Point Clouds anyone ?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have experience with importing / working with point cloud files ?

In Autocad . Revit 2012 there is now an integral point cloud import feature and I am able to import .PLY files by renaming the file extension to .XYZ which then allows the files to be indexed and .PCG files created and subsequently imported with some degree of success.

I'm not sure this is even possible within AC14, but I hope it will be in AC15 - anyone know ?

Any info much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

The problem with point clouds is that they are usually massive in nature (often billions of distinct points) and would choke Archicad if you tried to import them directly. It may be theoretically possible to convert a point cloud to 3d hotspots in AC, but I don't think it will be easy to work with. Archicad just isn't geared for handling that many objects at a time.

Other vendors are linking to, or placing point clouds in the CAD app, rather than opening them directly. From what I can tell, Autocad and Microstation use an API running along side to handle the importing, rendering and placement of the point cloud. To the user, this comes off as relatively seamless - you can draft on top of the point cloud, but the API, not the CAD app, is doing the heavy lifting.

IMO, Graphisoft should be licensing a plug-in from a quality point cloud vendor such as Kubit or Pointools and baking it into Archicad.

[Anonymous]

Archicad and Pointools would have been the dream team, but it seems Microstation has bought Pointools (the company) outright.

http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Corporate/News/Quarter+4/pointools+acquisition?bi=homepage&v=offers_pointools

[Anonymous]

afingret wrote:
The problem with point clouds is that they are usually massive in nature (often billions of distinct points) and would choke Archicad if you tried to import them directly. It may be theoretically possible to convert a point cloud to 3d hotspots in AC, but I don't think it will be easy to work with. Archicad just isn't geared for handling that many objects at a time....

On another level, the problem with point clouds in the Architectural environment is that so many of those billions of points carry little or no data of interest. That's why edge-finding (& line substitution) and vertex-finding, and other point reduction techniques are so important if the surface polygons are being built up from primitives. These operations would likely best be carried out on an initial pass outside BIM software, or by an add-on as you suggest.

Direct fit of likely solids to point clouds, as opposed to trying to generate a solid from a set of points, will benefit from user input. Where that user-input should take place reflects a changing assessment of what's practical.

[Anonymous]

Direct fit of likely solids to point clouds, as opposed to trying to generate a solid from a set of points, will benefit from user input. Where that user-input should take place reflects a changing assessment of what's practical.

Both Kubit and Pointools allow for cropping and slicing the point cloud (within the CAD environment), to help reduce the cloud and get at the relevant data. The ability to snap to points then facilitates manual drafting/modelling.

Manual drafting is the way to go for now. Automatic solids generation seems too error-prone in my view. Meshes are possible, but about as useless as the points themselves from a CAD or BIM perspective.

[rob2218]

very interesting topic.
I've often wondered where can I get the software that would take the point cloud data, and convert to respective "walls, roof, slabs, etc.."

Orthographix has some program that you can "draw" lines on a tablet of sorts and convert/translate that right into Archicad but....if some sort of LIDAR scan could grab the billions of points, convert them to walls and AC objects...that would be the ticket there.

[Anonymous]

Hi - I was wondering if there has been any progress on this issue - within Archicad or with plugins?

Thanks

[Fabrizio Diodati]

Hi everybody,

we are working on a little solution to import point clouds and giving as result a triangulated shape.
It could be really interesting and useful to test it with your examples.
Could you be so kind to send me some of these files?

Friendly
Fabrizio

[Anonymous]

Those who work in both worlds (AC and Revit) know that you can import point clouds directly into revit. Whats more there is work (at Labs stage right now) on the plugin that allows for automatic extraction of the typical shapes like walls , floors, pipes etc. directly from the cloud. We have used it model complex spaces in a much faster fashion than you would do with any type of measuring with the tape. Especially what you have to measure complex exterior (or interior for that matter) that is few stories high.

[Anonymous]

Yes the Autodesk Labs Feature Extraction tool for Revit is very handy. We have been working with it quite a bit and with good results. Personally I would much prefer to model in Archicad, but hey, you do what you have to do.

Is Graphisoft working on point cloud support? Is it a possible feature of AC16? Does anyone know anything about it?

[Anonymous]

I've been looking at options for being able to import point cloud data into Archicad for mac. I guess the short story is that there are no options.

I'm wondering if the following is true:

1.) If you want to work in a CAD program in the native 3D point cloud, you have to use AutoCad or Microstation.

2.) The only way to bring information from the point cloud into Archicad is by capturing a 2D image (and there is no mac compatible software out there that does that) and bringing that in as a jpg that you can trace over.

Can someone please tell me how wrong I am and that there is an amazing program out there that will allow me to flawlessly import point cloud data into Archicad on a mac and create a 3D model of an existing structure?

Please, please, please tell me I'm wrong.