

The window shows read-only fields:

• The point coordinates, X, Y, and Z, calculated by the camera solving process.
• The Residual at time, which is the difference in pixels between the 2D point position and the position obtained by viewing the reconstructed 3D point through the calculated camera at the current time.
• The Average Residual, which shows the average difference in pixels for all the frames.

For example, you want to track a table corner through an image sequence. In image 0, press Shift+right-click the table corner. MatchMover creates the “Track 0” and an intermediate key. The tracker uses this key point to remain on the point track during the tracking process. Now, you can launch the tracker.

The Relations tab just shows the list of relations involving this track. Double-click one to select it.

Selecting tracks

Click a track (either the cross, the pattern, the point or the 3D helper depending on your current view and settings) to select it.

To select several points, do any of the following:

• In the Workspace, hold the Shift key and click the points in the image one by one.
• In the Workspace, click the image and drag the pointer to contain certain points in a selection Rectangle or click several points to define a polygon Contour (2D mode only) then release the mouse button. The selection mode is specified in the Track Selection Display drop-down list in the Preferences > Display window. All tracks with points inside the rectangle or contour are selected.

  

• To add to the selection, press the Shift key. To deselect the points, click any empty area in the image or press Esc.
• For a sequential selection, in the folder Point Tracks in the Project window, click the first point, press and hold the Shift key, and click the last point drag the rubber rectangle to select points.
• For a non-sequential selection, in the folder Point Tracks in the Project window, hold the Ctrl key and click the points one by one.

Deleting tracks

To delete tracks, do one of the following:

• Select the track(s) that you want to delete.
  • Select Edit > Delete.
  • Press the Delete key.
• Right-click the track(s) in the Project window or the Track window and select Delete Track.

Merging tracks

When 2D features of the scene move out of the view then back in or are occulted by objects in motion causing the tracker to misinterpret them as distinct points, you can merge the keys from several tracks into one.

1. Select at least two track points to merge.
2. Do one of the following:
   • Select 2D Tracking > Merge Tracks.
   • Right-click in the 2D View or the Point Tracks folder in the Project window or the Track window and select Merge Tracks from the pop-up menu.

MatchMover checks whether the selected tracks have keys in common (at the same frame) or not. If not, all keys and computed points are copied to the first tracks, and the other tracks are deleted.