How to Turn a Point Cloud to a Mesh Using CloudCompare

[@mikewiththebike]

Just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to upload such an informative, but straight to the point tutorial! Every other resource I checked out was just making me more confused. This video explained exactly what I needed to know, in what, like 6 minutes, that's amazing! Really appreciate your work!

[@EveryPoint]

Thank you for the comment! No one wants to watch 10 minute of banter before getting to the point of the video. We would like to make them even shorter if possible.

[@robertnewton9548]

Wanted to add thank you as well. This was simple, straight to the point, and just what I needed.

[@EveryPoint]

Thank you!

[@robertnewton9548]

Good tutorial. For my mesh I had to first compute the normals (Edit/Compute Normals). I just wish you had continued showing how to export it as an .fbx or .obj WITH COLORS. It saves without UV or texture info. I'll play with it.

[@EveryPoint]

We recommend following a similar process using Meshlab to preserve textures.

[@etrb54df56bb]

Thanks for this tutorial, got me up and running in no time. Straight into Fusion 360 to get some work done!

[@EveryPoint]

Thanks for the feedback! We plan to make a second version where we back textures into the mesh. We hope you find additional tutorial videos helpful.

[@jasonwisnieski2044]

HUGE thanks! Using other programs and following other instructions, a scan of my back yard had taken DAYS to process, only to fail. Following your instructions, I had a usable mesh in one minute. I was so glad to see that you were using a landscape to demonstrate this. So many other instructions are aimed at interiors or 3D printing. Do you have any advice on exporting meshes? CloudCompare's DXF outputs seem very large and somewhat incompatible with most viewers

[@EveryPoint]

The file type should match your ended use after the fact. We typically choose obj. There are other tutorial on YT on how to simplify mesh geometry using free apps such as MeshLab. I suggest checking it out.

[@khobzi1]

great tutorial very helpful and straight to the point, i just have one question how the i export the object with the RGB, when i open it other softwares it only shows one solid color

[@GLYNDYER]

Pretty amazing. Thanks for the tut.

[@EveryPoint]

You're welcome! Thank you for watching.

[@belenlucio4828]

Hi! thanks for the tutorial. I tried to do the PoissonRecon step, but there was a message saying "Cloud must have normals" what does it mean? What can I do?

[@EveryPoint]

You need to compute normals. Select the model in the DB tree and then go to Edit > Normals > Compute. If the default options create an inside out mesh, then invert the normals and recreate the mesh.

[@fordrivingandothers]

hey there how do i know if the normals are inverted? like in blender its either red or blue, not sure here. I think i did it correct though, everything looks alright@@EveryPoint

[@landmello]

Very nice tutorial, thank you for taking the time to do this.

[@andrew22mcnally]

Thanks for the quick tut - helped a bunch. Any chance you can make a tut on exporting with textures to OBJ and or FBX?

[@esrasadaghiani1281]

You are just amaaaaaaazing . Many thanks

[@EveryPoint]

Most welcome 😊

[@omri1324]

I appreciate the video, very useful! But you skipped the most important part which is exporting the thing.

[@redheadsg1]

I wish you could show how to export color texture as well. All i am getting is raw mesh without colored texture/image.

[@ash1983]

Awesome video! Thank you 🙏🏼

[@dominicbanks3334]

Brilliant! Thank you!

[@matustorok2351]

awesome video! but am wondering that what your scan acctually is?

[@n_urbn]

Best tutorial! Thanks

[@TheSanAnt0ni0]

Hi, I've imported a .las point clould (an aerial LiDAR scan of Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado which I would like to convert into a single solid mesh, I don't need it to be textured, I only need the shape of the landscape), when I go to plugins and PoissonRecon, I get an error, it says "Cloud must have normals", so i'm stuck at that part of the tutorial ^^

[@giftsonbenjamine769]

I get an error showing, "Cloud must have normals" Can someone explain me this?

[@danielhodgkinson7937]

I've subscribed as this is the best point cloud demonstration I've seen all over KZbin! How would this program handle a city precisely an area of 1.2km x 1.2km? a quick reply would be grateful lol as I'm working on it right now

[@danielhodgkinson7937]

p.s i'm wanting to use it in revit

[@EveryPoint]

We are not Revit experts at EveryPoint. If your looking to mesh a large dataset, the software can technically handle it. The question will be, do you have enough RAM and CPU power? We suggest keeping the Octree number down as it exponentially increased the compute power needed.

[@danielhodgkinson7937]

@@EveryPoint Yeah I thought that would be the case. I've gone down another route now for my particular project but I look forward to your future videos! Hopefully, this is something you could explore on a bigger scale? Keep up the great work!

[@anhdaovu5353]

how to save obj file with texture/ when importing into blender only model without texture. thanks

[@Pirco1]

Hi! Thank you for this tutorial. When I click the Poisson Recon plugin it says Cloud must have normals. Do you have a video showing how to do that?

[@thenerfguru]

Edit > Normals > Compute or something like that! If everything turns black, invert the normals.

[@stephenphillips4605]

Thanks for the great video

[@EveryPoint]

Our pleasure!

[@AlexandreMonteiroSilva]

Wow! Man, this is great! Can I export de mesh to obj or another format?

[@AlexandreMonteiroSilva]

Ops, I find a way! Just select the mesh, them, on the menu save the file.

[@ricardopena4946]

I'm using one of your apps using the combining lidar and photogrammetry and having issues scaling it to scale in mm or in in Rhino 5. is there a way to do it easier? I'm always off in both x/y dimensions, who knows if im offf in Z dimension

[@kevinstaddon8517]

Get an error message "Cloud must have normals" Any suggestions please?

[@EveryPoint]

This is an easy step. Select the model in the DB tree and then go to Edit > Normals > Compute.

[@Flamenawer]

Hi ,I have a 3d lidar an Livox Avia, but I cannot get something like that. It looks is because the normals, but it looks you done that part , have you any video doing it?

[@EveryPoint]

This is an easy step. Select the model in the DB tree and then go to Edit > Normals > Compute.

[@wewyllenium]

Subbed :D Thank you!

[@WhitewashStudio]

Thanks great video

[@EveryPoint]

We're glad you found it useful!

[@renatoasmelo]

Excellent! Thanks!

[@javelin5311]

Also, when I choose Plugins-PoissonRecon I get error "Cloud must have normals!". Please help.

[@EveryPoint]

Select the model in the DB tree and select Edit > Normals > Compute. If the model meshes inside out, then invert your normals and re-mesh. The normals info is essentially data that tells the software what direction each point is facing.

[@javelin5311]

@@EveryPoint this is solution. Thank you again!

[@javelin5311]

Thank you for the great video! I have one question. I have point cloud exported from TBC in e57 and las formats. When I import that in CloudCompare I don't get any colors. Every point in cloud is gray. How can I turn on colors, so when I create mesh I can set to RGB like you have done in this video. Mesh with real colors could be my final product for many things. Thank you!

[@EveryPoint]

Not sure the answer to the question. When you select the point cloud in the DB tree and then look at the properties box, do you see an RGB selection for the colors option? It could be set to intensity or "none".

[@javelin5311]

@@EveryPoint I exported in pts format and now I can do that. For some reason it has to be pts format in my case. Thank you!

[@WaterLettuceProductions]

Thank you for this tutorial, I do have one question however, when I select my point cloud and hit PoissonRecon, it says that my mesh needs normals to perform the function. I'm sure this is just a mistake on my part but I don't know what needs to be done to fix this problem.

[@EveryPoint]

You need to compute normal. Go to Edit > Normals > Compute. If the normals are computed backwards, you can invert them.

[@GheorgheFlorian]

@@EveryPoint this is shaping up to be a very needed tool. One that other software charge you great money. Thank you for the vid!

[@federicafaggianoff]

Hi, thank you for this tutorial! If I wanted to export the mesh to edit it on Blender, what format would you recommend? Thanks!

[@EveryPoint]

We are bot Blender experts at EveryPoint. However, FBX or OBJ is most likely your best option. If you are looking to preserve the colors on the mesh, Meshlab has better tools. We will be making a video soon on how to create meshes for game engines.

[@sphamandlaluthuli7475]

My cloud compares doesn't allow me to compute a mesh without Normals, you didn't compute any normals on your video, how did you do that ?

[@EveryPoint]

Depending where you generated your source point cloud, you may be able to go back to the original software to generate normal. However, you can compute normals within CloudCompare. Ensure the point cloud is selected in the DB tree (there will be a bounding box around the point cloud when selected). Then, navigate to Edit > Normals > Compute. You can tune the parameters of the normal generation based on the point cloud's shape. We suggest looking at CloudCompare's wiki for guidance. If the normals compute backwards, you can navigate to the same normals menu and invert the normals direction. We hope this helps solve your question.

[@sphamandlaluthuli7475]

@@EveryPoint I did that and it worked, thank you. I just through maybe there is a way of meshing without Normals but that wouldn't make mathematical sense.

[@cyberflow3391]

Thanx pretty awesome !

[@jatney]

hey man do you have experience using this for larger file sizes for example large warehouse buildings etc? I'd like to know how the software can handle a 30GB file to be converted XD

[@avigold6632]

When I export in FBX or GLB I don’t have the color information with it. How do I maintain that info and can it be baked in?

[@johanneszwilling]

Very good! Any way I can export the vertex colors and have an .obj at the end?

[@EveryPoint]

If you are looking for a textured mesh model, the best workflow is using Meshlab. Here is a tutorial on GitHub: gist.github.com/shubhamwagh/0dc3b8173f662d39d4bf6f53d0f4d66b

[@johanneszwilling]

@@EveryPoint AWESOME! That works! Thanks!!!

[@cyberflow3391]

Wondering, if i have a lidar from a tunnel and create a mesh with it ... i can afterwards export it in DWG so i can bring that back to autocad ? The object type in autocad would be a polyface mesh ?

[@maxostlund9334]

Hey great video! I was wondering, what if my point cloud/mesh does not have any colors? How do I import colors? I'm using a .las-file

[@EveryPoint]

We've never had issues with colors coming through with a las file. You may have to google this issue.

[@lamahajmousa1078]

Is there any way to transfere it to 2D PCI? Thank you for your video!

[@wagnerfc562]

Ajudou muito obrigado :D

[@KurtFitzy]

If you hold your mouse over 4:52 it makes the dude look like he has a silly hat.

[@flores.geometricas3458]

👌

[@MrFurly888]

Great video. Do you know a way to export the 3d mesh from Cloud Compare with texture?

[@EveryPoint]

The best free method uses Meshlab. We will create a follow up video this week on the process.

[@wullbert]

@@EveryPoint hello! was there any follow-up on this?

[@diogoribeiro2815]

Congratulation for this video bro! I'm working in a .laz file but can't see the RGB option at color menu. I have all the files that was generated with drone, the .obj opens in 3D Max with perfect maping. Do you know how can I "add" the rgb map into cloud compare?

[@EveryPoint]

That's an interesting problem. We are unsure how to add a missing RGB map in CloudCompare. Did the drone have a LiDAR sensor or did you use a 3rd party software to generate a point cloud and then saved it as a laz file?

[@fernandoalvarez5424]

Hi, your tutorial seems pretty nice but I'm having a problem while importing my point cloud. I've tried to import a .pts and a .e57 archives from ReCap but I'm not able to use the pluggins. Do you know why could it be? Thanks for your attention!

[@fernandoalvarez5424]

Nevermind, I've already find the solution!

[@EveryPoint]

Great to hear! Can you share your workaround?

[@timjames7862]

Same problem. What is your solution?@@fernandoalvarez5424

[@FardTeam]

Hey! i used EveryPoint LiDarFusion to scan an object and Exported it as .ply, but when i try to do as in the tutorial the plugin says my pointcloud lacks normals. And i cant proceed. What am I doing wrong?

[@FardTeam]

Never mind, I found that CC could calculate Normals quite easily. I let the question remain so it can be found by the next person in need of the info.

[@siddharthkalbage]

@EveryPoint Thank you for tutorial! How to convert .E57 file into mesh?

[@penelopesaladfingers426]

how did you save the las file as a ply ?

[@nkthitiwat]

English subtitle please!!!

[@arrtside]

Nice explanation and walk thru .. been doing a bit with stills under Windows 10 on my YT channel check it out.

[@androengelbrecht6556]

Can you please assist on how to get Poissonrecon?

[@tenientelupino]

error: cloud must have normals

[@EveryPoint]

You can compute normals via the Edit > Normals > Compute function in CloudCompare.