Import of Point Clouds

    Ribbon: Point Clouds > Point Cloud >  Import

    Menu: Insert >  Point cloud

    Menu: Point clouds >  Import

    Toolbar: Point cloud >

 Command line: NPC_IMPORT

Inserts point clouds to the current drawing from LAS, LAZ, BIN, PTX, PTS, PCD, TXT, XYZ, XYB, PLY, E57, RCS, RCP, NPC files. File formats are described in more detail in the Point Cloud Data Formats section.

Import from Text Formats

When importing point clouds from text files (TXT, XYZ, XYB), a separate import wizard dialog is displayed. It allows you to set the data interpretation rules for the imported file.

Options:

Special

Specifies the next line character, the line from which data starts and the characters that are interpreted as the start of a line with comments.

Separator

Specifies character that separates text file data. You can choose both predefined character (semicolon, tab character, comma, space), and set any other one.

Data

Preview of text file data.

Result

Specify correspondence of text file columns to certain data types: point coordinates by X, by Y and by Z, intensity value, point color in RGB (red, green, blue).

The Data field displays 100 lines from the file, and the Result field displays 50.

Changing the Content Start Line value will display the next 50 lines.

After Text Files Import Wizard is closed, the main point clouds Import dialog box opens.

Point Clouds Import Dialog Box

The Import dialog box allows you to specify what data to import and how. It gives visual representation of the file’s point cloud and get understanding of the data in the file.

The dialog that opens shows base parameters and visual representation of point clouds in imported file.

The import dialog allows you to:

·         import several files at the same time;

·         view detailed information about each file and its metadata values;

·         set an individual point cloud transformation from each file using EPSG codes (if the point cloud has a coordinate system described by the EPSG code, or the user sets EPSG for it manually);

·         organize a preview of a point cloud in 3D, as well as to select a spatial fragment in any perspective selected by the user;

·         set units of measurement for source data, as well as manage drawing units and data conversion from source units to drawing units;

·         specify the types of metadata to be imported from source data;

·         specify the classes to be imported from the source data;

·         set data thinning during import;

·         set partition into clouds by classes, sources, echoes;

·         split point clouds into blocks, both along the grid and along the flight line. In this case, the cloud is not loaded immediately into the drawing. A set of dwg files is created in the folder with the point cloud, each of which contains a block - a fragment of the cloud, obtained by splitting the source file in accordance with the specified parameters. The function is convenient to use to automate import, the resulting fragments can be loaded into the drawing separately, significantly reducing the amount of memory used;

·         remove files from the downloaded list.

Options:

Selected file

Displays the path to imported file.

Preview

Preview displays all contents of the imported file. You can specify areas to import. By default, all points will be imported, However it is possible to specify one or more areas of diverse geometry instead of loading all file points. To select areas, you must activate the set of area selection tools:

File Information

This section displays statistics on the points of the imported file. You can set the units of the cloud, its coordinate system, and adjust thinning.

It is possible to reduce the density of imported clouds, in case of its redundancy, by importing every second/third/tenth, etc. file points. To do this, check the Interval box and specify the sequence number of the imported point in the Import each <…> field.

Using the checkbox in the left corner of the panel, you can include this file in the import data set or exclude it. For text files, there is a format setting button in the upper right corner (a description of the text file import settings window can be found in the Text File Import Wizard).

Detailed file information

Further in the right corner there is a button for obtaining detailed information about a LAS or LAZ file, you can view the properties in a text dialog.

Convert to

Setting up coordinate systems works as follows. If the file does not have a georeference, then it can be selected manually.

Having selected the desired coordinate system, we proceed to specify the target coordinate system in the same way.

If the file has a georeference written to the file itself, then you do not need to select the source coordinate system, it will be automatically filled in when opening the file.

When importing multiple files, the target coordinate system cannot be set differently for different files. Changing the target coordinate system for at least one file will automatically change it for all.

Besides, if there are several source files and they have different source coordinate systems, when you click OK, a message appears asking for the same source coordinate systems or to set them to a target coordinate system.

Filter by metadata

This list contains all metadata (attributes) of points present in the file.

After import, the points will have only the attributes selected in this list. Unselected attributes will not be included in the document.

Filter by code

This list contains all the classes to which the points of the imported file have been distributed. If the cloud points had no classes, the list will be empty.

Only those points that belong to the classes selected in this list will be imported. Points of the classes that were not selected will not be included in the document.

Auto fill code layers

Creates layers with names of classes. Layers named according to LAS standard classification. Each layer get the FC#N description, where: FC# - index number, N – class number.

If the Auto fill code layers checkbox is off, then a single layer Point Cloud will be created during the import. The description field of this layer could be filled manually.

Differentiation

By default, file points are imported into the document as a single cloud. However, it is possible to import points as multiple clouds. The division of points into clouds can be carried out according to various criteria.