3dworks Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 what is the best way to get a terrain model from point cloud data? i have both a coordinates list in CSV format and a DWG with all the measured points as crossed lines in their real space position. i am already searching around for some time but could not get any viable solution for this. i remember FZ had a plugin handling point clouds in the past - but this seems to be discontinued? cheers markus japedkat and Rudy Daverveld 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Takeharu_Yabe Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 You can use open source software instead of z plugin. MeshLab and Meshmixer help you to get mesh from point cloud. [Meshlab] Import mesh Compute normals for point sets Surface Reconstruction : Ball Pivoting Cleaning and Repairing Export as Mesh exported mesh to Meshmixer [Meshmixer] Inspector help you fix some problems on mesh. regards, Takeharu Yabe 3dworks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dworks Posted April 10, 2017 Author Share Posted April 10, 2017 thank you - interesting tip, i will try these! cheers markus You can use open source software instead of z plugin. MeshLab and Meshmixer help you to get mesh from point cloud. [Meshlab] Import mesh Compute normals for point sets Surface Reconstruction : Ball Pivoting Cleaning and Repairing Export as Mesh exported mesh to Meshmixer [Meshmixer] Inspector help you fix some problems on mesh. regards, Takeharu Yabe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted April 10, 2017 Share Posted April 10, 2017 Hi Markus, Does Takeharu's solution work for you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etroxel Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 If you have Rhino, you can use the Delaunay mesh tool in grasshopper to do this. Revit will also turn points into a Toposurface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dworks Posted April 13, 2017 Author Share Posted April 13, 2017 thanks again for the tips, in the end i did manually draw a delaunay like mesh using the existing data points. a bit cumbersome, but at least i could control everything. not suitable for large terrains, however ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HugeMonkey5 Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 Thanks for the tips, was useful for me when i needed to work with scans from Artec Studio, also was point cloud i had to use in Rino. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dworks Posted April 1, 2020 Author Share Posted April 1, 2020 will there be a tool / plugin for cloud modeling / terrain forming from point clouds in FZ9? this kind of situation is recurrent and most time it is a lot of work to do it by hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dworks Posted April 1, 2020 Author Share Posted April 1, 2020 maybe something like this old tool for sketchup a plugin which is called topshaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
¢hris £und Posted April 1, 2020 Share Posted April 1, 2020 Would any basic capabilities suffice? if so, what? Or do you need a full blown comparable to the example? This may be out of my "low hanging fruit" agenda for the time being. However, as I gain experience... ¢£ 3dworks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbuxton Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 CloudCompare is free and manages this quite well. https://www.danielgm.net/cc/ Most of my point cloud projects start with CloudCompare. For architectural terrestrial scans (LiDAR) Pointfuse is good but arguably overpriced. https://pointfuse.com/pricing/ Sequoia is used a lot in VFX for meshing point clouds https://www.awsthinkbox.com/sequoia Agisoft Metashape can process point clouds as well as photogrammetry https://www.agisoft.com/ Cinema 4D users have the LazPoint plugin https://cinemaplugins.com/c4d-plugins/lazpoint/ (This is what I use, as I rarely need to create a mesh.) Usually, I just render the points or us the point cloud as modelling reference. Rhino has several plugins for handling point clouds and can import e57 and ASCII formats natively. 3dworks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3dworks Posted April 17, 2020 Author Share Posted April 17, 2020 a native / plugin solution for FZ would be best imo. something which would be integrated to the existing terrain tool would be my greatest wish and allow for smooth workflow. most third party options are limited, for example not available on macos or quite expensive (like the c4d plugin)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbuxton Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 (edited) Not sure if it is something Autodessys are likely to do. With the new Python scripting maybe a third party script but how long might that take? In the meantime, CloudCompare is free, has a Mac version and can accomplish exactly what you describe here. It does need a little time and effort to get going but it is more than worth the investment. For larger projects, I forgot to mention Global Mapper with its LiDAR module. It runs fine under VM Ware or Bootcamp but is quite expensive. If you already use Cinema4D Lazpoint is not expensive 240 euros. Paul Everett dropped the Mac version some time ago because there was so little interest. I do know he has Mac compiles for v1 because I still have it running on C4D R19. If you ask he will most likely sell you v1 or if you catch him in a good mood, even consider updating v2 for Mac OS. Edited April 17, 2020 by bbuxton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
setz Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Years ago, AutoDesSys had a separate FormZ plugin for sale which converted point clouds to polygon meshes and Nurbs surfaces as well. I forget what it was called, but perhaps it could be reimplemented into FZ 9? Des 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
¢hris £und Posted April 19, 2020 Share Posted April 19, 2020 There are libraries with Python bindings to do this sort of thing. Here is an open source one. https://vtk.org/download/ This is currently out of my scope to do, but would consider it in the future. ¢£ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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