AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018 - Import Point Clouds and Add to Surface

This tutorial builds off a previous one: • Downloading LiDAR Data... which discusses how to create a processed .las file.
The design files from the previous lesson will require a dropbox account to access here:
www.dropbox.co...
This tutorial requires AutoCAD Civil 3D 2018 or newer and the AutoCAD Recap software which comes standard with it.

[@kebvr25]

Great tutorial, it really helped me! Just one additional step users may need: if you have your drawing settings are unitless you will need to switch it to US Feet before you attach the point cloud -- command InsUnits, set to 21

[@StevenYounkinCivil]

That is a good point. I forgot to mention I was using a template which automatically set those units.

[@grape5217]

Hi Steven, is there a way to identify the coordinate system type of the .las file? I'm experimenting with other .las files that weren't used in the video and am wondering if there's a way to figure this out. I'm referring to the coordinate system identification at 1:38. Thank you for the wonderful video!

[@StevenYounkinCivil]

Hi Grape, glad it is helpful. I think you're best bet is to find the metadata from the source. The Iowa Geotree site has their data in this format www.geotree.uni.edu/static/lidar/iowa_lidar_metadata.html. It doesn't seem the Iowa data stores their metadata in a header as yours may not either, but it's worth checking. CloudCompare can pull that I believe. The final desperate solution would be if you know approximately where your data is and common formats, you can guess. Around Iowa we commonly use State Plane, some low distortion projections, UTM, WGS84 etc. Good luck!

[@grape5217]

@@StevenYounkinCivil Thank you for the help Steven! I was indeed able to find the metadata from the gov site I found the .las file from. Thank you again for the great video!

[@mohamedalihebboul2214]

Thanks, Steven you video is very interesting.

[@StevenYounkinCivil]

Glad to help!

[@Regiampiero1]

Is there any .las to .rcp converters that are free or do I have to buy Recap?

[@StevenYounkinCivil]

Hello Giampiero, rcp should be an autodesk proprietary file format. My understanding is that Recap can only be created using Autodesk products like Recap.

[@HerrMikael]

Thanks! There does not seem to be an option "add point cloud to existing surface" in C3D 2018

[@StevenYounkinCivil]

HerrMikael, I did not discuss how to add point clouds to a surface that has already been created. I believe this article from Autodesk should explain that: knowledge.autodesk.com/support/civil-3d/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2017/ENU/Civil3D-Tutorials/files/GUID-B282E7E7-7A24-4BBD-B698-E99065F12C96-htm.html If you need additional help just let me know.