POINT CLOUDS (improving work with pointcloud)

[Pavel_N]

Hi, I'm creating this topic to gather ideas for further improvement of point cloud work. I'm also attaching an initial idea for a simple point cloud palette, which I take as a starting point (phase 1) for further improvement. The goal now is to make it relatively simple with the vision of implementing it in AC30. I've also added it to the wishlist, I'd be happy if you could add your vote and help improve the idea. https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishlist/POINT-CLOUDS-PALETTE-improving-work-with-pointcloud/idi...

 

Operating system used: Mac Apple Silicon 14

 

[Pavel_N]

I'd also like to ask the forum administrator if it would be possible to appropriately assign the topic Point Clouds (including the label), to one of the thematic areas of this forum. All the threads here are fragmented (Modeling, Documentation, Collaboration with other software,..) and no one knows where to place this specific topic. Many thanks.

[Laszlo Nagy]

I moved this to the Collaboration forum, but there is no Point Cloud label, so I am unable to set that.

[Pavel_N]

Thank you. It would be nice to at least mention point clouds in the description under the forum topic Collaboration with other software, if possible.

[Pavel_N]

Back to the topic of improving work with pointclouds.

I can also imagine a new palette much simpler than I propose, it could contain only a Clipping section, which would affect only pointclouds that will have it enabled in the Object setting. But most importantly, the palette must contain the last line with the absolutely key function "Turn OFF all pointcloud snapping point" so that the pointcloud can be used only as a visual basis. Millions of cloud snap points make it impossible to work on the model and only increase the risk of inaccuracy in the model. In the case of a simplified palette, the display of the pointcloud would then follow the classic procedures in Archicad as before.

I can also imagine that the function "Turn OFF all snapping point" can be implemented in the Trace reference palette. Personally, in the conceptual design phase I have DWG bases that I want to use only as a visual basis and the snap points of the base drawing are just confusing.

Thank you all for the likes, but please also vote in the wishlist: https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishlist/POINT-CLOUDS-PALETTE-improving-work-with-pointcloud/idi...

[Mike96]

I love the ideas. As someone who works with point clouds on a daily basis (in AC and other programs), this is the perfect summary of my main issues and annoyances. Something that Revit, for instance, handles incomparably better (even though I use Revit 2016, which is considered ancient at this point - still better than newest Archicad for point clouds).

But I lost any hopes for improvement. It was promised to get better in AC 28. Instead, we got BimmTool Lite. I'm sorry, what kind of improvement is that?

Development of a piece of software is over the moment it goes subscription-only. From that point on, it's just sucking money from users, demanding regular payments, and not providing regular improvements. That's the world-wide trend and I don't think it's gonna be any different with AC. I mean, real improvements stopped at version 25.

I'm sorry for this rant and if I'm busting anyone else's hopes, but that's just my view. I stopped posting wishes for new AC features, cuz I know they won't happen. And it's not about my personal wishes - AC just stopped improving as a software.

[Pavel_N]

Thanks Mike for the supportive comment.

Regarding BIMmTool, I suspect that GS does not have anyone on the team who is actually engaged in the construction profession (architect or construction engineer) and works with pointcloud. They should find out that BIMmTool in the Lite version cannot be used for any serious work and is only a trial version and an advertisement for the full version (with a monthly price of another Archicad license). Even with the existing / missing pointcloud functions, I can do more directly in AC than with BIMmTool. The key is the density of points, where in BIMmTool there are 25mm that are unusable. I think that if there are reasonable people in GS, they would not be able to publicly declare that there is an improvement in working with pointcloud with this knowledge.

Another thing is the robustness of the solution, when one is dependent on a third-party plug-in and the risk with each update of the plug-in or AC that something will go wrong. Especially when the plug-in is linked to problematic logging into a BIMmTool server, which was already buggy in the Lite version.

I created a Wish based on this thread - I will be happy to vote.

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishlist/POINT-CLOUDS-PALETTE-improving-work-with-pointcloud/idi...

Regarding the Wish system, I will probably write my opinion in a separate thread, so that we can also involve people outside the pointcloud topic.

[Mike96]

Yeah, for Archicad, I always prep the clouds in CloudCompare and subsample them to 10 mm density, which is like optimal-minimum for architecture, and sparse enough not to choke AC to death, but for modeling steel works or heritage detail, I need 5 mm density, and that's already way too dense for AC. That's why I do trickier jobs in Blender and then sometimes, perform even trickier import to Archicad.

[BulldogBen]

I too would welcome any help with using point clouds, and am happy to test any tools.

[torben_wadlinger]

Your proposal is a great idea. I voted for it. But the main problem is the limited functionality that GS has given the point cloud object in GDL. As long as GS doesn't expands the functions to handle point clouds there is no chance that we will see such an improvement as you mentioned.

I think point cloud support was introduced in version 16 and never improved since.